Aston Martin has clinched the 2010 SRO Trophy for manufacturers after a thrilling close to the FIA GT1 World Championship season in South America.
The final race weekend of the GT1 season at San Luis in Argentina was dominated by official Aston Martin Racing Partner, Team Hexis AMR . The no. 9 DBR9 of Fred Makowiecki and Yann Clairay took victory in both the qualifying race and the championship race, backed up by the second Team Hexis car of Clivio Piccione and Jonathan Hirschi which took 4th and 3rd place in the two one-hour races. The combined efforts of the ambitious young French team earned them the highest ever points score in the championship, leapfrogging them into second place in the World Championship for teams.
Aston Martin’s other official GT1 team, Young Driver AMR, went into the weekend with an outside chance of both the teams’ title and the drivers’ title for the no. 7 pairing of Darren Turner and Tomas Enge. All was looking good when the team’s no. 8 car, piloted by Stefan Mücke and Jose Maria Lopez, claimed pole position for the qualifying race. However, Mücke was eliminated after contact with another car on lap one, meaning the pair could only manage 5th place in the following championship race despite their best efforts. Turner and Enge also tried valiantly, but were hindered by 40kgs of success ballast from their 1st and 2nd place results at the previous round in Brazil and were unable to secure the points necessary to claim the title.
George Howard-Chappell, Technical Director of Aston Martin Racing said: “It is an excellent way for Team Hexis AMR to finish off the season with such a dominant performance, and they thoroughly deserve their second place in the Teams’ Championship. My sincerest congratulations go to all the team.
“The same must go to Young Driver AMR who experienced a lot of bad luck this year but still managed to achieve three race wins with Darren and Tomas achieving fourth in the overall drivers’ Championship.
“To have two top class teams representing Aston Martin has paid off richly in the form of the Manufacturers’ Trophy. It is great to see Aston Martin leading the way, and a fitting recognition for the DBR9 which has been winning races and titles since its race debut at Sebring in 2005.”
The Aston Martin DBR9 scored five race wins in 2010 in the FIA GT1 Series and has been victorious in races all over the world since its introduction in 2005. In 2007 and 2008, the race car which is based closely on the marque’s road going DB9 sports GT car, saw off stiff competition to win the GT1 class in the Le Mans 24 Hours race.
Aston Martin remains the only manufacturer to offer road car derived racing cars for every GT class, with fully engineered and tested race prepared models in LMP1, GT1, GT2, GT3 and GT4.
