Team TGM going for their second Michelin Pilot Challenge championship win at this weekends Road Atlanta finale

Tuesday, October 08, 2024

 


It is not just within the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship that an Aston Martin Racing powered team retain a class championship winning potential this weekend as IMSA moves onto to the Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta for its traditional Petit Le Mans season finale.

Having already scooped the Michelin Pilot Challenge Bronze Cup Championship win earlier this season, the other Team TGM Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 crew of Matt Plumb and Paul Holton could also secure the overall Michelin Pilot Challenge win for the team this weekend if results go the way of their #46 car.


For much of the year, Plumb has led the GS class having first driven alongside Owen Trinkler before his enforced convalesce and him being replaced with Holton, so whilst Plumb presently heads the overall table – Holton is some three hundred points behind simply having not raced at the season opener at Daytona way back at the start of the year.

It was also a multi-AMR powered championship title contest going into the final rounds of the season as the #19 Van Der Steur Vantage GT4 of Rory Van Der Steur was not far behind the #46 car in the Championship but a disappointing performance last time out at Indianapolis three weeks ago finally put paid to that ambition as he and Valentin Hasse-Clot can no longer beat the #46 car in the points table.


Alongside these two AMR powered entries we also welcome back four more AMR Vantage GT4 entries for this final round of the season with the #64 Team TGM of Hugh Plumb and team owner Ted Giovanis again race alongside the #71 Rebel Rock car of Robin Liddell and Frank DePew (still the only 2024 Vantage GT4 Evo within the group), #82 Ruckus Racing car of Scott Blind and Brady Behrman as well as the #88 Archangel car of Todd Coleman and Aaron Telitz to help make up the expected thirty three car grid spread again across the GS and TCR based field.


With three hundred and fifty points on offer but retaining just a one-hundred-and-ten-point lead over the second placed Porsche crew of Trent Hindman and Steven McAleer, there are a further two crews who could snatch the overall title at the end but only if those in front faulter at the last.

So much like the headlining Weathertech Sportscar Championship – this weekend’s finale is a ‘winner takes all’ event in terms of Drivers, Manufacturers and Teams Championship stakes between Aston Martin Racing, Porsche and potentially BMW and Mercedes too!


This weekend may get just a little bit stressful for some!

Then to round the weekend off, the fellow IMSA supporting VP Racing Sportscar Challenge Series also rounds off their six event season with another pair of forty-five minutes races over the course of the weekend with two Aston Martin Racing bronze rated drivers again helping to make up the twenty-five strong grid in the GSX class.


Also racing within the Michelin Pilot Challenge race above, we see Scott Blind within his #45 Ruckus Racing entry alongside the #72 Rebel Rock entry for Frank DePew within his second 2024 Vantage GT4 Evo.


Whilst Blind is the best placed AMR powered driver in third, his own points position is such that he is unlikely to improve his championship position much beyond second at best but we are sure, he will give it his best shot.

Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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