AMR powered teams all set for the green light at Daytona this weekend

Friday, January 23, 2026

Yesterday, the grids for the opening races to the 2026 IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship and Michelin Pilot Challenge Series were set around the banked and infield road course of the Daytona International Speedway with the Aston Martin Racing powered teams making an early mark on the proceedings.

Starting with the Weathertech Sportscar Championship which of course be running their opening Rolex 24 Hr season opener over both Saturday and Sunday saw the #23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Valkyrie GTP car of Ross Gunn, Roman De Angelis, Alex Riberas and Marco Sorenson run their first competitive laps around the circuit earlier this week after they missed the corresponding round last season in favour of some last minute development of the new car instead.

With little data to compare this week’s running against the cars of last season, the #23 car (driven by Gunn during Qualifying last night) ended up P11 in class but still just less than 1.5 seconds off the pole setting pace ahead of Saturdays start to the race.

In GTD, we have the three Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 runners of the #27 Heart of Racing entry for Zacharie Robichon, Mattia Drudi, Eduardo Barrichello and Tom Gamble alongside the #19 Van Der Steur entry of Rory Van Der Steur, Valentin Hasse-Clot, Sebastian Baud and Carl Bennett with the #44 Magnus Racing car of John Potter, Spencer Pumpelly, Nicki Thiim and Madison Snow.

These three crews were on fine form last night within the twenty one strong class with the #27 car of Robichon securing class pole position at the end of what was only a four lap run with the #19 Van Der Steur car of Hasse-Clot just a quarter of one second behind in fifth with the #44 Magnus car of team boss John Potter qualifying his entry P14 and just 1.5 seconds off the pace of the #27 car.

The Rolex 24 will get underway at 13:40hrs local on Saturday.

Before them in both Qualifying and race start was the fifty-one GS and TCR entries that will make up the opening four-hour race of the Michelin Pilot Challenge Series later today.

The #26 Heart of Racing AMR Vantage GT4 of Hannah Grisham (with Hannah Greenemeir and Mike David Ortmann) were the pick of the AMR quintet in Thursday’s Qualifying after they secured a third row start in sixth.

The two Bronze Cup entries of both the #10 Van Der Steur entry of Ben and Christine Sloss and the #8 car from the 89X Motorsport team with drivers Mike Fitzpatrick, Johan Schwatz and third man Kevin Stadtlander both came in next in line with their P15 and P16 overall starting positions respectively – but P1 and P2 respectively with Bronze Cup.

Next up were series regulars from the Rebel Rock Racing team with drivers Frank DePew, Robin Liddell and Andrew Davis down in P23 overall and the debuting #14 Circle H Racing AMR entry for David Hampton, Thomas Merrill and Martin Sarukhanyan who will be starting P30 out of a class size of thirty-five for this evening’s race which will start at 13:45hrs local today.