Official Aston Martin Racing Partner Team, TF Sport, will make the trip across the English Channel for the Avon Tyres British GT Championship’s flyaway round at Belgium’s iconic Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps.
Tucked deep into the Ardennes Forest in the Belgian province of Liege, Spa-Francorchamps remains one of motorsport’s sternest challenges due to the undulations and fast-flowing corners.
The circuit is characterised by an intoxicating combination of white-knuckle turns, including the driver and fan favourite, Eau Rouge – a steep left-right-left sequence with a blind summit – the double-apexed Pouhon and the flat-out Blanchimont, and the region’s erratic climite only increases the peril.
Jody Fannin and Andrew Jarman, who emerged from a trying outing at Silverstone in eighth position, will be hoping for an incident-free race in their Eurostar-backed Aston Martin V12 Vantage, having been prevented from recording wholly representative results during the opening rounds of the season.
“I’m really looking forward to this one, as Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps is my favourite track,” said Fannin. “I haven’t been there for two years and my last outing was in the Spa 24 Hours, but the track is such a pleasure to drive and you can’t help but smile every time you go around it; it’s so flowing and features fantastic elevation changes and a real mix of turns. While Eau Rouge is taken flat in a single-seater, it’s a real corner in a GT3 car and the slower middle sector also has a nice rhythm to it. I’m confident I’ll get back in the groove fairly quickly.
“The results we have achieved so far this year haven’t been wholly representative and so the priority is to have a clean run without any mishaps. It would be great to have a straightforward race for once and to build on the improved pace we had at Silverstone, where we recovered from being a lap down. I expect the two-hour format to suit us a bit more than the sprint races and I’m really gunning for it!”
Piloting a Steel Decking-liveried Aston Martin, Matt Bell is buoyant, confident that Spa could yield a strong points finish that would see him and his fellow Geordie, Derek Johnston, spray the victory champagne.
“Derek (Johnston) and I did a test day at Spa-Francorchamps a few weeks ago during the Blancpain Endurance Series’ test day and it went very well, as we were able to set some very fast times compared to last season’s qualifying and race. I absolutely love the circuit and would say it is my absolute favourite. Every driver loves driving there, as it’s a fast, flowing track on which you’re always pushing yourself and the car to the limit. With the nature of the circuit, it will play to the strengths of the Aston Martin, especially in the first and third sectors where the V12 engine under the bonnet can do a lot of the talking and push along the straights and up Eau Rouge.
“It has been a season of unfulfilled promise so far, having shown great potential during pre-season testing and at other events, so I hope we can kick-start our season this weekend. Our aim is to nail qualifying a little better and get out the way of those who could potentially drive into us, then it’s a case of putting into practice what we learnt at the test. It’s going to be a tough weekend, but we have to finish this race and hopefully end up on the podium.”
TF Sport Director, Tom Ferrier, said: “The aim is to have a clean race this weekend and finish strongly in the points. We have a vast amount of talent in all four drivers and this season we have not been able to show that through no fault of our own. Throughout testing and race weekends we have shown great potential and that we can be fighting towards the sharp end of the field, so, if we can stay out of trouble, I think we are in with a good chance of scoring some very strong points.”
Qualifying for the Avon Tyres British GT Championship’s flyaway round at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps is scheduled to get underway at 16.05 on Friday (10 July), with the headlining two-hour endurance race held the following day (Sunday 11 July) from 12.15.