Aston Martin Racing success in Michelin PilotChallenge Series visit to Road America
Sunday, August 04, 2024
Competing at the Wisconsin circuit as their seventh round of a ten-round season, three AMR drivers were heading the GS Class Drivers Championship table going into Saturday’s two-hour race.
For the #19 Van Der Steur crew of Rory Van Der Steur and Valentin Hasse-Clot, their race very nearly didn’t happen as the young American heavily damaged his blue and white car in an FP2 crash that left his team scrabbling for parts before being reliant upon the generosity of wider teammate Brady Behrman and his similarly livered Vantage GT4.
In Qualifying however, the fastest Aston Martin would be the #46 Team TGM car of Paul Holton and Matt Plumb with the #19 car recovering the situation to start the race just within the top ten.
After a surprisingly clean opening lap, Holton was soon struggling to keep in contention with the front four cars as they quickly moved away from the bulk of the GS pack whilst the #19 car of Van Der Steur was fortunate to avoid the close affections of a passing Porsche as the race settled into its natural rhythm.
A spin for Blind in his yellow #45 car just before the end of his minimum drive time dropped them down the order just before the #16 Skip Barber Racing AMR of Ken Fukuda also had a spin thanks to the interaction from behind of the #71 Rebel Rock Racing AMR of Frank DePew, after which the first FCY of the day was called for debris on track.
Taking the first opportunity to pit under the Safety Car, most GS class cars other than the then race leading McLaren pitted before the race eventually went back to green with just over sixty-five minutes remaining. Whilst the #46 Team TGM car lost ground, both the #19 and the #88 Aston Martins quickly moved up with Hasse-Clot moving up to P5 on the green flag lap.
Forty minutes to go and the #45 gets pushed behind the wall with some kind of mechanical failure whilst Telitz and Hasse-Clot had traded places over their last pit stop to be racing each other for sixth and seventh at the time but a puncture for the #67 Porsche ahead of them allowed both to quickly make up another place.
Sixteen minutes remaining, and a heavy impact into the wall for the #50 Toyota brought out another prompt FCY but a magnificent clear up operation allowed the racing to start again after just a six-minute delay and it was on this restart that both Astons made they moves up the order. First the #88 car – then the #19 get past the BMW for second and third overall.
With the #88 car challenging the leading Porsche until the end, it was to be another great 2-3 for Aston Martin Racing whilst the #64 Team TGM car of Hugh Plumb and Ted Giovanis also secured the Bronze Cup Championship with their P14 finish – albeit again being the only car in that class competing again.
Like every championship, to finish first – first you must finish and that is exactly what those two drivers have done since the season started at Daytona. Congratulations to them all.
The Michelin Pilot Challenge Series now moves onto Virginia International Raceway towards the end of August where the GS Drivers Championship now has another pair of Porsche drivers inching up into contention for these final three rounds.
Photo credits – Teams / series / social media
