New Vantage GT4 comes of age to win third time out
In only its third competitive start, the Rebel Rock Racing-run Vantage GT4 – which has yet to race anywhere else other than North America in 2024 – charged through from 23rd on the grid to record a spectacular win in the Alan Jay Automotive 120 two-hour race on the challenging airfield circuit, run on Friday afternoon.
Driver and team owner Frank DePew (USA) took the start and steadily moved forward while staying clear of trouble. Then with clever strategy, the team racing in its home state, pitted as early as possible for its final fuel stop, emerging second on the road under caution and behind the Safety Car with 40 minutes to go.
A fist full of Aston Martin Vantage GT4s to do IMSA battle around the streets of St Petes
The official entry list may say four, but we believe there to be more Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 powered crews entered into this weekend’s IndyCar support VP Racing Sportscar Challenge race from St Petersburg.
The three indicated full season entries all return albeit with one slight change aboard one of them whilst the Prosport Competition team field a guest entry for a certain reigning GT America GT4 Champion and another also chases seat time after a disappointing showing first time out this season in Michelin Pilot Challenge.
Ruckus Racing is back with Scott Blind again behind the wheel of his #45 car whilst Frank DePew should get to run in his first race of the year with his 2024 Rebel Rock Racing prepared Vantage GT4 Evo having suffered technical issues with the brand new car last time out at Daytona that prevented him from running in the opening two races at the Roar.
The #82 Van Der Steur Aston Martin is in attendance but rather than Brady Behrman behind the wheel, they will be debuting Michelin Pilot Challenge Porsche racer Jackson Lee for this event. We believe that this has been scheduled for some weeks now, but we haven’t seen any explanation as to why this is – other than perhaps, prior commitments on Behrman’s part?!
Last time out at Daytona, Archangel ran an AMR for Robbie McWilliams, but it appears that he will not be back at this street circuit round, but the team will be preparing a car for MPC full season entrant, Todd Coleman after he suffered something of a disaster at the season opener with technical issues and penalties as a result of exploits on track. This will be all about seat time and dialling himself back in before the next round of the MPC season from Sebring in a couple of weeks.
Finally, and for similar reasons for Coleman, we see that Jason Bell will be back in action at St Pete’s – not because he has suddenly enlisted upon the IMSA entry rather than for seat time at a circuit he loves (and usually wins at in a GT4) before he embarks upon a full GT3 season in GT America.
Two Free Practice sessions and Qualifying are scheduled for this Friday before running two forty-five-minute races on Saturday around the tight 1.8 mile circuit. That leaves little margin for error with the consequences that a street derived circuit can quickly bring to race cars!!
Photo credits – Teams / social media / IMSA
Aston Martin dominate in opening round of GT America
Drama was to behold the series even before a practice lap had been turned when it was revealed that the #007 The Racers Group AMR Vantage GT3 of Derek DeBoer would not in fact be running the event (despite being listed by the series) as they would be sticking true to their plans for a Pro-Am GT World Challenge America commitment starting at their local track at Sonoma later this month.
Next, there were issues with track communications around the circuit which forced all sessions to be delayed until such time as that was fixed meaning that the GT America crews went straight from Practice 2 into Qualifying for what would become Friday night’s opening forty-minute race.
With the five Aston Martin’s locking out the opening five places on the grid saw Todd Coleman secure class pole position within his #69 Archangel prepared car followed by Jason Bell in his #2 Flying Lizard car second and Gray Newell in his #25 Heart of Racing car in third. They were then followed by reigning GT America GT4 Champion Ross Chouest (#55) in fourth and Moisey Uretsky in fifth with his #55 API Aston Martin.
As with any street circuit it is not always the racetrack that presents the problems – rather than the hard concrete walls that surround them and during Fridays opener, it took just three to four corners before the first incident which resulted with a prolonged Safety Car period.
Featuring one of the GT3 cars ahead, nearly a third of the race clock was lost to the clean up before the race went back to green with twenty-four minutes remaining but importantly for some, precious little ambient light around the tight and twisting 1.8mile circuit.
Once they got back to racing, Coleman and Bell soon broke the tow of the chasing pack, but Coleman always looked under pressure from the former Champion and eventually that pressure took its toll for Coleman to miss a braking point and end nose first into a tyre wall. Although he would extricate himself, his race was done down in tenth.
That left just over five minutes of the race remaining, but Bell had picked up a front puncture from somewhere around the circuit and was trying to nurse the car home until the final lap when a lunging Chouest claimed top spot whilst Bell and Newell were squabbling for position together.
