Success in Bronze Cup but podium success evades two AMR powered teams at the head of Michelin Pilot Challenge

The #46 Team TGM AMR of Paul Holton and Matt Plumb did right their wrongs of the Daytona opener as Holton grabbed pole position from the #39 Carbahn BMW leaving his team top and tail of the GS class after Ted Giovanis brought up the rear of the class with his #64 Team TGM entry (alongside Hugh Plumb).

That left the revised 89X Motorsport AMR crew of team boss Mike Fitzpatrick and Sebastian Vassen next quickest in P14 within their older specification #17A Vantage GT4 whilst the #71 Rebel Rock Racing AMR of Frank DePew/Robin Liddell and the #15 Van Der Steur of Christine Sloss/MH Peters completed the quintet in P20 and P24 respectively.

Under clear blue skies and sunshine, the race got underway to a surprisingly clean start as Holton tried to gap the pack as best he could but was apparently struggling to preserve the longevity of his tyres even at this early stage. A few laps in, there were a few dramas on track as bronze rated drivers within either spun or got spun around but crucially were able to continue without the need for intervention. Two of those to faulter early on were however, the #15 Van der Steur car of Sloss and the #64 Team TGM car of Giovanis.

Amid the pack, Fitzpatrick was relishing his move up into the IMSA series holding P14 whilst DePew was already on the move up from his sluggish starting position to be up a couple of places after just ten minutes.

The first issue, however, came just twenty minutes in when the #8 89X Motorsport car was seen pulling off track with that later confirmed as being with low oil pressure within the car. An unfortunate event for them to have to retire so early on.

Being the usual two-hour race length, minimum driver time was also back to its forty-minute norm and whilst a few has gone off kilter and had already pitted for fuel and tyres, most of the lesser bronze rated drivers did what they needed before handing their machinery over to their more abled co-drivers.

By this time, the #46 car of Holton was now really struggling for pace up front and within his last few laps dropped from the lead to third. He later reported that their tyre pressures were wrong, and he had been struggling with the effects of that from the off. At the end of the expected pit stop cycle, the #46 of Plumb was down to P4, the #71 of Liddell was now up to a miraculous P11 with both the #64 and #15 cars battling at the foot of the GS class for the top three steps of the GS Bronze Cup sub-class – being the fastest guys at the circuit historically, Liddell was looking to continue that feat as he posted the fastest lap times going into the final quarter.

At the drop of the chequered flag however, the efforts of the AMR crews at the head of the class were not quite enough to pull off a podium winning result as the #46 eventually finished P6 overall with the #71 car close behind in P8. There was at least some course to celebrate as the Bronze Cup reigning champions within the #64 car took the top step of the cup P20 overall in GS with the #15 car of Sloss and a series debuting Peters P22 overall and P2 in Bronze Cup.

The series now gets a few more weeks off again before returning for racing duty at Weathertech Raceway Laguna Seca in May.

Photo credits – teams / series / social media / H Pittman