Bad luck for Car Blanche as the HoRT Aston Martin recovers their points situation after pit lane mistakes at CTMSP

 

The seventh round of the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship proved itself to be another struggle for the two Aston Martin Racing Vantage GTD powered teams after another gruelling two hours and forty-minute race from Canadian Tires Motorsport Park at the weekend.

The #27 Heart of Racing AMR of Eduardo Barrichello and a deputising Roman De Angelis (thanks to another diary clash with the FIA World Endurance Championship down in Brazil) had earlier claimed pole position within the GTD class whilst the #68 Car Blanche AMR of Valentin Hasse-Clot and (this time) Scott Andrews saw the ex Van Der Steur team step up to GTD Pro in only their second race under their new format.

 

With the race being run under fine dry conditions, the #27 car of Barrichello maintained his lead position in class whilst Andrews had lost one place from his qualifying position in P6 during those opening laps but front offside contact from another car would suggest that issues were then being experienced as they the Aussie soon dropped positions.

Barrichello was looking comfortable first in class as the team then called him in for a strategic service call after just forty minutes of racing for what turned out to be a disastrous service as wheel guns and tyres were seemingly not ready in time. They then got pinged for having too many people over the wall at the time – that would be a drive through penalty for them to compound the issue.

 

A lengthy Safety Car period at the top of the hour wasted fifteen minutes off the race clock but even with just under two hours remaining, both Aston Martins have suffered sufficiently on track for them not to be able to recover within the time permitting.

With just an hour remaining, De Angelis took over the reins of the #27 car whilst Hasse-Clot had done similar within the #68 car which in GTD Pro, was something of an impossible task as they eventually came home still a very credible P10 in class (considering what has been happening within the team of late) whilst the #27 did manage to elevate themselves up to P6 in GTD to rescue some vital championship points.

 

For the #68 Car Blanche crew – they achieve their first championship points within GTD Pro whilst Barrichello maintains his solo championship lead within the class as IMSA moves onto Road America next time around.

Photo credits – Teams / social media