With just three corners to go, Chouest would claim the class win with Newell second, Bell in third and Uretsky coming home in forth.
Saturdays second race was again delayed due to track issues, but it would be the fastest lap of race one that would used to dress the starting grid with Bell this time claiming Pole ahead of Coleman with Uretsky third, Chouest fourth and Newell fifth for another AMR lockout.
However, and like race one earlier, another incident for a GT3 car ahead again brought out the Safety Car whilst debris was cleared and again would lose the race nearly half of its allotted duration.
With only eight minutes remaining by the time, they went back to green, the drama would be far from over however as another spinning GT3 would baulk Newell and would allow Uretsky passed for second as Bell made his escape up ahead, but the #55 car would be into the tyre wall before the end of the penultimate lap allowing Newell back passed for second just in time for the chequered flag.
It wasn’t to be all Aston Martin at the end as Bell claimed the win after being robbed of the same yesterday with Newell again finishing second but with Uretsky back in sixth and Coleman classified in seventh after stopping on track on the final lap. Chouest would rack up his first DNF of the season.
The next round of the season will be with the GT4 America Series at Sonoma at the end of March.
Photo credits – GT America / Teams
Its about to get very busy!
In no particular order, we had the confirmation of entry lists into both the opening round of the World Endurance Championship from Sebring for the weekend after next and as well as the entry into this year’s centenary event of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Whereas we did have confirmation of the three Aston Martin Vantage GTE full season entries into the mid-March 1000mile event from Florida we did not have confirmation still of the full driver line up within the #98 Northwest AMR car alongside gentleman driver and entrant Paul Dalla Lana and his Pro ranked co-driver and former WEC GTE Pro Champion Nicki Thiim.
Then we confirmation that two further Aston Martins will participate within June’s twenty-four event as the #72 all French TF Sport full season European Le Mans entry was accepted by invitation as well as the automatically qualifying #55 GMB Motorsport Aston from the Le Mans Cup Series.
Many of these cars and drivers have been in testing action this week both at a snowy Paul Ricard in southern France and at the Monza and Barcelona circuits.
We have since had the news from the Prosport Racing team of anything up to five of their Aston Martins will compete at this seasons NLS and N24 events this season with two of the Vantage GT3’s again featuring amongst their Vantage GT4 platforms with Alex Brundle getting behind the wheel of one (GT3) for the headline event. That team is presently at Navarro in Spain for the latest round of the GT Winter Series with many of the drivers listed within their press release.
Irish racer Alex Denning also confirmed his seat with the Prosport Racing team for this seasons ADAC GT4 Germany Series with a co-driver yet to be determined having raced with the team at the GT Winter Series at Jerez a few weeks ago.
Finally in the USA, we have seen the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship and Michelin pilot Challenge AMR entries from the Heart of Racing, Magnus Racing and Team TGM crews take to the track of Sebring for official testing before their second round of the series in two weeks’ time – the same weekend again as the opening WEC round there.
This week also fires off the first round of the GT America Series around the streets of St Petersburg with Aston Martin being represented in both GT3 and GT4 format as the The Racers Group returns to the brand with driver Derek DeBoer alongside the five AMR Vantage GT4 cars from Flying Lizards, Archangel, Baby Bull Racing, Chouest Povoledo and the Heart of Racing teams.
To go with that, three to four Aston Martin GT4’s are also expected at this weekend’s 9+7-hour events of the WRL Series from Barber as the TLM Racing team audition their new cars within the series after a successful shakedown event in Florida two weeks ago.
It’s going to get busy – so sit back and enjoy!!
Six Aston Martins kick off the GT America Series opener at St Petersburg next weekend
Again with a healthy representation from the Aston Martin Racing powered fraternity within the GT4 class, this year we also welcome the #007 The Racers Group Vantage GT3 entry for their team stalwart Derek DeBoer fresh from his pre-season testing exploits this week with Valentin Hasse-Clot at Nola.
The tightening 1.8-mile circuit and solid concrete walls will be a tough one for all as the opening round of the season as was painfully demonstrated by Bryan Putt at the event last year.
As usual, the race weekend will comprise of two forty-minute sprint races over both the Friday and Saturday of the IndyCar support event.
