For the other Vantage GT4 racer of Todd Parriott and his #31 Flying Lizard entry, he would have to make do with a P4 and a P6 in class for his efforts whilst the two Vantage GT3 runners of Jason Bell (#2 Flying Lizard) and Tim Savage (#007 Prosport Competition) their deficient BoP would again see them catch to the rear of the pack with P5 and P6 finishes in race one respectively but with an enforced spin for Bell and heavy contact with another car for Savage in race 2. 

Being able to catch up with the pack due to the Safety Car brought about by Savage’s contact with Ross Chouest’s Mercedes, and a post-race time penalty for that offending Porsche, Bell was able to lay claim to another P3 class podium.

The main action, however, was within the multi-classed GT4 America Series where the Heart of Racing again ran with their two crews of Newell and De Angelis within their new Evo’s #24 car with Hannah Grisham and Hannah Greenemeir with their usual #17A variant of the car within their now silver category. They were again joined by the #13 Flying Lizard entry of Parriott and Tom Dyer.

Despite having claimed a front row start for the new #24 Vantage GT4 Evo for race 1, that advantage was sadly lost during the opening race and despite having led the opening half of it, after a Safety car period interfered with the pit stop window. Despite having led the pack out of pit lane again, the gaggle of silver grade drivers behind Newell was enough for him to be removed of his track position by (at first them) and then other Pro-Am classed runners.

For them, race one would be a disappointing P7 in class for the #24 car and a lap down P6 in class for the Silver classed ladies of the #26 car with the #13 Flying Lizard entry finishing in-between both of them.

Race two was however different and gave the #24 Evo first blood within the SRO family of series Stateside after they were able to overcome a lowly qualifying position to take the overall race win with their #26 stablemates close behind for a class podium finish of their own.

A multi-vehicle accident on the opening lap lead to a length clean-up operation which both Newell and Greenemeir serve their minimum drive time following the Safety Car in position. That left both cars with their faster drivers now aboard against others with their lesser capable drivers and very quickly, both Heart cars were picking off those in front for position.

With just one car now ahead, this time a fortunate Safety Car allowed all to catch up onto the back of that car and at the restart became easy pickings for De Angelis for the Canadian to come home a comfortable first overall with Grisham third overall and second in silver.

Next stop for all SRO America Series will be from Indianapolis in early October.

Photo credits – Team / Series / social media

That news comes in the form of the Heart of Racing team swapping over to a new 2024 AMR Vantage GT4 Evo for their #24 Pro-Am pairing of Gary Newell and Roman De Angelis within the GT4 America Series for the first time. With them (and all other AMR Vantage GT4 runners this season for that matter) continuing to run the still completely successful and competitive 2019 17A variant of the car, it will be interesting to see just how that performances transposes between chassis after the pairing secured both a P3 and P1 class finish at the end of the last round from Road America.

The new Vantage GT4 has of course ran a full season so far within the IMSA sanctioned Michelin Pilot Challenge and VP Racing Sportscar Challenge Series with the Rebel Rock Racing team but Aston Martin Racing was keen to (at first) restrict the availability of the new car in North America until such time as suitable spares and technical assistance was also on offer for their customers.

Within the GT4 America Series, the #26 Heart of Racing AMR Vantage GT4 entry for Hannah Grisham and Hannah Greenemeier continue to pedal their 17A version within the silver class as so the Todd Parriott/Tom Dyer Flying Lizard Pro-Am pairing within their #13 car.

Championship wise, the #24 Newell/De Angelis pairing maintain a P2 championship position but would require a significant low/no scoring trait from the championship leaders over the remaining races to have any chance – something that appears unlikely at present having never finish off the class podium so far this season.

Within the GT3/GT2/GT4 based GT America Series, the GT3 class is again supported by the #2 Flying Lizard AMR Vantage GT3 of Jason Bell and the older 16A Prosport Competition AMR Vantage GT3 of Tim Savage aboard his #007 car. Joining them will be the #25 Heart of Racing Vantage GT4 of Newell as well as the #31 Flying Lizard AMR Vantage GT4 of Parriott (both 17A variants).

Championship wise for these guys is that none of them are in any class championship challenging position but Newell does have the potential of securing the GT4 runners up position as well as Parriott moving up to P4 should results from the last two rounds go their way.

As usual, the bronze rated only GT America Series will run two forty-minute solo driver races over the course of the weekend with the GT4 America Series running two one hour, pit stop punctuated races.

