Academy Score Strong Points after Trying Spa Weekend

Academy Motorsport took the long trip to the famous Belgian circuit of Spa-Francorchamps, deep in the Ardennes forest, for the annual British GT overseas round last weekend.

The Pershore-based squad’s first Aston Martin Vantage GT4 machine was piloted by Will Moore and Dennis Stranberg in the #61 racer. The second, #62 car was driven by Chris Webster alongside Mike Hart, who joined the team for a one-off meeting.

Both cars headed into qualifying with high hopes, but following mechanical problems with the #61 car, the team worked alongside the supporting Aston Martin Racing team to prepare the car from the back row of the grid for Saturday’ s race.

The #62 car ran faultlessly, qualifying 11th on the grid with the team having high hopes for progression throughout the long two-hour race.

The team believed that following its repairs, the #61 car would fly from the start of the race. And that was exactly the case. In Moore’s hands, the Vantage vaulted up 10 places on the opening lap to go from the back of the grid to fourth in class after the end of the lap.

Moore continued to press ahead and following a safety car period, the pit window opened for him to switch drivers, allowing Strandberg to take control of the car.

But the car was handed a drivethrough penalty shortly after, when Strandberg was adjudged to have clipped a parked car when he left his pit box.

A further incident, when Strandberg made contact with a Ferrari GT3 car, ensured that he performed well to nurse the car home with temperature difficulties to the end of the race, finishing eighth in class.

The #62 car was driven fantastically and without incident as Webster and Hart guided the car, ahead of it’s sister, to a seventh place finish.

Team boss Matt Nicoll-Jones says: “We had technical difficulties with the #61 car on Friday which meant it had only four laps per driver in the whole day, including qualifying. And we’ve not been here to test either.

“But for Will to produce a performance of that quality in his race stint, was absolutely fantastic. It was the best I have seen Will drive in the few years that I’ve know him. He’s just getting better and better. More importantly, he brought the car back to us in perfect condition.

“We had to double stack the cars at the pits, so the team did a brilliant job. The pit stops were great as it can be a risk. Dennis’s mistake was something that a lot of us would have done with so many cars in the pits at the same time.

“His management of temperatures later in the race was very good. It was just a couple of unlucky moments that cost us.

“Mike Hart joined us at the last minute in the #62 car, and I couldn’t have asked for more, it was an absolute pleasure and he worked very well with Chris. It was an excellent, clean race result for the car and everyone in the team is delighted with that result.”

Copyright-free images of Academy Motorsport supplied courtesy of Jakob Ebrey. Please click on each image and credit where used.