Photo credits – teams / social media
Heart of Racing confirm what was already expected of them this season in SRO America
The newest additions to HOR’s program are Rianna O'Meara-Hunt and Hannah Grisham, who will co-pilot the No. 26 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT4 in Pirelli GT4 America Am class The duo earned their seats on the team after impressing in an international all-female shootout hosted by HOR in November. The GT4 campaign is the first full season of racing at this level for the young rookie lineup.
HOR regulars Gray Newell and Ian James will share the No. 24 Heart of Racing entry in Pirelli GT4 America, which features two 60-minute races each weekend with a two-driver format. The 2023 season marks the third for Newell and James, having earned two Pro/Am class podiums together in their 2021 campaign. In 2022 the duo claimed back-to-back pole awards at Road America and Indianapolis Motor Speedway, as well as five podiums in the ten-race season including a breakthrough victory at Watkins Glen.
In addition to his Pirelli GT4 America program, Newell will kick off his third season in the No. 25 Heart of Racing entry in GT America powered by AWS. His first two seasons (2021 and 2022) saw the Washington native race to nine top-five finishes in GT America including his first win in 2021’s season finale at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The Heart of Racing's SRO season will start with Newell and the GT America powered by AWS series at the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on March 3rd and 4th as part of the INDYCAR season opener. James, O'Meara-Hunt, and Grisham will start their season at Sonoma Raceway starting March 31st through April 2nd.
Source material - HoRT
Bell looking for more podium success this year as SRO American reconvenes at Sonoma
“Looking forward to getting back on track this weekend, especially at Sonoma Raceway where we have had success in the past,” expressed Jason Bell, who earned his first GT4 Championship in 2021. “We have a brand new Aston Martin, we had a solid off season of testing, and I know we have the team to continue our winning ways.”
Driving solo in the GT World Challenge America program, Bell returns to the series as the 2021 champion. A race winner already this season, confidence is high as the GMG Racing driver looks to ride the wave of momentum.
Bell added, “As the defending champion, the target is on me for sure. I don’t mind the added pressure and feel that when we do succeed, it will feel that much better.”
As he has for the past several seasons, Bell will also compete in the Pirelli GT4 SprintX class alongside co-driver Andrew Davis. Showing speed but unable to match the results of his single driver effort, Bell is hoping the 2022 season is a turnaround for the GMG Racing SprintX entry.
“Andrew is an incredible driver, and we have shown that we have the speed to run at the front,” added Bell. “While the speed has been there, luck has not been on our side. It’s a new season of competition, and we have a renewed focus. The rest of the competition better watch out.”
An eventful GT America opening weekend which gives first win for Bell at St Petersburg
Two races around the street circuit layout of St Petersburg was always going to make for some eventful action for the twenty-seven cars in the SRO GT America Series and that is precisely what happened even though some was at the expense of our preferred teams.
Five Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4 powered Bronze rated drivers headed to Florida for this weekend’s season opening, two forty-minute rounds with reigning GT4 Champion Jason Bell near the top again in class with his #2 GMG Racing prepared car after Qualifying for Race 1 on Friday.
He was joined on track with Gray Newell aboard his #25 Heart of Racing car, the debuting Bryan Putt and his #15 Bsport Racing car, Ross Chouest with his second available #50 car after his Chouest Povoledo Racing AMR suffered engine issues earlier in the weekend and Sean Whalen aboard his distinctly liveried #888 Zelus Motorsport Aston Martin.
Under clear blue skies and intense Floridian sunshine Race 1 got underway in straight in incident and accident even before the grid reached turn one as the #15 car of Putt was involved in multiple contacts with other cars that sadly resulted in extensive front quarter damage for the red, white and blue car at the end of the start straight. Unfortunately for him, his debut race in the solo driver GT America Series would end there and then with a DNF.
The inter-car action car incident and accident action continued into turn 2 where the #2 car of Bell and the #25 car of Newell got together, spinning Bell around and placing him close to the rear of the pack as the race went under Full Course Caution but at least both cars were able to continue.
With nearly half the race time lost to the Safety Car, it was to be a twenty-two-minute sprint to the flag with the #50 car of Chouest surprisingly having survived journeying through all of this damage to assume third in class as the race went back to green with the remaining Aston’s down to P9 backwards.
With several drivers on a ‘recovery drive’ into the final minutes, a spin for Whalen dropped him back down the order whilst Bell and Newell had progressed to catch up with Chouest into the final lap just as the #50 car had lost out on a possible opening race class podium.
To end the race, #50 Chouest would finish P4 in class, #2 Bell P5, #25 Newell P7, #888 Whalen P9 and #15 Putt a DNF.
