Racing History
With AMR1/01 completed, testing began in preparation for the first race at Suzuka Circuit in Japan. Unfortunately, AMR1/01 was involved in an accident during testing at Donington Park and was damaged beyond repair. Thus Aston Martin was forced to skip the first round, incurring a $250,000 fine by FIA's newly amended rule which required C1 cars to enter all round of the season and instead premiered chassis AMR1/01 at Dijon-Prenois, where it finished a disappointing 17th.
Although not part of the World Sports Prototype Championship in 1989, Aston Martin next turned to the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Two cars were entered, chassis #01 and #03. The cars unfortunately were underpowered in comparison to their competitors, qualifying 32nd and 40th in a field of 56 cars. During the race itself, the cars were able to run in the mid-pack before AMR1/03 suffered electrical problems and was forced to retire during the first half of the race. AMR1/01 was able to continue on, was able to finish in 11th place overall.
Due to a lack of time between Le Mans and the 3rd round of the World Sports Prototype Championship, Aston Martin decided to skip it, returning instead at Brands Hatch where AMR1/04 took home an exciting 4th place finish in front of the British crowd, then following it up with an 8th place finish at the Nürburgring.
For the 6th round of the year, the World Sports Prototype Championship again returned to British soil. Aston Martin therefore decided to run two AMR1s at Donington Park, debuting newly built chassis #05. The two cars were able to finish 6th and 7th. Both cars raced again at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps where Aston Martin suffered their only other failure to finish in the season, chassis #04 having suffered engine failure. However, chassis #05, which had now been upgraded with an even more powerful 720+ bhp, Version II 6.3L V8, was able to finish a respectable 7th. For the final round in Mexico, Aston Martin decided to take only chassis #05, where they finished 8th.
Ending the season, Aston Martin had finished 6th in the Teams Championship, behind the factory Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Jaguar, and Nissan teams, although they were able to defeat the Toyota team.
Read more about this topic: Aston Martin AMR1
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