Ahmad Al Harthy and the Oman Racing Team produced a fantastically spirited performance during round three of the Blancpain Endurance Series at Paul Ricard in France on Saturday, 20th June, after battling the odds to finish the immensely challenging six-hour race inside the Pro Cup top 10.
With a huge task facing the Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 racer and team-mates Jonny Adam and Daniel Lloyd following a tough run in qualifying, their mission got twice as hard mere minutes into the race when contact from an errant BMW resulted in a very early unscheduled pit-stop.
From almost dead last at that point, the Oman Air, Oman Ministry of Sports Affairs, Ooredoo, National Bank of Oman and Al Hashar Group supported squad mounted an outstanding recovery to take the chequered flag under night skies in 16th position overall and 10th in the Pro Cup.
“That was a very difficult race but one hell of a fightback”, said an elated Ahmad, “It’s our best result so far in Blancpain so we’re all very happy about that, especially after such a challenging race with so much going against us from the start. We showed we never give up, we always fight and to do that as part of one of the very best grids there has ever been in this championship is a big boost for us.”
Ahmad took the opening stint of the race from 22nd in the Pro Cup, 34th position overall, but planned progress off the start was prevented when he was forced to run wide off circuit a couple of corners into the race to avoid a multi-car tangle which resulted in a Safety Car period.
When racing resumed with 10 minutes complete, Ahmad held 23rd in the Pro Cup and 36th overall but within a handful of laps the Aston Martin Middle East and North Africa ambassador had to visit the pits to have the front-right wheel changed after being on the receiving end of contact.
Also hit with an unfortunate drive-through penalty, linked to the pit-stop, any hopes of mounting a bid for the team’s first points finish of the Blancpain campaign were seriously impacted with Ahmad rejoining the race a lap down and almost at the tail of the 60 car field.
Determined to undo as much of the damage as possible, the Muscat driver made very strong progress and climbed into 45th position and 21st in the Pro Cup during a busy double stint before pitting to hand the car over to Lloyd with around 90 minutes of racing complete.
Lloyd remained behind the wheel as the race passed half distance and also delivered a particularly strong double stint before handing the No.44 Aston Martin over to Adam with more than two hours remaining on the clock – pitting from 26th overall and 14th in the Pro Cup.
Heading out onto track with the light fading rapidly as the race entered the ‘night’ stage, Adam held 30th place overall but swiftly set about slicing his way through the order and trying to get as close as possible to the coveted Pro Cup top 10.
With one hour remaining, and with headlights ablaze, the Scotsman had fought through into 22nd position outright – still 14th in the Pro Cup – but over the course of the final 60 minutes he managed to carve his way through superbly into 10th position in class, the team’s best Blancpain result of the year, and 16th place overall.
“It was very tough from the start, I was hit into the final corner just a few laps in after a bad move by one of the BMWs – he hit my front-right so we had to pit to change the tyre”, explained Ahmad, “We unfortunately had a drive-through after that, which was to do with a problem when the car was on its jacks in the pits, so I was something like 55th at that point.
“To come through to P16 and P10 in the Pro Cup is pretty amazing really. Everyone did a fantastic job, Jonny and Dan raced so well and the crew did a great job too – big thank you to them. It was a fantastic team effort once again and it definitely gives us a lot of confidence for Spa.”
Ahmad and the Oman Racing Team now travel straight to Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium for an officially timed test on Wednesday, 24th June, which will act as the precursor to the biggest race of the season – the Total 24 Hours of Spa – which takes place over the weekend 25th/26th July.
