One Aston wins Pole whilst another wins the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge race at Road America

It was back to winning ways in various forms for the Aston Martin Racing powered contingent within today seventh round of the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Series from Road America.

The #26 Heart of Racing AMR of Hannah Grisham and Hannah Greeneier had got this off to a fine start as they claimed their third consecutive Pole Position within the series yesterday whilst the other three entries were spread down the order and were slower that some of the TCR cars lap times which would see them start this two-hour race between P9 and P25 in class.

 

Track conditions had also deteriorated since the fine sunny weather of early in the weekend for rain and wet tyres being the order of the day as the forty-five strong field finally got underway.

Allan Patten within the #66 Car Blanche Aston Martin had made up early ground from his P9 start as Grisham hung on to the race lead ahead as just how treacherous the track was in the rain was being found out the hard way by other runners. After ten minutes into the race, Grisham was one of those cars as heavy braking along the paint saw the #26 car start to lose the back end and the lead of the race.

 

The additional time spent by the #4 Medusa Motorsport team at the circuit in favour of attending the previous round at Canadian Tires Motorsport Park was still waiting to materialise as Hunter Yeany had taken the start down in P19 in class. The #14 Circle H Racing AMR of David Hampton was the final Aston Martin entry, and he was struggling the most out of these four cars from his P25 start.

Their woes would continue just before the end of the forty minute minimum drive time as the #14 found itself the cause of the first Full Course Yellow having beached itself in a gravel trap. They would be extracted by the safety crews and would be allowed to continue, although laps down to their peers by then.

 

Both the #26 and #66 Astons elected to pit at the first availability but we had to wait some time for the stop stops to be all completed to determine just where each of the remaining three Astons were in the order but many/most cars were now upon slick tyres.

Side by side contact for Greenemeir now in the #26 saw her lose momentum and get passed for position by a couple of cars including the #66 Car Blanche car of Trenton Estep as both continued to circulate within the top eight overall as two quick fire FCY’s for stranded cars off track quickly cooled matters down.

 

That left just over a twenty-minute run into the flag with Estep pushing hard for the race lead and with Greenemeir in ninth. Those positions lasted just for another ten minutes as the #66 muscled its way passed the #46 Mustang muscle car from Team TGM to take the lead but the #4 Medusa AMR of Athan Sterling would put hearts into mouths for the final ten minutes.

Heavy contact with the wall for Sterling was running in P16 saw the front left corner get removed with the car spinning to a halt just off track bringing out the Safety Car yet again. Looking at the needs of the driver involved and the extent of debris on track, the race would finish under the Safety Car with the #66 car taking their first race win of the season with the #26 car coming home in tenth.

Photo credits – Teams / social media