Making up for lost ground regarding last weekend’s racing results, especially around the Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 powered arena – it was unfortunately a disappointing weekend for those AMR powered competitors within both the Iberian Supercars Espana Series and IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Series.

The former competing down in Jarama for the second round of that series after the opening round roan concurrently with the races then of the Iberian Supercars Series but with a reduced AMR powered entry list of just three cars amongst the twenty-three strong GT4 entry.

 

Race one couldn’t have gone a lot worse really as both the #28 Racar Motorsport entry for Vasco Oliveira and Ivan Velasco and the #52 Monterios Competicoes AMR of Henrique Oliveira and Louis Leveau each failed to finish with the remaining #77 Racar Motorsport of Mathieu Martins and Anton Morsing having to make do with a distant P17 result overall, P9 in class.

Race two did get slightly better for at least one AMR runner as the #28 car turned their earlier misfortune around to secure a P12 overall / P2 in the GT4 Bronze class finish whilst the #77 car was this time a non-finisher with the #52 car down in P17 overall/P7 in GT4 Pro.

 

It was a similar story within last weekend’s four-hour round of the Michelin Pilot Challenge which ran at Mid-Ohio as the fourth round of that IMSA series and as the second elongated round to that of the usual two-hour race.

Hopes were high going into this round for the four AMR Vantage GT4 powered runners with the #66 Van Der Steur crew of Trenton Estep and Allen Patten securing a second row start in third after the rain affected preceding track sessions.

 

As the race got underway, an unsighted spin by a Porsche up front sadly claimed the #4 Medusa Motorsport AMR of Hunter Yeaney/Athan Sterling and Jacob Loomis as the #4 car slammed heavily into the Porsche as that faced the racing traffic on only the opening lap. Despite being able to limp back to pit lane, the loss of a front wheel and suspension linkages sadly put paid to their efforts for the day.

There were also early issues for the #14 Circle H Racing AMR of David Hampton/Thomas Merril and Martin Sarukhanyan as they also disappeared behind the pit wall during this opening caution – to return some fifteen minutes later but to run off the pace before finally coming to a halt on track thirty minutes before the end.

 

The #26 Heart of Racing AMR of Hannah Grisham and Hannah Greenemeir were also looking racey as they quickly elevated themselves from their P18 overall starting position to run strongly within the top ten for much of the race. Unfortunately for them, late braking issues within the car would eventually drop them down to P12 overall whilst the #66 Van Der Steur had to make do with a P9 result for their efforts.

 

Overall, they were many disappointed people within the AMR powered camps at the end of last weekend.

Photo credits – Teams / social media

Supporting the headlining IMSA Series again this weekend will be the GT4 and TCR cars of the Michelin Pilot Challenge Series as they revert to their more traditional two-hour race format for this weekend’s visit to Watkins Glen.

Last time out at Mid-Ohio, the series enjoyed the status of the main event as they embarked upon another four-hour race for the second time this season two weeks ago – an event which again saw the four Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 entries struggle.

 

The fifth time around for the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship but only the third round of their Sprint Cup Championship sees a thirty-four-car grid head to Mid-Ohio for their latest round of motor racing this weekend.

Despite featuring prototype entries from the DPi, LMP2 and LMP3 classes there is this time only room for the GTD cars as it becomes the turn of the topflight GTD Pro class to take a sabbatical from the proceedings.

The IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship moves slightly north again this weekend as the GT and prototype cars prepares to support the IndyCar Series at their annual visit to the street circuit of Detroit.

There will be no GT4 Michelin Pilot Challenge support this time round as their next venture out will be at Watkins Glen towards the end of this month.

A somewhat disappointing twenty car entry spread across the three permitted IMSA Classes (no LMP3 cars) will be there which luckily features the #23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GTD for drivers Roman de Angelis and newly appointed full season driver Ross Gunn again in the largest class of the Championship with twelve cars.

Last time out at Mid-Ohio nearly a month ago, the team secured a hard fought P4 finish to come away in second place in the GTD Championship as the Championship moves onto Detroit. This race we understand, will also be Gunn’s first street race experience so there will be much for them both to learn!

Photo credits - HoRT

 

The Heart of Racing team will contend the remainder of the 2021 IMSA GTD Championship season with drivers Roman De Angelis and Aston Martin Works Driver Ross Gunn at the helm of the #23 Aston Martin Vantage GT3. Team Principal Ian James will join the pair for the endurance races.

This news comes following two top-five finishes for the team, most recently, a third-place finish at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours Of Sebring Presented By Advance Auto Parts, and previous to that, a fifth-place finish at the Rolex 24 of Daytona. 

Sebring and the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge again provided us all with another highly exciting two hours of mixed GT4 and TCR class racing yesterday as thirty-five cars thundered again the infamously bumpy former military airbase circuit.

Yesterday’s Qualifying had seen a great performance from the two participating Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4’s from both Volt Racing/Archangel Motorsport and the Stoner Car Care/Automatic Racing teams however the third placed #7 Volt car of Alan Brynjolfsson was soon to be penalised for a technical infringement on the cars suspension post Qualifying. That would see them start from the rear of the GS field whilst the #09 Automatic car of a deputising Brandon Kidd would start from P7.