Double podium for Jason Bell in GT America's visit to Road America
It was something of a productive weekend for Jason Bell and his GMG Racing prepared Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 as the American racer secured a pair of podium finishes in the amateur only GT America races from Road America at the weekend.
Having elected to run in the preceding Music City Grand Prix event of the series at Nashville at the beginning of the month with fellow series AMR runner Gray Newell, this weekend saw the series return to a more traditional racetrack at the four-mile Wisconsin racetrack.
Now on the ‘homeward’ stretch to the season, this fifth round of the revamped GT America Series would see twenty-four cars entered for the two forty-minute races with cars near evenly split between the GT3 and GT4 platforms. This weekend would also see the #09 Automatic Racing entry of Paul Kiebler take to the stage in his former Kohr Motorsport AMT Vantage GT4 alongside Bell and Newell in his Heart of Racing AMR.
Qualifying second in the GT4 field, Bell was right behind GT4 Championship leader Sean Quinlan and his Cameron BMW and an early march down the front straight at the start saw the white #2 AMR take the class lead going into turn one but despite gapping the #119 car for the first ten minutes, Quinlan soon retook the class lead from which he would not look back.
Newell meanwhile had made a clean start to hold his Qualifying position during the first half of the race and was lucky not to have become involved in an incident directly ahead of him as a Porsche and as Mercedes argued over apex rights for that corner. Kiebler meanwhile, was doing what he needed to do – staying out of trouble and getting those all-important race miles in to broaden his short racing experience thus far.
Losing the class lead as well as losing contact with the class leader, the race soon become something of survival for Bell as the third placed Mercedes latched upon his tail. Thinking that he may have done enough, a missed braking point around the final lap was enough for the #39 Mercedes to snatch the middle step of the class podium at the death. Newell would retain his acquired P7 in class whilst Kiebler would not be classified as a finisher.
Sundays second race of the weekend would virtually be over before it had really started as a multiple car accident effectively ended the race on only its second lap as the debris field was cleared.
What appeared to have occurred was Newell’s AMR was struck by a Porsche going into the first corner of the opening lap, and that ruptured an oil cooler on his Aston Martin for him to then inadvertently and unknowingly drop oil around the next half dozen corners. All was good until the start of lap two when a large number of GT3 and GT4 cars spun off on the oil – some spinning off track before recovering, whilst others impacted heavily into the concrete wall bringing out an immediate caution.
Thanks to Bell having made a move to secure P2 in class going into turn one on the preceding lap, the resulting FCY meant that that was where the #2 car would finish as the race was eventually ‘called’ with still seven minutes on the clock with some eight cars not be classified.
These results remain very much provisional as the series looks to its next round from Watkins Glen in two weeks time.
Photo credits – GT America / CSJ Motorsport
Monday, August 30, 2021 |
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AMR Drivers Academy winner still to be declared
Having been first announced in early January but not formerly started until the resumption of global motor racing later towards the end of July, the 2020 Aston Martin Racing Drivers Academy process has still yet to be finalised.
With applications being requested from qualifying drivers prior to the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic back in February, AMR eventually selected a reduced list of participants of just thirteen drivers who would be receiving the benefits of this factory assisted driver development programme although ultimately, some of these would falter even before they could even begin as racing opportunities diminished as the pandemic took a firmer hold across Europe.
With most driver’s bar two racing with AMR’s V8 Vantage GT4 car in series across Europe and the USA, such has been the success of the AMR Vantage GT3 and GT4 in 2020 that has made this process far from easy to predict.
Jamie Caroline (UK) TF Sport British GT Vantage GT4Dan Vaughan (UK) TF Sport British GT Vantage GT4Valentin Hasse Clot (FR) Garage 59 GT World Challenge Europe Vantage GT3Theo Nouet (FR) AGS GT4 European Series Vantage GT4Nate Stacey (USA) KohR Motorsport Michelin Pilot Challenge Vantage GT4Patrick Kibble (UK) TF Sport British GT Vantage GT4Kenton Koch (USA) Bsport Racing GT4 Vantage GT4Roman DeAngelis (CAN) Heart of Racing IMSA Vantage GT3Connor O’Brien (UK) TF Sport British GT Vantage GT4Akhil Rabindra (IND) AGS GT4 European Series Vantage GT4Robert Hefler (HUN) Virage GT Cup Open Vantage GT4Cedric Freiburghaus (CHE) ProSport GT4 European Series Vantage GT4Antonio Ledesma (MEX) Virage Ultimate Cup Series Vantage GT4
With GT4 Championship winning drivers including Jamie Caroline and Dan Vaughan from British GT, Valentine Hasse-Clot and Theo Nouet in GT4 European Series and Nate Stacey from IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge, winning may not be the only attribute that the Academy selection panel will be looking for this time around before ultimately choosing their winner.
