The Peter Auto series for older GT3 cars held a promising inaugural round at the Paul Ricard circuit on 11-12 April, supporting the first round of the GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS 6-hour race. It was a dream opener for the Storic and Race Cars team as Jim Pla and Jean-Luc Beaubelique led the way in race 1, to score the first Pro-Am win ahead of teammate, and fellow Ferrari 458 GT3 driver, Benjamin Ricci, who prevailed in the Am class. The team took another double podium in race 2, this time victory going to Ricci with Beaubelique/Pla coming third.

Ricci’s Ferrari and Mitchell’s Aston were nose to tail much of the time Photo Mathis Jullia/SRO

In both 50-minute encounters, Johnathan Mitchell was the nearest rival, second in the Am class both times aboard his Aston Martin V12 Vantage. Starting race 2 from the second row alongside Ricci, the fast-starting Aston Martin, went ahead. It took some work, but the Ferrari eventually got alongside the Aston on the pit straight on lap six. Mitchell found himself on the outside at the opening chicane, and the Ferrari drove past and into the class lead.

Once the pit stops were complete Beaubelique was a long way clear at the head of the field, Pla having built a formidable advantage. He would likely have remained unchallenged, but with 10 minutes left on the clock the race was neutralised to recover a stricken Audi. Racing resumed with five minutes to go and Beaubelique now had Ricci’s sister car filling his mirrors. There was pressure from behind, too, as Mitchell was looming.

On the penultimate lap Beaubelique went wide into the second sequence of corners giving Ricci the opportunity he needed to snatch the outright lead. The Aston followed him through at the Mistral chicane and the trio finished in that order.

Notably, there were two cars on the entry list driven in period by Nicki Thiim, who won the headline GT World Challenge Europe race on Saturday evening. His fellow contemporary racers Christopher Haase, Marvin Kirchhöfer, Maxime Martin and Luca Stolz also had former machinery on the GT3 Revival Series grid.

The entry was varied in terms of teams, too. Contemporary squads such as Storic and Race Cars (the historic division of Jerome Policand’s ASP squad), Lionspeed GP and Barwell Motorsport went up against newer concerns, with a few family-run operations taking on the establishment. See mastershistoricracing.com.