Round 4 of the ADAC GT4 series was to be set at the world famous Nürburgring circuit, home race of the Racing One team. With experience of the circuit, Tom had his sights firmly set on the top step of the podium

A dry weekend meant that running was to be consistent, something unheard of in the Eifel region!

FP1 and FP2 were good sessions for the Number 6 Aston Martin GT4, collecting valuable data for the 2 days of racing ahead. The pair had a good strong feeling in the car after trying a few different things throughout the day and were confident that they would be 'there or thereabouts' when it came to racing.

Saturday qualifying was to be completed by Tom's teammate Euan. With minimal running on new tyres in the cold weather he put a time good enough for P6 before the circuit started to heat up and get faster. As the session got quicker and quicker he kept setting green sector times placing him in P7 before a couple of cars just pipped him by just a couple of tenths of a second. Still a fairly solid result putting the pair P10 for the first of the two races.

In Race 1 there was to be chaos before the race even started. A sister Aston Martin starting behind Euan made a move to the middle of the two lines of the rolling start grid just as the lights went out. Unfortunately one of the Allied Racing Porsche's had the same idea and they made contact. This sent the Dorr Motorsport Aston into Euan spinning him round in front of 20 cars behind him. Miraculously, everyone avoided him and no further damage was done. This dropped them back to P31 and the race was then set to be catching up as much time and positions as possible. Euan set some very good times and managed to bring the car up to P25 overall before handing over to Tom. With the car performing well, Tom immediately set about making as many overtakes as possible. On the first 3 laps alone he overtook 4 cars moving them up to P18 overall (with a good pitstop also making up 2 spots). By the end of the race Tom picked off another car into the last corner moving them up to P17 overall being just outside the points- a great recovery from half a lap down.

Tom was determined to put right the wrongs of the previous day as he was set for Qualifying 2. As he set about his first lap he really struggled with the car. He commented "The tyres just weren't working for me. I put some very good laps together but I just lacked overall grip throughout the session.". With this Tom only managed to put the car P18 for the race.

Race 2 started very well this time for Tom, with him making up 4 positions straight away into Turn 1. With the pack in a line all the way up to the Top 3, Tom stood a good chance of recovering himself up to somewhere near the front by the change- over point halfway through the race. A brilliant move round the outside of the WS Motorsport Porsche and a class overtake into turn 1 on the Mercedes meant with 35 mins to go, Tom was up to 10th place and in the battle for a top 5 position. the team decided to let Tom stay out and carry on with his progress, over cutting the Mercedes in front.

With 25 mins of the race left, Tom came in and handed the car over to his teammate. With around 15 mins left and the pair in P10, issues with the brakes and a little mistake from Euan meant they would drop to P12. Euan soldiered on with the high temperatures of the afternoon and finished the race in the battle for P10, ending P13 overall.

Tom comments "It's not what we wanted. I'm pretty disappointed overall as we were considered favourites for this weekend but the pace just wasn't there. The team and I are going to go away and diagnose and we shall come back stronger at the next one. As always I'm so grateful for this opportunity, so thank you to my sponsors as well as Racing One and Hella Pagid for their support."

Tom's next race in the ADAC GT4 series is at the Sachsenring Circuit on 24/25th September.