Circle H Racing AMR take their maiden race win at the closing round of the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge from Petit Le Mans

 

Whilst an Aston Martin Racing powered crew missed out upon the overall GS Drivers Championship within the final round of the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Series from the Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta earlier today, one did claim their maiden race win to make amends for what has been a tough first season for them.

Six AMR Vantage GT4 powered crews took the start to today’s final two-hour race of the season with just the #26 Heart of Racing car of Hannah’s Grisham and Greenemeir anyway near the sharp end of the battle but still sadly (we later learn) to be already out of championship contention even before the race had started.

 

Other cars and crews had been within a similar situation until the penultimate race of the year from Indianapolis Motor Speedway when an early collision with spun car saw the #66 Oore Motorsport (Car Blanche) AMR of Allen Patten and Trenton Estep taken out of the overall equation with race ending damage there. For the remaining four entries, this race was all about going out upon something of a high whilst also preparing for next year will still many seats within these teams as yet unconfirmed.

Earlier qualifying had seen the #66 Oore car secure the lead Aston in fourth but only just ahead of the #26 Heart of Racing and the #2 CSM Motorsport car of Zach Veach and Morgan Burkhard in fifth and sixth respectively. The #4 Medusa Motorsport AMR of Hunter Yeany and Athan Sterling were next quickest, rounding off the top ten with the #3 CSM car of Ayrton Houk and Ismaeel Ellahi were next quickest P19 in class and the #14 Circle H AMR of Thomas Merrill and Martin Sarukhanyan deputising for a absent David Hampton down in P23 within the GS class set of thirty one cars.

 

Another typically frenetic start saw the #66 car soon lose its track position from their good start after paying too much attention to his mirrors than where they were going to understeer off track and drop at least eight places as a result, something that lifted the #26 car of Greenemeir up to third and the #2 car of Veach into fifth whilst the other three were still somewhere relative to where they had started.

The race for the #2 car would soon go south however, as they were forced to pit after just half an hour as part of their rear defuser was noted to be dragging along the track – whilst they will refuel and re-shod the car, that strategy would prove to be wildly optimistic being two laps down to the leaders already.

 

Forty minutes in and that was the completion of the minimum drive time for whoever wanted that to apply to with the #14, #4 and #66 cars the first to do so. For the #66 car, their race would effectively end at that first stop as Trenton Estep promptly had two incidences of contact with other cars for which he earned himself a drive through penalty for each as the first Full Course Yellow came just ahead of the first hour for debris on track.

That would be another protracted affair as circuit clean-up and wave around was then undertaken – something that took another ten minutes off the race lock for those looking to fuel save till the end. During that caution, we also had the extra-ordinary scenes of having the track service trucks actually blocking the circuit at turn seven and preventing the cars from passing on what was the start of the wave around. One big race car traffic jam was the result as nobody wanted to inadvertently overtake another car under yellows.

 

By the team things went back to green, most of the driver changes had been completed with almost exactly an hour left in the season as the #26 car of Grisham had lost ground during their stop to come out fifth but saw the #14 car of now Merrills behind the wheel coming through strong in P12 at the restart. The #2 cars race would go from bad to worse as they completed their driver change under green flag running to drop even further back as Grisham put in some very determined laps.

For a time, the #26 car assumed the lead of the race and those GS cars on a two stop strategy made their final stops for fuel and maybe tyre – something that Grisham would do just a few laps later to emerge within the then multicar battle for what would eventually turn out to the battle for the lead. The #4 Medusa AMR was one of those way out front at the time, but they still owed their final stop of the afternoon which would obviously drop them down the order again.

 

With the pole setting Toyota then dropping out with damage, Grisham was fortunate not to incur damage of her own as she battled Ford Mustang after Ford Mustang for position, with the #14 Circle H AMR quietly climbing the order all the time. Trouble for Grisham would come with half an hour left to go as she suddenly slowed under the turn ten bridge (unseen for the reason why) buy enough to drop down to tenth whilst the Medusa crew would again ruin their days work with another sloppy final stop that saw Yeany pull away with the refuelling hose still attached. Nobody hurt luckily but they would be coming down pit lane again soon enough.

As the GS Championship opened up with the retirement of the #44 McLaren, that allowed Merrills up to P4 – somewhere he was obviously fast enough down the straights to start picking off the final cars ahead to eventually lead with just ten minutes remaining. The race was then effectively cut three minutes short after a GS/TCR car contact going onto the start straight saw both cars damage and stopped on track forcing the race to be neutralised with not enough time to get going for the Circle H Aston Martin Racing crew to take their maiden Michelin Pilot Challenge race win at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. An awesome achievement.

 

The #26 Heart of Racing crew would eventually finish a plucky sixth overall with the #2 CSM a surprising P8 in class. Their sister #3 car was next in P16, the #66 Oore crew finished P20 with the Medusa crew rounding things off for the year in P23.

Just another box standard IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Series season again really!!

Photo credits – Teams / social media