Nine Aston Martins seek IMSA fortune in Canada next weekend
Friday, June 30, 2023
Last time out at Watkins Glen saw both Heart of Racing AMR Vantage GTD crews of Ross Gunn/Alex Riberas (#23 GTD Pro) and Roman De Angelis/ Marco Sorensen (with Ian James aboard their #27 GTD) cars struggle with a culmination of circuit conditions, technical issues, and good old-fashioned balance of performance to come away relatively empty handed for their efforts after that six-hour event.
Next weekend’s return to the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park just off the northern shores of Lake Ontario, will see the team eager to improve that position, especially with electing to forgo their latest round within the World Endurance Championship at Monza, Italy at the end of this two hour’s forty-minute race on Sunday.
Joining them at the circuit will again be the thirty-five runners of the Michelin Pilot Challenge Series for both GT4 and TCR based machinery.
At the last round just two weeks ago at the up-state New York circuit of Watkins Glen had originally seen the #64 Team TGM AMR Vantage GT4 of Ted Giovanis and Owen Trinkler claim a magnificent third overall at the end of a heavily weather affected race only for their car to fail post-race technical inspection that demoted both them and the #88 Archangel AMR Vantage GT4 of Todd Coleman and Billy Johnson (for the similar non-homologation issues) to the bottom of the timing results leaving just the #009 Stoner Car Care AMR of Rob Ecklin and Ramin Abdolvahabi the sole winners of silverware within the then five strong Aston Martin contingent.
With this weekend also seeing the return of the supporting VP Racing Sportscar Challenge Series for the first since the second round of the main IMSA championship at Sebring, the names of Vantage GT4 cars again change as both the #44 Accelerating Performance and Archangel AMR Vantage GT4’s also participate within both the solo driven Sportscar Challenge (GSX Class) and two driver Michelin Pilot Challenge (GS Class) races for both Moisey Uretsky/Michael Cooper and Todd Coleman/Kyle Marcelli respectively. Whilst the Stoner Car again skips out of the Series, the tally is again made up of both the #46 Team TGM cars of Hugh/Matt Plumb as well as the #19 Van Der Steur car of Rory Van Der Steur and Austin McCusker.
The #19 VDS driver crew paid homage on track to those within the garage who rebuilt their car following its Detroit accident just in time to participate within the earlier track sessions of the Watkins Glen round to Qualify third and finish sixth overall for their efforts. The #46 crew would finish close behind in nineth.
Whilst the Michelin Pilot Challenge race remains at it usual two-hour duration, the Sportscar Challenge crews will again be running two forty-five-minute races over the weekend for their twenty-eight strong grid.
Photo credits – Series / Teams / J Price