Soon to be following in the footsteps of the first Academy winner in 2015 (Ross Gunn) and Tom Canning from last year, this year’s winner will again see a significant financial contribution towards their 2021 racing plans as well as continued simulator and fitness training with the factory team and drivers as well as a TAG Heuer watch.
Whilst Gunn has since progressed to enjoy a full season World Endurance Championship campaign with the AMR factory supported GTE Am car of Paul Dalla Lana, Canning sadly saw his chance of progressing up to the Vantage GT3 in British GT fall through before the season had even started but at least he had a class winning debut in the International GT Open Series at Spa Francorchamps practising before a season within the Asian Le Mans Series in February with Oman Racing by TF Sport.
Photo credits - AMR / IMSA / GT4 European / Jacob Ebrey
Sunday, December 20, 2020 |
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Kohr, Stacey, Marcelli and AMR secure IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge top prizes
Congratulations tonight go to the Kohr Motorsport team and drivers Nate Stacey and Kyle Marcelli for earlier sealing the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Series at their season finale at the Sebring International Raceway with their Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4.
Having gone into the final two hours of racing today fifteen points ahead of their only Championship rivals – the #39 CarBahn Audi of Tyler McQuarrie and Jeff Westpall, the #60 crew only needed to finish within the top 10 GS Class in order to claim that ultimate prize.
With the #39 claiming pole and none of the four Aston Martin from either Kohr, Archangel or the Automatic Racing teams Qualifying higher than fifth amongst another grid of 36 GS and TCR cars, that was always going to make for another exciting race.
From the start, the #39 car soon established a commanding lead within the opening thirty minutes before a heavy collision involving two Mercedes AMT GT4’s brought out the Safety Car whilst the resulting debris was cleared and barrier damage repaired. Splitting strategies from the leading bunch, the #60 car would pit for tyres and fuel but Stacey would stay behind the wheel.
By the end of the first hour, Alan Brynjolfsson had finally found his natural pace around the 3.75 mile circuit as he had recovered from a poor Qualifying and poor start to run up as high as P3 before he had to pit so that co-driver Trent Hindman could meet his own minimum driver time.
Hindman eventually followed Kyle Marcelli out of pit lane after both cars emerged with a tolerance of just ninety seconds before an immediate disqualification would have applied. Fifteen minutes later, it all proved to be irrelevant as the #39 car unexpectedly slowed and entered pit lane before driving straight behind the wall and into retirement.
That effectively meant that the #60 crew had secured the Michelin Pilot Challenge crown with over half an hour still left on the clock – not the way they would have wanted to take that title from the then reigning Champions – but a win is a win!!
With the race (and season) coming to a natural end as the clock counted down, it did appear that the Chevrolet Camero would steal the thunder from Kohr Motorsport as it first passed Marcelli and then Hindman to dump the #60 car off the overall podium but a late stop for that car then allowed both the #7 Archangel car of Brynjolfsson/Hindman and the #60 car of Stacey/Marcelli to see out their 2020 season from the podium in P2 and P3 respectively.
Subject to official ratification – the #60 Kohr Motorsport team with both Nate Stacey and Kyle Marcelli are the 2020 Michelin Pilot Challenge Champions with Aston Martin Racing securing the 2020 Manufacturers Championship title as well – a great achievement for the team and drivers and a massive achievement for AMR in the USA.
Well done to them and well done to CSJ Motorsport as well for facilitating yet another US Championship winning AMR Vantage GT4 team in 2020.
Photo credits - IMSA / CSJ / Volt Racing
Friday, November 13, 2020 |
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Winner takes all at IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Sebring finale
In a season that actually dates back to a season opener over nine months ago, this weekend sees the #60 Kohr Motorsport AMR Vantage GT4 of Nate Stacey and Kyle Marcelli go head to head with reigning champions Tyler McQuarrie and Jeff Westphal and their #39 Carbahn Audi R8 LMS GT4 for one last time as the two crews fight it out to become this season’s Champions.
Having fought out the last round of the Series over at the Weathertech Raceway Laguna Seca, a grid of twenty four GS Class cars and twelve TCR Class cars move all the way back from the west coast to the east coast of the USA to compete in the tenth and final round of this CV-19 punctuated season.
