Heavy and persistent rain at the start of the race lead to a rightly cautious start but even that lead to a race delaying multiple GT500 car incident on only lap five of the race that saw the race red flagged during the clear up operation.

After the restart, all was running well for the #777 crew in the lead of the class until their car was tapped into a spin and into the gravel trap by the #4 Mercedes AMG on lap 22 of the eighty-two-lap race from which they would never recover.

Despite being able to run at a pace comparable to that of their peers, the time lost by the car being recovered back to the track left the car back in P24 in class at the end as the team now look ahead to their local round from Fuji Speedway later in May.

Photo credits – Team / Series / social media

Both cars set off slowly within the opening Free Practice session whilst the #27 picked up the pace slightly in the second, with the #23 still about 2.5 seconds off the pace as Gunn and Gamble took their cars into Qualifying. That set the grid with the Valkyrie again sitting at the back of the GTP class whilst Gamble would benefit from a second row P3 starting position.

Under near clear blue skies and warming sunshine, the split grid got underway for its third-round race with (surprisingly) no significant incident or accident on the opening laps. Whilst Gunn would hold station in P11, Gamble would at least have the opportunity to move up to second in class before the race settled into its natural rhythm amongst the twenty-seven-car entry.

Ten minutes in and the faster GTP cars were already catching the GTD cars, but Gunn had to be cautious as Race Control had already warned the team that their car was exceeded its maximum power availability within those opening laps.

Twenty minutes in and the first Full Course Yellow was thrown as a GTD car nosed itself into the tyre wall at turn eight. Despite the car eventually freeing itself and continuing, this period of caution would again become another long-drawn-out affair that eventually (once the pit lane was opened) allowed most of the GTP cars to pit for fuel and driver change as that crucial part of their strategy had already been met time/distance wise.

That placed De Angelis behind the wheel of the #23 in P8 with a fuel only stop whilst the GTD cars circulated a few more times to burn up their minimum drive times. Having been circulated P2 prior to the FCY, Gamble was kept out for one further lap relative to his peers but that and a delayed stop placed Stevenson down to P9 when he eventually emerged.

Back to green just before the hour remaining mark and whilst De Angelis would be struggling for traction out of the corners, Stevenson would have the #85 GTP car cut across him – putting himself into a spin and into the tyre wall and leaving the Aston Martin with query steering damage (although he continued). That incident brought out a second FCY.

Getting back to green with just over half an hour left, the #23 was valiantly holding onto P8 in class whilst the #27 was still down in nineth with little chance of either catching or passing the respective cars in front. With the chequered flag, it was another job well done within the Valkyrie camp as everything continued their pathway along the cars learning curve with another finish, but it was point lost for the #27 crew having ran so well in the opening phase of the race as they drop down to third within the Driver’s Championship standings.

Next stop for IMSA will be from Weathertech Raceway Laguna Seca.

Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media

For this year’s eight round season, the team’s #777 Vantage GT3 will again be driven by team manager Tomonobu Fujii and their former World Endurance Championship silver ace Charlie Fagg – the pairing that saw out most of last season togther which also saw them secure their first, class win.

Starting this weekend from Okayama, the #777 will compete amongst twenty-seven other GT300 class runners as well as the small but much faster GT500 runners for this 300km race.

Changes to the qualifying sessions on Saturday will now see the larger GT300 class split into two session of fourteen cars, for which the #777 will be in Group B this weekend ahead of Sunday’s race.

Photo credits – Team / Series / social media

The second car sees one of the team’s more regular Nurburgring Langstrecken Serie racers Marek Bockmann swap the team’s Vantage GT3 in favour of the GT4 to pair up with Anton Abee within the sister car.

Both Fellner-Feldegg and Abee have already seen racing action together after the team entered a Vantage GT4 for them within the final round of the GT4 Winter Series from Barcelona at the beginning of March.

This news comes alongside their three car AMR entry within the NLS as previously confirmed.

Photo credits – Team / Series / social media