Looking ahead to this weekends IMSA visit to Sebring for another 14 hours of racing

Monday, March 13, 2023

This weekend’s second rounds of the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship and Michelin Pilot Challenge Series from the Sebring International Raceway will both feature a somewhat reduced Aston Martin Racing powered head count to that of their opening rounds at Daytona back in late January.

In the headline event with the Weathertech Sportscar Championship’s 12Hours of Sebring, we will again be back to the more customary three AMR Vantage GTD entry of last year as both the Heart of Racing and Magnus Racing return looking to resume from where both left off at Daytona within the GTD Class.

This time around, Sebring is ‘just’ a twelve-hour race as opposed to the twenty-four hour of Daytona but to come away with a class 1-2 after either is impressive enough with the #27 Heart car pipping the #44 Magnus car at the end.

Longer Endurance Cup round races of course means another driver each as David Pittard again joins up with Ross Gunn and Alex Riberas within the #23 Heart of Racing GTD Pro car with Ian James again donning his race suit to race alongside Roman de Angelis and Marco Sorenson again.

Being their last IMSA event for a couple of rounds again, the #44 Magnus Racing car will be made up of John Potter, Andy Lally and Spencer Pumpelly as they again for 2023, only compete within the Endurance rounds like Daytona.

Then within the supporting Michelin Pilot Challenge Series, this weekend’s two hour round of the Series will feature just four AMR Vantage GT4 crews as opposed to the eight that competed at Daytona.

For many of those eight, Daytona was just a great way to open their 2023 accounts wherever they might be racing but already it looks as if it’s just the two Team TGM cars, the Van Der Steur car and the API Aston Martin that will now feature as full season entries with the #88 Archangel car also missing from this week’s entry list.

It was not to be so successful within the opening four-hour Michelin Pilot Challenge Series race for the Aston Martin runners with the guesting #09 Automatic Racing car securing a top five finish in GS but two (non-returning cars) did score well in the Bronze Cup.

Free from GTD racing duties this time around sees both Hugh and Matt Plumb return to their #46 Team TGM car with team boss Ted Giovanis and Owen Trinkler pairing up again within their #64 Team TGM car.

Fresh from his two Bronze Cup wins within last weekend’s VP Sportscar Challenge Series events at the circuit has Moisey Uretsky pair up again with Michael Cooper within their #44 Accelerating Performance Aston Martin with Rory Van der Steur and Austin McCusker within their blue and white Van Der Steur prepared car.

Photo credits – Teams / IMSA / social media