Final LM24 dress rehearsal for TF Sport at Monza

First this weekend, the final Le Mans 24hr dress rehearsal for the European Le Mans Series before next weekend, the same for the World Endurance Championship as both ACO series get in some last gasp racing in each before their collective annual visit to the Circuit de La Sarthe in August.

For the ELMS, this weekend’s trip to Monza in Italy is their fourth round out of six and will be the last track action for those also entered for the Le Mans 24hr for with Aston Martin Racing Partner team, TF Sport is one of them.

For this round, a grid of forty-four cars across the LMP2, LMP3 and GTE classes are expected with the #95 TF Sport AMR Vantage GTE of John Hartshorne, Ollie Hancock and Ross Gunn featuring again featuring within a class of eight other GTE’s.

For ‘gentleman driver’ Hartshorne, his Asian Le Mans Series and now European Le Mans Series commitments have been a pathway of securing a much anticipated top level racing return to Le Mans since his last race there in 2011.

Their ELMS season so far has been something of a steep learning curve for both Harthorne and Hancock with neither having raced a 2019 specification AMR Vantage GT3 or GTE until the turn of this year. Previous ELMS rounds at Catalunya, Red Bull Ring and most recently Le Castellet in France have seen the crew firstly complete every race so far and despite some challenging conditions in Austria for them to have their best race so far in France where Gunn even claimed the GTE pole position for them.

Track action begins on Friday with the first Free Practice session and Bronze driver test before FP2 and Qualifying on Saturday with the four hour race itself on Sunday.

If that was already busy enough for some, AMR factory driver Ross Gunn returns home this week from an IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship double header from Watkins Glen (where he and Roman de Angelis secured consecutive P3 GTD class podium finishes) to race in not only the ELMS race with TF Sport but also in the third round of the Michelin Le Mans Cup at Monza as well.

With TF Sport also furnishing two other AMR Vantage GTE’s within the WEC, Gunn will co-driver an AMR Vantage GT3 with their WEC entrant Ben Keating during that round so that the American can become accustomed to the circuit before the WEC round there next week. Their GT3 will be on of just six other GT3 cars racing amongst a combined grid of 33 cars.

Photo credits – Adrenal Media / TF Sport