Positive first day at the Roar before the 24 in the bag for the Aston Martin IMSA teams
Saturday, January 22, 2022
Four Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GTD’s are of course included within that capacity grid as Heart of Racing expand into the new for 2022 GTD Pro class as well as the GTD class, with Northwest AMR also back for a little pre–World Endurance Championship season training with their new driver line up (and striking new livery it has to be said) as well as welcoming a new team to our midst with Magnus Racing.
With each AMR entry packed full of ‘local’ and AMR factory supported racing talent, each will have to be considered as a potential front runner and possible winner in class at next week’s sixtieth anniversary of the Rolex 24.
Unlike previous years again, 2022 is the second year that gives the team’s little to no time to hang about in their preparations as the official test and opening round lay just a week apart again giving them all a fine line to tread in terms of performance straight off the back of another short winter break. Being either fast or into the wall are only milliseconds apart these days!
Two timed sessions were competed yesterday with lap times being submitted by all the Astons that were more than comparable to those this time last year (and despite a 30kg increase in base weight through a BoP change from last season) and getting generally faster over time.
The obvious eye opener was the new Magnus Racing car of John Potter, Andy Lally, Spencer Pompelly and our very own Jonny Adam who went from P7 to P5 in GTD over the two sessions in what would have been only their second significant test with their new #44 car since acquiring it in early December last year.
More to come from all the crews today as three more hours of Free Practice track time are punctuated today with Qualifying for tomorrows Qualifying Race which is where the 2022 IMSA really begins!
Photo credits – IMSA / CSJ Motorsport / Teams