Saturday’s race grid positions were determined by their fastest lap in race 1 and that meant for a grid order in class of P3 for Bell, P4 for Newell, P6 for Chouest, P10 for Whalen and a distant P14 for Putt seeing that he hadn’t actually completed a racing lap on Friday.
More action into turn 1 on the opening lap for the now twenty six starters as Bell capitalised on the pole setting BMW GT4 getting baulked by the spinning Corvette to move up to P2 behind Derek DeBoer in his TRG Porsche – maybe with a little bit of muscle with damage clearly visible upon his white #2 GMG Racing Aston.
Fortunately no FCY this time as the grid was allowed to race after some hasty circuit clean up and it wasn’t too long before the GT3/GT2/GT4 grid was evenly spaced out around the street/airfield-based circuit layout.
After ten minutes of running, Bryan Putts audition sadly went from bad to worse as he was spun out by the #888 Aston of Sean Whalen with the #15 car being forced to retire again in pit lane from damage sustained just as Bell took the class lead from DeBoer.
Whilst Chouest and Whalen were busy battling with themselves down in P10, constant errors from DeBoer allowed Newell to catch the #66 Porsche and make a challenge for position going into the final five minutes.
Unfortunately for the Heart of Racing driver, DeBoer over defended a position already lost – contacted the #25 Aston Martin which spun Newell around but also ruptured his own radiators to then slam into the concrete barrier just one corner later to bring out another FCY. Fortunately for Newell, he had already been able to re-join the race before this to preserve a P5 finish for him as the race finished behind the Safety Car.
For Bell however, it was the first of (hopefully) many more race wins to come this season as Chouest and Whalen also completed the race (a lap down to the GT4 leaders) to finish their first weekend back racing in P7 and P10 respectively.
The series now moves onto Sonoma for their next round, this time in support of both the GT4 America and GT World Challenge America Series there in mid-April.
Photo credits – GT America / Teams
Bell resumes from where he left off in GT America at St Petersburg
As previously reported, five AMR Vantage GT4 teams will be competing this weekend with a further entry from the Flying Lizard team joining the series in time for their next round at Sonoma in mid-April.
Taking to the track yesterday for their two available Free Practice sessions were the #2 GMG Racing entry for reigning GT4 Drivers Champion Jason Bell, the #25 Heart of Racing AMR of Gray Newell, the #15 Bsport Racing car of Bryan Putt, the #50 Chouest Povoledo Racing car of Ross Chouest and the #888 Zelus Motorsport Aston Martin of Sean Whalen amongst the mixed GT3/GT4 grid of twenty-seven cars.
Running explicitly for the benefit of Bronze ranked drivers only, this IndyCar Series supporting GT America opener will see two forty-minute (non-pit stop punctuated) races being run over both Friday afternoon and Saturday morning local time.
With Qualifying later today, early practice times have seen Bell again shine towards the top of the GT4 times by the end of the day with GT America debutant Bryan Putt not too far behind with Newell just fractions of a second behind him again but come the races, any street circuit venue always delivers drama and incident!
As usual, both races are being streamed live via the series YouTube channel.
Photo credits – GT America / Teams
Entry list revealed for the GT America opener this weekend at St Petersburg
This season’s SRO GT America Series shows another healthy presence of Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 machinery being entered for many returning teams in 2022.
Reigning GT America GT4 Drivers Champions Jason Bell is first on the list with his #2 GMG Racing prepared car along with Gray Newell with his #25 Heart of Racing Vantage as returning full season entrants into this second year of the GT America Series.
They in turn are joined by other entrants from the parallel GT4 America Series that now see this bronze rated driver only series as useful race mileage over the (usually) same race weekends of the Pro-Am GT4 America series – all except this weekend’s visit to St Petersburg where the GT America Series again supports the IndyCar Series around the street circuit venue.
Bryan Putt and his #15 Bsport Racing car is a new full season entry as is Ross Chouest in the newly renamed #50 Chouest Povoledo Racing Aston Martin and whose teams have now acquired a second Vantage platform to race these joint GT America/GT4 America race weekends.
Completing the AMR line up (certainly for the St Petersburg opener) is the #888 Zelus Motorsport AMR of Sean Whalen who return to the series after a couple of ‘toe in the water’ rounds last season.
With track action kicking off on Thursday with Free Practice, the first forty-minute race will be on Friday with the second on Saturday morning (local time).
Photo credits – CSJ Motorsport / Teams
