Increased Aston Martin GT4 runners as the Michelin Pilot Challenge heads out to Laguna Seca
Wednesday, May 10, 2023
Re-joining the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship at Laguna Seca for what will be their third round of their 2023 season so far will be the mixed GS and TCR runners that make up the Michelin Pilot Challenge Series.
Having raced at both Daytona and Sebring earlier this year, the series skips out the long journey to Long Beach California to make a not quite as long trip to Monterey in California for this third round with another packed grid of twenty-three GS and thirteen TCR based entries for this weekend’s two-hour race.
Number of Aston Martin Racing powered entries have been fluid over the two opening rounds but this weekend sees a slight increase with five AMR Vantage GT4 crews making the commitment this time around.
The two full season Team TGM cars are again scheduled to be in attendance with both Ted Giovanis/Owen Trinkler and Hugh/Matt Plumb in their #64 and #46 cars alongside the Van Der Steur entry of Rory Van Der Steur and Austin McCusker. Being no rounds of the supporting IMSA VP Sportscar Challenge either has allowed both the #44 Accelerating Performance and #88 Archangel prepared Aston Martins to also be in attendance.
The two full season Team TGM cars are again scheduled to be in attendance with both Ted Giovanis/Owen Trinkler and Hugh/Matt Plumb in their #64 and #46 cars alongside the Van Der Steur entry of Rory Van Der Steur and Austin McCusker. Being no rounds of the supporting IMSA VP Sportscar Challenge either has allowed both the #44 Accelerating Performance and #88 Archangel prepared Aston Martins to also be in attendance.
Whilst Moisey Uretsky stays with his declared co-driver of Michael Cooper, the #88 car of Todd Coleman is this time partnered with Patrick Lindsey after Conrad Grunewald did at the elongated opening round at Daytona.
Despite the numbers, the 2023 season has proved itself to be a challenge for some of the AMR powered crews after the somewhat dominance of the Volt Racing crew of last season when Alan Brynjolfsson and Trent Hindman eventually lifted the GS crown.
The highest placed AMR crew are the Plumb brothers in fourth, just thirty points behind the leading BMW crew with both Uretsky and Cooper next in seventh, still only seventy points behind that leading BMW crew as well. With up to 350 points available per round – that points differences now is minimal.
Another two hour round this Saturday sees track action begin with the first Free Practice session on Friday before Qualifying and race on Saturday starting at 19:30hrs local.
Photo credits - Teams / H Pitman / C Chapman
