There were emotional scenes to be had from either end of the spectrum as three Aston Martin Racing Vantage GTD’s and one Aston Martin Valkyrie saw out the final round of the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship from its own Petit Le Mans event at the Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta circuit in Georgia yesterday.
Moving into the event, all eyes were upon the #27 Heart of Racing AMR Vantage GTD as Brazilian racer Eduardo Barrichello still stood a mathematical chance of lifting the GTD Drivers Championship at the end although he did have a 126 points deficit to the class leading Mercedes AMG crew of Philip Ellis and Russell Ward to overcome first.
Going into Qualifying on Friday, what we hadn’t realised was the team had undertaken a precautionary engine change within the #27 car just ahead of Qualifying as they were concerned about the volume being consumed within the old unit used with all the Free Practice sessions until. Ordinarily, this AMG based power plant within the Vantage GTD has been extremely reliable over the years but that was an informed decision of the own alongside the AMR technicians who are ever present with any Partner team.
Whilst that did allow Zacharie Robichon qualifying the car in sixth, issues were noticed even before the race that saw the #27 fail to take the start as apparent electrical issues were investigated and sorted. As the number of laps passed by at an alarming rate, it soon became apparent that the championship title hopes had now turned into a championship position preserving exercise that finally saw Robichon complete just thirty-seven laps to surpass the equally technically affected #96 Turner BMW within the race to hopefully secure P3 within the championship at the end of the ten hours as both Barrichello and third man Tom Gamble would never get to participate within the race.
On a lighter note however, the returning #44 Magnus Racing AMR Vantage GTD of John Potter, Spencer Pumpelly and Mario Farnbacher would put on a racing display that would question whether or not this weekend’s race was just their third of a twelve-race season having electively missed all the sprint in favour of most of the endurance rounds. Despite qualifying P18 out of eighteen GTD runners, Potter was soon climbing the class order – albeit aided by the racing demise of both the #27 and #96 cars to complete his minute two and a half hours minimum drive time without incident.
At times in the pit stop sequence – something that was getting more and more fluid as the circuit full course yellow interventions for incidents and then the red flag just after halfway for lightning, the #44 car ran within the top five in class on merit as Farnbacher again showed his worth for anyone paying attention.
As the race then went into darkness for the final couple of hours, the #44 Magnus Racing entry would come through to post a P5 in class finish at the end of this ten-hour race to add to their P2 finish in class at the opening round of the season at the Rolex 24 from Daytona.
It was a similar experience for the #23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Valkyrie GTP of Ross Gunn, Roman de Angelis and Alex Riberas as they battled to improve upon their best position within the series so far this season than their P5 class finish at Road America back in August.
Qualifying the car P8 in class, Gunn again took the elongated opening stints before passing the car through to Riberas and De Angelis as the hours went by. The #23 was also noted under investigation for a couple of incidents during the daylight hours of the race but appeared to have got away with just warnings at the time with these incidents not being as severe as some happening around the track at the time and especially when the rainstorm returned with its latter lightning risk intervention.
Despite cycling up and down the class order according to individual cars strategy on track and even to lead the race outright for a time going into darkness, the #23 car would eventually drop back slightly to complete the remaining hours at the tail end of the top five to equal their best result of the season.
That result sees Gunn and De Angelis finish the season P14 within the GTP class on 2242 points within the overall championship making for a significant improvement on their points-based performances of last year when the Valkyrie was then, still in its infancy.
The result of the weekend for Aston Martin Racing came at the end when the #68 Car Blanche AMR Vantage GTD Pro entry of Valentin Hasse-Clot, Marco Sorensen and new third man Mattia Drudi secured their best ever result within the IMSA series so far as they took a remarkable class win.
With the team and their YRB Racing backers having taken over what was then the Van Der Steur Racing team mid-season, the new look team started their new adventure within GTD before sticking one metaphorical toe into the GTD Pro class before committing to the latter for the final couple of rounds of the season.
With one AMR factory driver (Hasse-Clot) joining forces with another (Sorensen) from the sprint round at VIR, the writing was already upon the wall as to the teams intent moving forward as both drivers were soon confirmed as the first crew to be listed in class ahead of next season.
Drudi’s inclusion for this round also cemented that racing possibility at Petit Le Mans as the Italian qualified the car second in class and for the crew then to cycle through the hours never short of being within the top five for much of it. Keeping themselves importantly out of trouble, that pace and consistency was rewarded at the end with the class win.
Results at the end of the season also confirmed the retention of P3 within the GTD Drivers Championship for Barrichello with him and co-driver Gamble also securing third within the GTD Endurance Cup just two points off the title win.
It’s been another great IMSA season and it all starts again in mid-December with the Balance of Performance tests at Daytona – all ahead of the Roar before the 24 and the Rolex 24 later in January 2027.
Photo credits – Teams / social media