Going into this final race, the #60 crew maintain a fifteen-point advantage over the #39 Audi after the latter crew completed a commanding win at Laguna Seca, timing their race winning overtake on the #7 Archangel Aston Martin Vantage to perfection going into the final lap. With thirty-five points still available to the winner, everything is far from secure for the AMR Drivers Academy driver (Stacey) and his Professional co-driver/driver coach.
Going into this final race, the #60 crew maintain a fifteen-point advantage over the #39 Audi after the latter crew completed a commanding win at Laguna Seca, timing their race winning overtake on the #7 Archangel Aston Martin Vantage to perfection going into the final lap. With thirty-five points still available to the winner, everything is far from secure for the AMR Drivers Academy driver (Stacey) and his Professional co-driver/driver coach.
Looking back at the Series first visit to Sebring this season, as the IMSA sanctioned returned to the circuit after their CV-19 enforced sabbatical, that race was a pretty close ran thing with the #39 car just taking the win from the #60 car. Without getting into any points scenario’s – simple repeat of that result would be enough for Stacey and Marcelli to claim that ultimate prize.
As just mentioned above, the #7 Archangel AMR GT4 of Alan Brynjolfsson and Trent Hindman make only their third appearance this year in their new bright yellow AMR Vantage after having come so close to their first race win of the year at Laguna Seca two weeks ago only for an obviously much better performing Audi to snatch the lead going into the final lap.
As just mentioned above, the #7 Archangel AMR GT4 of Alan Brynjolfsson and Trent Hindman make only their third appearance this year in their new bright yellow AMR Vantage after having come so close to their first race win of the year at Laguna Seca two weeks ago only for an obviously much better performing Audi to snatch the lead going into the final lap.
Their second place finish in California is their best result of the season so far after having swapped from the Porsche to the Aston brand in time for the round at Road Atlanta (two rounds ago) and as such now elevates their Championship position up to P8 with a race win potentially lifting them up as high as third by the end of this weekend’s finale (other results permitting of course).
Now being closer to home for the Automatic Racing team, this final round also sees the return of their two AMR Vantage GT4’s having skipped the last round at Laguna Seca. Rob Ecklin and Ramin Abdolvahabi reunite aboard the #09 car whilst Gary Ferrera and Kris Wilson see out the season aboard the #99 car.
With the Michelin Pilot Challenge again supporting the main IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship, the Series will race their final two hours starting just after midday this Friday.
Photo credits – IMSA / Archangel / Kohr / CSJ Motorsport
Monday, November 09, 2020 |
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Michelin Pilot Challenge goes down to the wire at season finale for Kohr Motorsport
Despite drivers Nate Stacey and Kyle Marcelli taking another podium finish in third place by the end of yesterday’s two-hour race, their main Championship contender had a stronger weekend which took them from pole to eventual race winners to narrow their points deficit to just fifteen ahead of the final round in Florida.
Laguna Seca also saw the new AMR convertees, Archangel Motorsport return with their rebuilt and highly distinctive AMR Vantage GT4 (not a new chassis we have on good authority from those at CSJ Motorsport and contrary to what the race commentators said) having taken delivery of their new car just ahead of the last round at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta only for their Gentleman driver Alan Brynjolfsson to have a sizeable ‘off’ on the opening laps.
Having realised his mistake at Road Atlanta as soon as he had made it, Brynjolfsson qualified the yellow #7 car in an equally career best P5 whilst AMR Academy Driver Stacey would be on the front row in P2 and alongside the Championship chasing #39 Carbahn Audi.
Unfortunately the opening half hour of the race descended into something undesirable as first a multi car collision at the first corner of the first laps which sadly eliminated at least two TCR cars on the spot with subsequent debris falling off those impaired by that collision (as well as other later but still avoidable impacts) lead to only five racing laps being completed within that time period.
The #7 car elected to pit early for a top up in fuel and new tyres as the top five (including Stacey in P2) remained out on older rubber and that would eventually mean that those who pitted would only be a few cars back in the Safety Car train by the time the race eventually went back to green. By the end of the first hour, over half that race time was lost to periods of track cautions!
Eventually the race got back to green and what happened after that proved why GT4 racing is so exciting and unpredictable despite the cars tight balancing of performance. Whilst the #39 Audi controlled the pace from the front, Stacey was certainly able to keep their advisory in visual contact as each would have to pit for a driver change and avoid any foul in driver minimum times – something that excluded the #39 from the results of Road Atlanta two weeks ago.