Photo credits – Team / Series / social media

The ‘pick of the crop’ would have to be the Racing Spirit of Lemans much deserved podium finish after the second round of their European Le Mans Series endeavours at the Paul Ricard circuit in southern France.

Having qualified their #59 AMR Vantage LMGT3 fourth in class, the driver combo of Derek DeBoer, Casper Stevenson and Valentin Hasse-Clot ended that four-hour race third in class to lift their championship position up to fifth in class at this early stage. 

The #97 Grid Motorsport by TF AMR Vantage LMGT3 of Martin Berry, Lorcan Hanafin and Jonny Adam enjoyed something of a better race weekend than that of Barcelona last month as the team had to prepare a new chassis for the team for this weekend after the horrors of Spain. Unfortunately for them, their combined efforts only earned them another P7 finish in class to now sit P9 in class.

Within the supporting Le Mans Cup Series, the Blackthorn AMR team ran their first race within the series for drivers Claude Bovet and David McDonald after they had to sit out their opening round in Spain due to then unavailability of new chassis parts.

Running on back-to-back race weekends with the British GT Championship, this race was the first time that the team had encountered the latest Michelin control tyre over that of the Pirelli in SRO Series, which brought problems of its own ahead of last weekend’s second round. The #91 car would eventually finish P9 in class.

Similar tyre issues were apparent for the D’Station Racing AMR Vantage GT3 of Tomonobu Fujii and Charlie Fagg (deputising for Marco Sorenson) as they raced at the second round of the Super GT Series from Fuji.

Having Qualified P22 out of twenty-seven GT300 entries, the #777 car would eventually finish P16 in class but a lap down to the class leaders.

There were race debuts for new AMR powered crews in both the Thailand Super Series opener at the Chang International was well as for Lazarus Corse in the Italian GT Series within their older specification Vantage GT4 and GT3 chassis respectively.

Competing within the Earl Bamber Motorsport prepared Team New Zealand Vantage GT4, drivers Graham Orsett and Ananthorn Tangniannatchi endured something of a challenge race weekend, eventually finishing P12 in their fourteen strong class in race one before a DNF in race 2.

In Misano meanwhile, the Lazarus Corse AMR of Mattia Di Guisto and William Alatalo ran an improving race weekend, finishing P18 in race one before an improved P12 out of their twenty-three strong grid.

At the end of all of that, we still had Aston Martin entries within the SRO America GT America, GT4 America and GT World Challenge America Series from Sebring International in Florida.

Like the opening rounds at Sonoma last month, these series are bolstered by the presence of the Heart of Racing, Flying Lizard and Prosport Racing teams and their varying AMR Vantage GT3 and GT4 cars.

Within the topflight GT World Challenge Series, just the #8 Flying Lizard Vantage GT3 of Elias Sabo and Andy Lee took part despite early indications that Jason Bell would race within that series alongside AMR factory driver Henrique Chaves. Instead, Bell used Chaves’ knowledge to help his own development within the solo driven GT America Series. The #8 car only managed a P6 in class finish at the end of race 1 before another DNF ended their weekend early.

As previously posted, the Heart of Racing team came away from Sebring with a hat trick of race podiums within their GT4 series as Gray Newell, Newell and Roman De Angelis with Hannah Grisham and Hannah Greenameier all secured class podiums throughout the two-race weekend.

For the remaining AMR entries of Tim Savage (#007 GT America) and Todd Pariott (#13 GT America) each suffered either driver through penalties for incident responsibility or mechanical damage after contact with other cars that blighted their weekend. Hopefully better will come for all concerned later this year.

Since then, some got in some extra race mileage at the stand-alone GT America race at Long Beach California last weekend but in the meantime, others have re-evaluated their season strategy.

What remains the same is within GT4 America as just three Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 crews make up part of the expected twenty-nine car line up for their two one-hour races over the bumps of Sebring International Raceway. The #13 Flying Lizard AMR of Todd Parriott and Tom Dyer is again joined by the pair of Heart of Racing Astons for Gray Newell/Roman De Angelis within the #24 Pro-Am entry and Hannah Grisham and Hannah Greenemeir aboard their #26 Am Class car. These cars are still the older generation 17A variants.

In GT America, we see a one car drop in AMR numbers as Todd Coleman chooses not to contest this round after a 50/50 debut at Long Beach last weekend. Jason Bell is again the solo new 2024 AMR Vantage GT3 entry with his #2 Flying Lizard prepared car whilst Tim Savage is back with his older 16A variant #007 Prosport Competition prepared Vantage GT3 having skipped Long Beach.

