IMSA travels to VIR next weekend with three series and seven Aston Martins
Friday, August 15, 2025
Starting at the top, the Weathertech Sportscar Championship will run its nineth round of the season but due to the constraints of the circuit, this will only be for both the GTD Pro and GTD classes of the GT3 based platforms but with all platforms having just been affected by recent series BoP changes since the previous round.
That obviously means that the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Racing Vantage GTD of Casper Stevenson and Tom Gamble as they and twenty-two other runners will compete for two hours and forty minutes around the 3.27mile circuit.
Last time out in the championship at Road America three weeks ago saw the #27 car eventually come home battered and bruised after their P2 starting position ended up being a disappointing P9 in class at the end. That result also saw the #27 car (Stevenson) slip down to sixth in the GTD Drivers Championship having featured at or about the top for so long.
Supporting them with another two-hour round of their season will be the forty GS and TCR based cars within the Michelin Pilot Challenge Series with four Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 powered crews within them.
They will again be the full season entered #46 and #64 Team TGM cars of Paul Holton/Matt Plumb and Ted Giovanis/Hugh Plumb respectively alongside the #15 Van Der Steur of Christine and Ben Sloss and the #71 Rebel Rock Racing AMR of Frank DePew and Robin Liddell.
For the #71 crew, last time out at Road America was second time unlucky as they endured a DNF at the halfway point of the round from CTMSP before their race at Road America ended early with further accident sustained damage.
There was, however, cheer within the GS Class Bronze Cup class as the #64 Team TGM secured another class win over the #15 Van Der Steur car in third to extend their lead within their title defence in that class over their stable mates. The #46 Team TGM again lost ground to a mid-race Safety Car to eventually finish P8 after a second row start to the race.
Rounding off the GT trilogy will be the VP Racing Sportscar Challenge Series running its penultimate round of the season with its LMP3, GT4 and recently added GT3 based machinery.
With the #72 Rebel Rock Racing AMR Vantage GT4 of Frand DePew being the sole Aston Martin for much of the season, for this round we welcome back the #89 89X Motorsport AMR of Mike Fitzpatrick as this series will run three forty-minute races over the course of the weekend as they catch up upon one race lost to the weather from Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.
This round will see twenty-one overall entries with eight other GT4 cars (with solo driver) joining the two Aston Martins within GSX.
Photo credits – Team / Series / social media
