More excitement and disappointment in SRO America for the AMR runners yesterday

Monday, May 03, 2021


What a difference a day made at the Circuit of the America’s in Texas yesterday with near clear blue skies and thirty-degree air temperatures replacing the monsoon like rainfall of yesterday.

Another day and therefore another round of GT World Challenge America, GT America and GT4 America was in store and after the events and drama of yesterday, we were kind of hoping for something a little more positive and successful for the ten Aston Martin Racing runners that grace these grids in 2021. Well – we can always hope!!


Starting with GTWCA grid, the car that takes our attention is of course the #12 Ian Lacey Racing AMR Vantage GT3 of Frank Gannett and Drew Staveley who both did well in fact yesterday to stay on track at all in awful conditions before the red flag came out but again both had hoped for more – not anything that ambitious like a class podium, but something that would show that they were moving in the right direction in their sixteen-car field.

This time Staveley took the start and for the first half dozen laps showed that he was there to make up the numbers and pushed the surrounding cars hard for track position (taking damage in the process) until at least his Pirelli tyres began to fade, and he had to throttle back until his pit window.


By the time their Bronze ranked driver Gannett was behind the wheel, the car was losing approximately a second per lap to the field ahead so narrowing that gap is obviously their target as the series progresses.

Championship wise, the #12 crew feature in the tight mid Pro-Am drivers and the Pro-Am Teams tables as the series looks to move onto the picturesque scene of Virginia International Raceway in a month’s time.


The GT America series also ran its second and final race to see out their visit to CoTA last night and again, the bronze only GT2/GT3/GT4 field again didn’t disappoint.

Cleared to race on Sunday after his massive accident in yesterday’s GT4 event, Matt Dalton was at least permitted to race although come four laps later, he may have wished that he hadn’t!

Starting from the rear of the grid, Dalton quickly made-up places and was looking good – well, before a massive miscalculation on just how many cars he could perhaps overtake going into one 90-degree corner cost him another smashed up AMR Vantage GT4 and an innocent Porsche GT4 driver taken out of the race to boot. Luckily nobody was hurt again but we think that someone in the Series will be ‘having words’ with him before the next round – even if he can get both cars fixed before then? 


Further up the circuit had Jason Bell in his #2 GMG Racing AMR again looking for prizes after his P2 finish in yesterday’s race and gaining experience by the day, Gray Newell was progressing nicely aboard his #25 Heart of Racing AMR too.

Losing another chunk of race time to the clean up of Dalton’s accident, gave Bell and Newell just over twenty minutes to get as far forward as they could. Again racing Chouest’s Mercedes AMG GT4 for the lead, Bell would eventually get past with just ten minutes remaining but with the chequered flag almost in sight he would spun out on the penultimate lap throwing away a sure class win in the process. He went on to claim P3 at the end so all was not lost.


Newell also finished the weekend very much on a high for the weekend by claiming P4 in class by the end of the forty-minute race. Congratulations to him.

Photo credits – GTWCA / GTA / Teams
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