Jessica Bäckman had her GT4 Europe's weekend cut short in the closing minutes of race 1 at Hockenheim, when her car was hit and sent airborne in a massive multi-car accident which she luckily escaped unhurt from - but that wrote off her Aston Martin for the second race.
Jessica Bäckman returned behind the wheel of the #19 Racing One Aston Martin Vantage GT4 for the fifth round of GT4 European Championship - her rookie season in GT4 machinery - at Hockenheimring, as the series resumed the on-track action following a long summer break. Bäckman, who shares the car with her brother Andreas, has endured a tough season, filled with misfortunes, technical issues and accidents of no fault of her own - but has also shown promising speed in Spa and Misano, where the Swedish duo recovered several positions. After highly successful seasons in touring cars, the Bäckman siblings stepped up to the highly competitive continental GT4 series, which features close to 50 entries among the fastest GT4 teams and drivers in the world. For their sixth race weekend together, the Bäckmans were hungry for revenge after the previous unfortunate rounds, where they couldn't fully showcase their pace. At Misano, Jessica and Adreas had to battle extreme heat - which brought engine and braking difficulties. Coming to Hockenheimring, though, Jessica was hopeful to return to a familiar venue that saw her making history in 2019, as she claimed a first podium in TCR Europe. "Hockenheim is one of my favourite tracks and I have many good memories from there" - Bäckman said before the weekend. "It will be fun to compete again and I hope we can find some speed for this weekend so we can fight for the top positions." The weekend worked on the car's setup throughout the practice sessions on Thursday and Friday - and small steps forward were made, albeit still far off to where they want to be. Andreas qualified the #19 racing one Aston Martin in P14 among the Silver class and P21 overall, then took the start of the first race of the weekend on Saturday. Q2, contested right after the first qualifying session, saw Jessica finishing 17th fastest in class.
Overall pole sitter Hendrik Still led the pack at the start, as Andrea Backman tried to make up positions in the busy midfield. Unfortunately, he received contact from both the side and the back, causing him to drop a few positions over the first lap. Although he managed to gain back some places on lap 2, he had to wrestle with some damage on the car that resulted in some warning messages being displayed in the car. Nevertheless, Andreas Bäckman kept battling hard for positions and ran between P15 and P20 in class, in one of the closest fields in GT racing worldwide. A radio issue was also a potential critical point as the pit window approached - but Bäckman perfectly managed the stop and, having run as high as fifth in Silver class and eighth overall, Andreas pitted and handed over to Jessica on lap 18. The well executed stop also gained Jessica one position, as she started her driving shift. After a first restart from a safety car, Jessica was clocking competitive lap times and had settled in P17. She was looking to bring home a top-20 finish when, with 5 minutes left on the clock, a big accident at the exit of turn 10 left her no opportunity to avoid the chaos unfolding in front of her. A multiple car accident resulted in cars being collected at high speed by the incoming cars; while Bäckman initially seemed to have avoided the crash, she was hit by two more cars and her Vantage GT4 went airborne. Jessica was luckily unharmed, but the significant damage to the car prevented the Swedish duo from taking the start of Sunday's race 2 at Hockenheim. "Several people crashed around me and there was nothing I could have done to avoid the crash. It was a very big crash", Jessica said. "It wasn't the end to the weekend we had hoped for, unfortunately, but now we can only look forward." While their weekend was cut short, Jessica and Andreas Bäckman will regroup and return for the sixth and final points-paying round of GT4 European Championship at Circuit de Montmelo, on 30th September to 1st October, "The next race is the final race in Barcelona in Spain, it's a track that we both have good memories from before"; Jessica added. "We aim to finish the season strong there."