Pitting from second just after the hour mark, Stacey handed the #60 car over to Kyle Marcelli for the race to the flag and having pitted two laps prior to the Audi he was able to easily pass the #39 car for position as it exited pit lane on cold tyres. Ahead of them both Brynjolfsson eventually brought his #7 car into pit lane and for Trent Hindman’s first racing laps within the Aston having missed out at Road Atlanta.
Going into the final half hour, it wasn’t known if the #60 car would need to pit again for a splash and dash so when Marcelli’s pace obviously slowed slightly, it was clear that he was in a fuel save mode to the end although it did still take an error on his part (going wide at the bottom of the corkscrew) for the chasing Archangel and Carbahn cars to pass him for the lead two places in the race going into the final corner.
With the lead now lost, the #60 car just needed to finish to secure vital Championship points and considering their then 20-point advantage going into the race – the pressure wasn’t on them as the Audi needed to pass Hindman to maximise their points haul going into Sebring.
Unfortunately for the #7 crew, that pass appeared easy for the #39 Audi along the start straight to commence the final lap of the race with the Audi being the best car of the weekend performance wise and completed their otherwise effective lights to flag win.
A podium none the less for Brynjolfsson and Hindman in only their second race with their AMR Vantage GT4 and another podium for the #60 crew of Stacey and Marcelli.
With these results waiting to be confirmed by the Series, it appears that the #60 cars point advantage going into Sebring has been reduced to 15 points and just a handful of points into between Aston Martin Racing, Audi and Mercedes Benz for the Manufacturers Championship.
With 35 points still on offer the Sebring’s race winner – winner takes all really!!
Photo credits – IMSA / CSJ Motorsport / Kohr / Archangel
Sunday, November 01, 2020 |
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Four out of four AMR Class Pole Positions so far this weekend
It’s a good start to this weekends round of motor racing with many of the Aston Martin Racing Partner and customer teams in action around the world.
Earlier today (European time at least) the D’Station Racing AMR team placed both their AMR Vantage GT3 and AMR Vantage GT4 at the head of their respective classes at their third round of the Pirelli Super Taikyu Series from the Okayama Circuit in Japan.
Whilst the four driver crew aboard the #47 Vantage GT4 have reaped the success of their efforts over the opening rounds, the #777 Vantage GT3 have had their early efforts quashed by early damage in the Series opening 24 Hour event at Fuji whilst late drama at the last, rain swept round at Sugo which robbed them of a probable class podium there.
Over at the Circuit de Catalunya in a now locked down city of Barcelona, the TF Sport AMR Vantage GT3 of Salih Yoluc and Charlie Eastwood have seen their early pace transferred into another overall pole position ahead of this afternoon’s feature race.
The #34 crew presently lay third in the Championship table ahead of this final round of the International GT Open Series and must really win today and hope for lower placed finishes from the McLaren and Mercedes ahead if that are to stand any chance of lifting the ultimate prize.
At the Lausitzring in Germany, the PROsport Racing #18 AMR Vantage of Tim Heinemann has taken overall pole position in today’s first one-hour race of the penultimate round of the ADAC GT4 Germany Series.
In another rain affected session, Heinemann comes into this event with co-driver Moritz Oestreich as a one-off entry in a series that the team first demonstrated the capabilities of the new AMR Vantage GT4 in last year.
Finally, and over at the Weathertech Raceway Laguna Seca, both the Archangel, Kohr Motorsports and Heart of Racing AMR Vantage GT4 and GT3 cars respectively all go out in Qualifying later today European time ahead of their respective IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge and Weathertech Sportscar Championship events.
Photo credits - GT Open / D'Station / GT4 Germany / CSJ Motorsport
Saturday, October 31, 2020 |
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IMSA reaches Weathertech Raceway Laguna Seca
This race comes just two weeks after the Championship’s blue ribband Petit Le Mans fixture at Road Atlanta where the Heart of Racing Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GTD suffered an undeserved DNF after eventual unrepairable and ending accident damage was sustained during the night having ran at times within the top five in class with a crew of Roman de Angelis, Ian James and Darren Turner and despite starting from last at the beginning of the ten hour event.
De Angelis was also part of the #159 Silver Cup Garage 59 effort at the Total 24 Hours of Spa last weekend, where that car suffered a similar fate during the night having ran in equal or greater heights within their class there.
