Aston success at end of WRL's latest 8+8Hr event over the bumps of Sebring
For this events 8 + 8-hour race format drew the attention of over sixty runners within the WRL’s multi-class format with four Aston Martin Racing powered crews featuring amongst them with their allotted GTO class.
Two crews from the David Tuaty lead TLM Racing outfit saw the bright red #172 entry of Jim Hamman, JP Southern and Tom Herb take to the infamous bumps of the former wartime airfield circuit alongside the #888 ‘Mona’ with the young Zang O’Shaunessy behind the wheel of his father’s car, supported again by the more experienced racers in Pippa Mann and Troy Ermish.
The locally based Automatic Racing team were also in attendance with their older iteration #909 AMR Vantage GT4 that Ramin Abdolvahabi would have shared with Jim Cox for the weekend had it not been for repeated electrical/fuel pump issues that side lined the car for much of the weekend.
The locally based Automatic Racing team were also in attendance with their older iteration #909 AMR Vantage GT4 that Ramin Abdolvahabi would have shared with Jim Cox for the weekend had it not been for repeated electrical/fuel pump issues that side lined the car for much of the weekend.
They in turn was joined by another new to AMR team in 89X Motorsport who had acquired both a Vantage GT8R and Vantage GT4 from New Zealand ahead of their racing debut in them lats weekend. More akin to American muscle cars, this would be a racing test for their driving duo of Mike Fitzpatrick and Sebastian Vassen.
In Saturdays opener, the #888 started the highest in P7 where they were able to come home P5 overall (P4 in class) despite the loss of their air conditioning whilst the debuting 89X #89 car home just two places behind in their first ever AMR powered race to finish P7 overall and P6 in class with the #172 finishing immediately behind them to make it a rather successful race 1 outing.
Sundays second eight-hour race was much the same, but the #172 car did start from pole position, but race issues and fatigue did creep in which did affect their respective results.
The #888 car again finished P4 in class (this time still on the lead lap as opposed to be being one lap down to the winners on Saturday whilst the #172 eventually finished P8 in class with the #89 crew P15.
The season moves onto the Circuit of the Americas where their 2023 season will conclude at the start of December with another 8 + 8 Hr event – sadly alongside the final race for the Aston Martin Racing supporting CSJ Motorsport crew of Cy and Susan Jary (amongst others) who have grown the American marketplace to the scale that we have seen this season and whose presence within the paddock will be sorely missed.
Those were the words from one team manager this weekend, not ours!!
Photo credits – Teams / social media / Tom Beer Photo
Tuesday, November 14, 2023 |
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New Aston Martin Racing powered faces appear in WRLs visit to Sebring
With Friday testing already underway and our eyes and ears of CSJ Motorsport still pounding the beat within the paddock, we see that we have four Aston Martin Racing powered teams due to compete within the GTO class – three we already know but one is racing their AMR for the very first time.
David Tuaty’s TLM Racing team is back with two of their customer driven Aston Martins as Jim Hamman, JP Southern and Tom Herb power the red #172 car whilst Pippa Mann, Zang O’Shaunessy and Troy Ermish driver the newly sponsored #888 together for the first time.
Whilst we believe the older, normally aspirated #909 Automatic Racing AMR Vantage GT4 is there with presumably familiar Stoner Car Care driven faces, the main attention does swing over to the #89 entry from the Team 89X Motorsport team who have taken delivery of two familiar cars.
Whilst one is the familiar AMR yellow and the other plain black, we understand that both have been purchased from New Zealand where both were driven within the New Zealand GT Series up until the end of last season with the yellow one being the Vantage GT8R car of Stephen Harrison. The other is a Vantage GT4 variant that is believed to be that of Shane Helms where both drivers drove with the RaceLab team within the NZ GT Series back in 2022/23 seasons.
We don’t presently know of all their names – other than Mike Fitzpatrick runs alongside both Sebastian and Jeff within whichever one they elect to run.
As usual for the WRL Series, it’s a long a hard eight-hour race on Saturday before they do it all again on Sunday before shipping out to the Circuit of the Americas for the final round of the season in early December.
Photo credits - Tom Beers Photo / CSJ / Racelab
Friday, November 10, 2023 |
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Four mixed generation Aston Martins at next round of WRL from Road America
This week featuring just a nine-hour race on Saturday followed by a further seven-hour race on Sunday, these four cars will again be just a small part of the sixty-two strong, multi-class entry with all the Aston’s competing within the twenty-five strong GTO class.
The older generation AMR Vantage GT4 from the Automatic Racing team will again see Steven Davison, Ramin Abdolvahabi and Rob Ecklin get behind the wheel of their #909 car, but they will be up against two of the newer generation Vantage GT4 cars from the TLM Racing team.
Their red liveried #172 car will be driven by Jim Hamman, Stephen Hamman alongside Tom Herb whilst the yellow #453 Ruckus Racing Aston will be driven again by Evan Stamer, Jaiden Beckman and Spike Kohlbecker.
The variant of car and driver identity of the #43 Prosport Competition Aston Martin remains to be confirmed.
UPDATE - the above photo does not answer the original question as their #43 will continue to be their usual normally aspirated 2016’ish AMR Vantage GT4 GA Spec car of old - but with another new livery!
Photo credits - Teams
Photo credits - Teams
Thursday, May 11, 2023 |
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