Last men standing as two AMR GTD crews do themselves proud after another gruelling Rolex 24

Sunday, January 26, 2025

 


Any twenty-four-hour motor race is notoriously difficult to conquer with any degree of success – especially first time out of the box as was the case again this weekend with IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship’s season opener from Daytona with the Rolex 24.

With all the teams already spent well over a week based at the circuit with the Roar before the 24 official test just last weekend, the 2025 and 63rd edition finally got underway yesterday afternoon with four Aston Martin Racing Vantage GTD crews take the start with entries from the Heart of Racing, Magnus Racing and the Van Der Steur teams across the available GTD and GTD Pro classes.


Of course, this event should have been a significant day for both Aston Martin and the Heart of Racing team with the originally scheduled debut of its Valkyrie GTP car but the decision to postpone that event to the second round of the Championship at Sebring had already been made, therefore that crew was aboard the #007 GTD Pro entry as a consequence.

Whilst this was the first Rolex 24 for the Van Der Steur team after they decided to step up into the Endurance rounds of the IMSA Championship after many years of GT4 based participation, this race was also the ‘farewell’ running of the Magnus Racing team and their #44 AMR Vantage GTD as they take an undefined sabbatical from competitive IMSA series-based running together with the racing retirement of their Pro driver Andy Lally.


Sadly, the swansong running in this premier event was relatively short lived as terminal engine failure for the #44 car at only 25% race distance saw the John Potter, Spencer Pumpelly, Nicki Thiim and Andy Lally quartet bid the series an even more untimely farewell.

If not racing a GTP race car around the banked circuit of Daytona was already bad enough for the #007 Heart of Racing crew of Ross Gunn, Roman De Angelis, Alex Riberas and Marco Sorensen – they also endured an early exit from the proceeding after a wheel failed on the kerbing with De Angelis at the wheel, plunging them too into a premature retirement. 


That left just the #19 Van Der Steur Racing AMR Vantage GTD of Rory Van Der Steur, Valentin Hasse-Clot, Maxime Robin and Anthony McIntosh and the #27 Heart of Racing entry of Zacharie Robichon, Mattia Drudi, Casper Stevenson and Tom Gamble.

Whilst the #27 crew was not as ‘fresh’ to the proceedings to that of the #19 car, both crews grasped the opportunity with both hands to regularly run within the top 10 throughout the night – in so far as the top five in class as the various pit stop patterns of their competitors cycled through.


With the cold of the night finally over and the rising sun raising both air and track temperatures, both remaining Aston Martins were still there or there abouts as periods full course caution and regular pit stop intervals kept both cars on the lead lap in class. Indeed, going into the final half hour of the race, Drudi found himself at the head of the class in the #27 whilst Hasse-Clot was still chasing hard in fifth, but it was just about what fuel was left in the tank and the state of the tyres beneath them that would determine their ultimate destiny.

Literal wheel to wheel action around the banking for Drudi and the #13 Corvette saw the Italian lose the lead with fifteen minutes still to go but the fairytale ending for the #27 wasn’t to be as Drudi dropped to third to secure the final step of the GTD podium at his first time of asking. The #19 Van Der Steur crew finished a very credible sixth in class at their first attempt too.


Another great IMSA race giving us AMR fans hope in both GTD and GTP moving forward.

Photo credits – teams / IMSA / social media
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