Aston Martin GT4 Challenge - Oulton Park
#1
08-16-2011, 09:05 AM
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: London UK
Age: 50
Posts: 358
Rep Power: 0 
Aston Martin GT4 Challenge - Oulton Park
Aston Martin GT4 Challenge - Inaugural win for Bonner and Black at Oulton Park
Alan Bonner and Tom Black enjoyed their first win in the GT4 Challenge, partnered by QuickSilver Exhausts, on the 6-7 August at Oulton Park.
Just 9 cars made the grid at Oulton park for the 7th round of the season. Qualifying was headed up by Karsten le Blanc and Hannes Van Asseldonk in the Nicholas Mee Racing car closely followed by Alan Bonner and Tom Black in the Vantage Racing car.
The Aston Martin Lagonda ‘celebrity’ car was driven by Italian Journalist, Lorenzo Fachinetti and Marek Reichman who, as Aston’s Director of Design, is the man responsible for the beauty of pretty much the entire current AM lineup, including the gorgeous new One-77.
Karsten le Blanc led the field in the early stages with Tom Black second and Pierre Mantello third. Karsten managed to pull an incredible 30 second lead in his first half of the race, leaving the rest of the pack fighting for second.
Desmond Smail in the Mardi Gras Motorsport entry was having a very tightly fought battle with Stuart Patterson in the EQ8 Racing car, Stuart managing to get passed Desmond going into turn 1 with a great maneuver. Stuart was now chasing after Marek Reichman in the Aston Martin Lagonda car and bringing Desmond Smail with him so a three-way battle was joined for fourth.
At the stops the NMR car had a 30 sec handicap penalty due to Hannes Van Asseldonk being a FIA Silver rated driver, which put them down to third after pit stops. But it wasn't to last for NMR, the car exited at Cascades after Hannes switched off the ABS by mistake resulting in a lock-up and a badly damaged car. The safety car was deployed while the barriers were repaired. But then the race was declared a red flagged as the damage was extensive.
With less than 75% of its duration the cars were restarted from a grid set out in finishing order, and the result would be the order of finishing at the end of the restarted race.
With NMR now out and the restart just a 20 minute sprint, it was Desmond Snail on pole, with David Croft second. As the race restarted the the lead battle was closely fought, but, when Desmond Smail suffered gear selection problems, it was Alan Bonner who led at the end of lap one with Stuart Hall pushing him very hard. Alan defended well, and drove very professionally to hold off Stuart for his and Tom Blacks first win in the series. Stuart Hall and Chris Kemp finished second which was a very impressive result considering all of the dramas over the weekend. Third were Marek Reichman and Lorenzo Facchinetti , happy to be on the podium for Aston Martin Lagonda.
Next round for the Aston Martin GT4 Challenge is at Brands Hatch on the 27th August, where the BBC’s reporter Chris Partridge should be in the AML car and filming for the BBC News Channel see: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14175879
Race Result
1/ Tom Black & Alan Bonner- Vantage racing
2/ Chris Kemp & Stuart Hall - Stratton Motorsport
3/ Marek Reichman & Lorenzo Fachinetti - Aston Martin Lagonda
4/ Pierre Mantello, Denis Tribel & Olivier Bouche- Stratton Motorsport
5/Alan Hudd & David Croft – Alan Hudd Racing
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
