Astons triple podium in penultimate race in GT4 America season at IMS

Saturday, October 07, 2023

For us, lasts nights penultimate race within the GT4 America Series season was all about the two Heart of Racing Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 powered crews of Gray Newell/Roman De Angelis and Rianna O’Meara-Hunt/Hannah Grisham as both crews came home for a historic double around the iconic circuit of Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Whilst the #24 Pro-Am entry of Gray (previously with Team Manager Ian James) and more of late with Roman De Angelis my not be unfamiliar with the podium process within the SRO Series, it was the fact that the investment made by the team into these two young ladies was finally permitted to pay itself off as the #26 crew maintained a class pole to flag win in class for the first time this season.

Blighted by unfamiliarity between themselves and the car at the beginning, the pace within the #26 car was always there or there abouts, but the crew found themselves continually affected by issues on track of others that would eventually hamper their runs.

Coming home nineth overall and first in Am, their success was rightly echoed by all within the team as a very special moment.

Their podium success was not the end of the AMR powered success in the race as the #8 Flying Lizard Vantage GT4 of Elias Sabo and Andy Lee also came home (albeit a controversial) fifth overall and third in Pro-Am to claim more silverware from their 2023 escapades.

With no Aston Martin crew in any championship contention this time around, that pressure was for others to bear with Sabo getting direct blame for a tap that saw one class championship spin out into retirement during the early stages of the race before Lee made another move that saw another car immediately retire in the closing laps of the race. So far, the provisional race results appear to be standing.

Elsewhere, it was another uncharacteristically quite race for the Chouest Povoledo Racing AMR of their namesakes, Ross and Aaron as the #50 car never found itself able to battle for contention during the hour-long race to eventually come home 21st overall and tenth in Pro-Am.

The third Flying Lizard entry of the #13 Todd Parriott/Tom Dyer car could look back onto race one with positivity having taken their P30/P12 starting position up to P12/P7 by the end whilst their #2 stablemates of Jason Bell/Michael Cooper will not after Bell suffered two bouts of contact within his stint to have ‘enough’ and retire the car before the break. That compounded a bad day for Bell after he didn’t quite do enough earlier in the day to secure another GT America GT4 crown.