IMSA visits Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta for Petit Le Mans

Having finally broken through that barrier down that has haunted them since restart between that of runner up and race winner last time out at Mid-Ohio, the #60 Kohr Motorsport Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4 crew of Nate Stacey and Kyle Marcelli get back down to business this weekend at the Fox Factory 120 from Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.

In fact not content with just one race win for the weekend three weeks ago, AMR Academy Driver Stacey and his resident professional driver coach Marcelli went all out to secure two pole positions and converted them into two outright race wins at the Mid-Ohio double header round of the Michelin Pilot Challenge to lead the overall standings by just seven points from the Jeff Westphal/Tyler McQuarrie Audi R8 LMS GT4 with just three rounds remaining including this weekend’s support race to the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship Motul Petit Le Mans.

The #60 car will this weekend be part of a new four AMR car effort in the Series as the new #7 Volt Racing/Archangel Motorsport AMR Vantage GT4 for drivers Alan Brynjolfsson and Trent Hindman comes on-line for the first time since their public re-alignment to the Aston from the Porsche last week. 

Obviously having seen the performance of the 2019 specification Vantage GT4 in the hands of Stacey over the season so far, this calculated swap to the Vantage for the team (even at this late stage) could well elevate them from their present P9 position with 152 points up towards the ‘sharp end’ in time for the season finale at Sebring should results in the next two races go their way. The only hurdle to that possibility is that neither driver has yet (as of last week’s announcement) got to drive yet alone race their latest acquisition!

These two cars will be joined again by the two Automatic Racing cars of Ramin Abdolvahabi/Rob Ecklin in the #09 car and Kris Wilson/Gary Ferrera in the #99 car after they skipped the last couple of rounds for various reasons.

Track action for the GT4 crews begins on Thursday with Free Practice ahead of Qualifying later in the day. The two hour race itself starts at 15.35hrs local on Friday (BST -5hrs)

Joining them at the picturesque circuit as part of the IMSA showcase Motul Petit Le Mans package will of course be the #23 Heart of Racing AMR Vantage GTD . 

Fresh from their first podium success of the season so far last week at Charlotte Motor Speedway where they finished a mighty third despite some atrocious track conditions, team regulars Roman de Angelis and Ian James will again be joined by AMR factory driver Darren Turner for this longer, ten hour race.

With the teams best successes within the Championship coming in the most recent races with progressively better finishes, late on Saturday evening (local) should hopefully have these three guys standing upon an even higher step of the podium!!!?