For this penultimate round of the 2020 season, the #23 car will be back done to the now usual crew of just De Angelis and James for this 140 minute race as part of a smaller grid of just twenty eight cars. Having skipped the first two rounds after lockdown, the team are sadly not in any Championship contention.
Joining them at the Californian track is again the Michelin Pilot Challenge which this weekend will feature just the two Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 cars from the Kohr Motorsport and Archangel Motorsports teams. Both Automatic Racing AMR Vantage GT4 crews have elected not to travel and compete at this event.
Having stepped into the #7 for very much the first time at Road Atlanta, drivers Alan Brynjolfsson and Trent Hindman certainly threatened to ‘upset the apple cart’ after their mid-season swap from the Porsche to the Aston except for a catastrophic misjudgement (his words) from gentleman driver Brynjolfsson going under the bridge for only about the seventh time saw the bright yellow AMR slew out and impact heavily into the tyre guarded parapet and into instant retirement.
Thankfully, Brynjolfsson was able to remove himself from his stricken new machine, admit to the errors of his ways and move onto this week’s affairs at Laguna Seca. If Road Atlanta was anything to go by – the #7 will be quick again this weekend!!
That leaves just the MPC Championship title contending #60 car of both Nate Stacey and Kyle Marcelli in the fray with the Archangel prepared #7 car after the #60 crew suffered, what was for them a disappointing result at the end of that two hours of racing. Having started down in P4, the Brynjolfsson incident lost AMR Academy Driver Stacey a lot of track time under Caution and another caution period soon after forced the team to pit him early at only his minimum limit of his drive time requirement rather than closer to the race’s half way mark.
At the end, Marcelli could do no more than return the #60 car home in P6 but the good news for them came from their main Championship rivals falling foul of their own driver minimum drive time during the mid-race caution periods and retired themselves before race officials could delete them from the results.
Results from that round increased the points gap between the #60 crew to the #39 Carbahn Audi GT4 crew to the twenty points it is now going into the preliminaries of Laguna Seca. With the third placed Mercedes AMG GT4 crew still in a position to overlap the two teams above at the final two rounds of the season should events and misfortune go in their favour – it is all too close to call either way.
The start of the Michelin Pilot Challenge race will be at 18:35hrs local on Saturday with the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship starting at 16:05hrs local on Sunday. The circuit is minus 7 hours GMT.
Photo credits - IMSA / Archangel / Kohr / CSJ Motorsport
Tuesday, October 27, 2020 |
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Not the dream start for one but more points for Championship leaders
As string of progressively better finishes over the season so far had been noted, not least by the Archangel Motorsport team of Alan Brynjolfsson and Trent Hindman who quickly secured an AMR Vantage GT4 of their own in time for the Series return visit to the Michelin raceway Road Atlanta at the weekend as a change in fortune in results from that with their Porsche could see them become title contenders by the last race of the season at Sebring.
Liveried in their distinct Volt Lightning day-glow yellow, the new #7 Aston Martin was a thing of beauty as both drivers got their first test mileage aboard the car in Free Practice on Thursday and by the end of Qualifying, the two front running Astons were split by just 0.01 of a second as the #60 qualified in P4 and the #7 in P5.
Joining these two cars were both of the Automatic Racing cars of both Rob Ecklin/Ramin Abdolvahabi in the #09 and Kris Wilson/Gary Ferrera in the #99.
Taking the start to the Fox Factory 120 under warm afternoon sunshine, Stacey was able to hold his starting position going into the sweeping sequence of turns one to three but Brynjolfsson lost track position and fell back one place and by lap seven, Brynjolfsson had set the fastest lap of the race so far.
Then, just ten minutes into the race came disaster for the #7 car as, sweeping out to avoid the rear of the Mercedes AMG GT4 in front, the #7 car launched itself into an unrecoverable rotation into the bridge parapet after turn 12 – hitting the tyre wall hard and rebounding across of the track with a passing car being hit by debris. Fortunately, nobody was hurt, and all were able to remove themselves from their wreckage or seek assistance and repairs in the pit-lane but the #07 Volt Aston Martin was certainly out!
Nearly twenty minutes of race time was lost whilst that mess was cleared up but a another Full Course Yellow soon after for a stranded TCR car meant that the Am drivers had by then completed their minimum drive time, so most GS Class car pitted including the #60 from P3, the #09 from P15 and the #99 from P17.
