Ten Aston Martins again feature in SRO's visit to CoTA

The Ian Lacey AMR Vantage GT3 of Frank Gannett and Drew Stavely remain the sole AMR representative in the GT3 grid that makes up the GTWC America series, this time out featuring a slightly larger grid (16 cars) than the opening round at Sonoma in early March.

That race was their first competitive time out in their brand-new AMR and with the further help of factory engineers and technicians there and during recent testing (who will again be present at the circuit this weekend) the Bronze/Silver crew are hopeful of a better performance at the fast, sweeping CoTA circuit during their two, 90-minute pit stop punctuated races.

The restoration of the GT America Series was something new for SRO at Sonoma for a series that caters only for Bronze rated drivers in both GT3 and GT4 cars for two forty-minute races over the weekend.

The AMR Vantage GT4’s of Matt Dalton (#00 Notlad Racing), Jason Bell (#2 GMG Racing) and GT racing rookie Gray Newell (#25 Heart of Racing) all return for the next round of the series after a podium finish for Bell in the opening race and other ‘near’ decent results before incident and accident robbed them of that chance.

For Newell, who was new to GT4 racing this season, an improvement was evident over the last weekend as his car craft improved under the watchful eye of the teams IMSA GTD racer Ian James.

That leaves the six AMR’s that make up the thirty-seven car grid expected for the next two races of the GT4 America Series, a series that produced some surprising but deserved results at Sonoma for all bar two of the AMR teams present.

Debuting in their AMR Vantage GT4 were the Dexter bothers (Ryan and Warren) in their family run motorsport team who came through as the surprise of Sonoma having claimed a P2 overall/P1 in Silver Class finish in that weekends first race followed up with a P2 in class result in the next.

Those results were supported with a P2 finish in Pro-Am for the Bsport Racing team of Bryan Putt and Kenton Koch in race 1 and a P2 in Pro-Am for Paul Terry and Brandon Davis in their WR Racing AMR in the second race. The only crews not to succeed there were the #24 Heart of Racing car of Gray Newell and Ian James as well as the #2 GMG Racing car of Jason Bell and Andrew Davis.

They will all race in two, sixty-minute pit stop punctuated races again this weekend.

We expect the results this weekend to be different again across the board, mainly because of the different circuit characteristics between that of CoTA and Sonoma although most (if not all the AMR teams) have been testing at the circuit over the past week so they should all have a decent ‘feel’ for the circuit by now.

Whilst we are not sure if public access to the circuit will be permitted, the SRO on-line streaming service is second to none and is available free for all races.

Happily, for AMR’s North America strategic partner CSJ Motorsport, they will all get to have something of a lay-in as CoTA is metaphorically just ‘down the road’ from their base in San Antonio!! 

Photo credits – SRO / Teams