Then in GT4, it’s a return for each of the #13 Flying Lizard car of Parriott and the #25 Heart of Racing car of Newell.

The biggest AMR news comes from the GT World Challenge America Series where not does just Elias Sabo return with his new 2024 #8 Flying Lizard Vantage GT3 entry like that at Sonoma but now stablemate Bell comes to the top table as he enters his #2 car alongside AMR factory driver Henrique Chaves.

Chaves has already had dealings with the Flying Lizard team after they converted Sabo’s 16A GT3 platform to the new Evo model where he helped them with set up and testing prior to the season opener at Sonoma.

Photo credits – Teams / series / social media

The #24 Heart crew of Gray Newell and Roman De Angelis where certainly out to improve upon the disappointment of VIR whilst their all girl #26 crew of Hannah Grisham and Rianna O’Meara-Hunt were each getting faster and more consistent as their Am Class season progressed. The #8 Flying Lizard crew of Elias Sabo/Andy Lee and the #50 Chouest Povoledo crew of tehir namesakes Ross and Aaron were also already up to speed in Pro-Am although the Aston was clearly not the speediest platform within.

Hitting the hot and humid circuit of Road America this weekend, there were signs of progress as Grisham hit P4 overall during Q1, only marginally beaten by three silver grade crews whilst their #24 crew were also within the top five within Pro-Am.

Unfortunately for the #26 crew, a necessary chassis change before the race saw that effort go to waste and for Grisham having to start race 1 from the rear of the grid as the race finally got underway towards the end of the day.

Always chasing the faster silver crews, the #24 Heart crew led the AMR charge with the new #119 Rory Van Der Steur VDS Aston behind and the #8 car of Sabo behind him. Disaster soon become the #50 car however as rear contact with a McLaren from Chouest caused himself and the McLaren crew race ending damage that would also bring out the Safety Car after a further car hit the outside retaining walls hard and stopped on track.

Nearly fifteen minutes were lost to that clean up with Newell doing well to keep the silver grade car of Van Der Steur behind once the race went back to green. Further confusion came during the pit window as a Toyota also hit the wall, but the race did stay green long enough for all to complete their mandatory stop before falling back behind the Safety Car again.

With De Angelis now aboard the #24, a near miss for him came as to cars hit each other immediately behind but terminal trouble soon came the way of O’Meara-Hunt as contact of her own with the #26 car would see them retire from the race and the event as that damage was irreparable at the circuit. That pain for the team would however be lessened by the performance of the #24 as De Angelis brought the car home to take the win Pro-Am behind the Safety Car.

The #8 Flying Lizard car would take P4, the #119 VDS car of Van Der Steur and Jamie Day would take P4 in Silver with the #13 GMG Aston Martin finally coming home P7 in Pro-Am.

Sunday’s second race was a mess right from the start of issues during Q2 didn’t see enough cars make representative lap times due to a prolonged red flag situation which meant that grid position was set by their times during FP2.

That saw the #13 GMG Racing car of Tom Dyer take his first series start in an Aston Martin from the front row, the #8 car from the second row and the #119 from the sixth row. A much repaired #50 car would take the start but from the pit lane.

With the top five (mainly silver grade crews) quickly breaking away from the pack, Dyer paved the way for the chasing Astons as Lee easily countered the attacking gestures of a series debuting Day behind in P8. De Angelis also started from the rear of the grid – he wasn’t to have such a good race this time around as Povoledo passed him for position just before the pit window.

Another car off during the pit stop window this time saw the Safety Car called leaving some crews high and dry. Although the #119 car did pit within regulation, a technical issue aboard the #119 saw Van Der Steur fall away and disappear from the running order to spoil what had otherwise been a decent weekend for them.

Again, another length caution eventually saw the race get back to green with fifteen minutes remaining but by this time the #13 car of Todd Parriott had fallen away for Sabo to take the AMR powered lead in P3 with both Chouest and Newell distant P14/15.

Continuing a Road America resurgence in Aston Martin GT4 America fortune, the #8 Flying Lizard car of Sabo and Lee secured a Pro-Am P3 finish with the #13 crew coming home a very credible P6 in class and the #24 crew P9.

The series now has another four-week sabbatical before racing resumes at its penultimate round of Sebring in mid-September.

Photo credits – Team / Series

Again running solo from the usual trilogy of SRO America sanctioned series, the bronze driver only series will see three Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4’s compete around the tight and twisty road circuit with each of Ross Chouest, Jason Bell and Gray Newell placed within the top four of the GT4 Driver Championship going into this round.

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.