Steady progress at the Roar for the four AMR runners in GTD and GT4

Saturday, January 23, 2021

 


With day 2 of the Roar before the 24 official test weekend now well underway from Daytona International Speedway today, we take a quick look book at the proceedings so far to see what the four Aston Martin Racing car contingent have been up to.

With track conditions certainly dryer and warmer yesterday than what they were this morning, we saw the first images of two brightly liveried AMR Vantage GTD’s and a further two distinctive AMR Vantage GT4’s all take to the banked and infield track for the opening action of their IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship and Michelin Pilot Challenge track sessions accordingly.



The #23 Heart of Racing AMR Vantage GTD returns to the IMSA Championship with the same basic line up as they did for the end of 2020 but this time with a subtly revised livery as well as drivers Roman De Angelis and Ian James being again joined by AMR factory drivers (for the Rolex 24 and endurance rounds of the season) and Ross Gunn for the Rolex 24 only.



They have of course been joined by the #97 TF Sport prepared AMR Vantage GTD and their Anglo/Irish/American driver line up of Richard Westbrook, Charlie Eastwood, Ben Keating and Max Root Respectively. Their dayglow yellow base colour certainly showed up really prominently on the banked parts of the circuit and should look even better when the test reaches its evening sessions this weekend before the main duties of next weekend.

With most of not all drivers and teams have and will be taking things steady on the opening days of the test with only half the crews of both teams getting in any mileage within the opening session before just Keating and Westbrook continued to sit out in session two on day 1.



In the GT4 Michelin Pilot Challenge paddock, both the #07 Volt Racing and #09 Stoner Car Care Automatic AMR’s clocked in some progressive lap times between them. Alan Brynjolfsson and Trent Hindman have split their time between their AMR GT4 and their new for 2021 LMP3 car whilst Ramin Abdolvahabi and Brandon Kidd had the blue liveried #09 car to themselves as Rob Ecklin has been forced to miss the Roar due to prior business commitments.

Both teams (like many others) did however decide to sit out of this mornings opening session due to the very wet track and low track temperatures proving to be be more of a risk than an educational curve.

Of course, there is nothing to prove at the Roar for the GT4 runners as not all scheduled runners are even at the test. For the two AMR GTD runners however, their attendance is mandatory as they face tomorrows new Qualifying Race ahead of the start of next weekend’s Rolex 24.



As with any pre-event testing, there are no prizes for slamming your car into the guardrail before the first race of the year so I don’t expect anything too astonishing from either car before tomorrow afternoon – maybe not even then as they try to keep their ‘powder dry’ for the main event.

Photo credits - HoRT / TF Sport / Volt / Stoner / CSJ / AMR

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