Once the whole class had finished their first pit stop cycle, all three Astons had lost rack position with Marcelli dropping to P4 , Wilson down to P18 but worst of all Abdolvahabi who would have to serve TWO drive through penalties as a consequence of two pit lane infractions – one for speeding and another for allowing the rear wheels to spin during their stop. These would shatter to any aspirations that had in what remained of the race!!
The pivotable point within this race again came again from the events immediately either side of another Full Course Caution period as the chasing #96 BMW pitted immediately before the pit lane was again closed to recover another TCR car buried in the tyre wall at turn one. By the time that the pit lane had reopened and the #60 had made their required second stop – they were already behind the BMW of Robbie Foley (and others) down in sixth place with less than thirty minutes remaining.
That time was further reduced as another TCR was pushed off into the parapet of the bridge at turn 12 leaving just a six-minute dash to the flag for their efforts. Whilst Marcelli could not pass anybody on track, their main Championship contenders had already retired from the race after they missed out on securing their Pro drivers minimum drive time at the previous FCY. That in itself increased the gap between the #60 and the #30 Carbahn Audi from seven to twenty points so all was not bad.
The #99 Automatic car of Wilson and Ferrera also demand a mention for one of their best performances to date finishing this race in P11 after having missed the last couple of rounds. For Archangel Motorsport, they now have less than two weeks to repair their #7 car ahead of track formalities at the seasons penultimate round at Wethertech Raceway Laguna Seca.
We have since learned that the #07 is repairable.
Photo credits - IMSA / Archangel / Kohr / CSJ Motorsport
Saturday, October 17, 2020 |
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IMSA visits Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta for Petit Le Mans
Having finally broken through that barrier down that has haunted them since restart between that of runner up and race winner last time out at Mid-Ohio, the #60 Kohr Motorsport Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4 crew of Nate Stacey and Kyle Marcelli get back down to business this weekend at the Fox Factory 120 from Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.
In fact not content with just one race win for the weekend three weeks ago, AMR Academy Driver Stacey and his resident professional driver coach Marcelli went all out to secure two pole positions and converted them into two outright race wins at the Mid-Ohio double header round of the Michelin Pilot Challenge to lead the overall standings by just seven points from the Jeff Westphal/Tyler McQuarrie Audi R8 LMS GT4 with just three rounds remaining including this weekend’s support race to the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship Motul Petit Le Mans.
In fact not content with just one race win for the weekend three weeks ago, AMR Academy Driver Stacey and his resident professional driver coach Marcelli went all out to secure two pole positions and converted them into two outright race wins at the Mid-Ohio double header round of the Michelin Pilot Challenge to lead the overall standings by just seven points from the Jeff Westphal/Tyler McQuarrie Audi R8 LMS GT4 with just three rounds remaining including this weekend’s support race to the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship Motul Petit Le Mans.
The #60 car will this weekend be part of a new four AMR car effort in the Series as the new #7 Volt Racing/Archangel Motorsport AMR Vantage GT4 for drivers Alan Brynjolfsson and Trent Hindman comes on-line for the first time since their public re-alignment to the Aston from the Porsche last week.
Obviously having seen the performance of the 2019 specification Vantage GT4 in the hands of Stacey over the season so far, this calculated swap to the Vantage for the team (even at this late stage) could well elevate them from their present P9 position with 152 points up towards the ‘sharp end’ in time for the season finale at Sebring should results in the next two races go their way. The only hurdle to that possibility is that neither driver has yet (as of last week’s announcement) got to drive yet alone race their latest acquisition!
These two cars will be joined again by the two Automatic Racing cars of Ramin Abdolvahabi/Rob Ecklin in the #09 car and Kris Wilson/Gary Ferrera in the #99 car after they skipped the last couple of rounds for various reasons.
Track action for the GT4 crews begins on Thursday with Free Practice ahead of Qualifying later in the day. The two hour race itself starts at 15.35hrs local on Friday (BST -5hrs)
Joining them at the picturesque circuit as part of the IMSA showcase Motul Petit Le Mans package will of course be the #23 Heart of Racing AMR Vantage GTD .
Fresh from their first podium success of the season so far last week at Charlotte Motor Speedway where they finished a mighty third despite some atrocious track conditions, team regulars Roman de Angelis and Ian James will again be joined by AMR factory driver Darren Turner for this longer, ten hour race.
With the teams best successes within the Championship coming in the most recent races with progressively better finishes, late on Saturday evening (local) should hopefully have these three guys standing upon an even higher step of the podium!!!?
Photo credits - IMSA / Kohr / CSJ Motorsport / Stoner Racing
Monday, October 12, 2020 |
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