There were emotional scenes to be had from either end of the spectrum as three Aston Martin Racing Vantage GTD’s and one Aston Martin Valkyrie saw out the final round of the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship from its own Petit Le Mans event at the Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta circuit in Georgia yesterday.

Moving into the event, all eyes were upon the #27 Heart of Racing AMR Vantage GTD as Brazilian racer Eduardo Barrichello still stood a mathematical chance of lifting the GTD Drivers Championship at the end although he did have a 126 points deficit to the class leading Mercedes AMG crew of Philip Ellis and Russell Ward to overcome first.

 

Going into Qualifying on Friday, what we hadn’t realised was the team had undertaken a precautionary engine change within the #27 car just ahead of Qualifying as they were concerned about the volume being consumed within the old unit used with all the Free Practice sessions until. Ordinarily, this AMG based power plant within the Vantage GTD has been extremely reliable over the years but that was an informed decision of the own alongside the AMR technicians who are ever present with any Partner team.

 

Whilst that did allow Zacharie Robichon qualifying the car in sixth, issues were noticed even before the race that saw the #27 fail to take the start as apparent electrical issues were investigated and sorted. As the number of laps passed by at an alarming rate, it soon became apparent that the championship title hopes had now turned into a championship position preserving exercise that finally saw Robichon complete just thirty-seven laps to surpass the equally technically affected #96 Turner BMW within the race to hopefully secure P3 within the championship at the end of the ten hours as both Barrichello and third man Tom Gamble would never get to participate within the race.

 

On a lighter note however, the returning #44 Magnus Racing AMR Vantage GTD of John Potter, Spencer Pumpelly and Mario Farnbacher would put on a racing display that would question whether or not this weekend’s race was just their third of a twelve-race season having electively missed all the sprint in favour of most of the endurance rounds. Despite qualifying P18 out of eighteen GTD runners, Potter was soon climbing the class order – albeit aided by the racing demise of both the #27 and #96 cars to complete his minute two and a half hours minimum drive time without incident.

At times in the pit stop sequence – something that was getting more and more fluid as the circuit full course yellow interventions for incidents and then the red flag just after halfway for lightning, the #44 car ran within the top five in class on merit as Farnbacher again showed his worth for anyone paying attention.

 

As the race then went into darkness for the final couple of hours, the #44 Magnus Racing entry would come through to post a P5 in class finish at the end of this ten-hour race to add to their P2 finish in class at the opening round of the season at the Rolex 24 from Daytona.

It was a similar experience for the #23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Valkyrie GTP of Ross Gunn, Roman de Angelis and Alex Riberas as they battled to improve upon their best position within the series so far this season than their P5 class finish at Road America back in August.

 

Qualifying the car P8 in class, Gunn again took the elongated opening stints before passing the car through to Riberas and De Angelis as the hours went by. The #23 was also noted under investigation for a couple of incidents during the daylight hours of the race but appeared to have got away with just warnings at the time with these incidents not being as severe as some happening around the track at the time and especially when the rainstorm returned with its latter lightning risk intervention.

Despite cycling up and down the class order according to individual cars strategy on track and even to lead the race outright for a time going into darkness, the #23 car would eventually drop back slightly to complete the remaining hours at the tail end of the top five to equal their best result of the season.

 

That result sees Gunn and De Angelis finish the season P14 within the GTP class on 2242 points within the overall championship making for a significant improvement on their points-based performances of last year when the Valkyrie was then, still in its infancy.

The result of the weekend for Aston Martin Racing came at the end when the #68 Car Blanche AMR Vantage GTD Pro entry of Valentin Hasse-Clot, Marco Sorensen and new third man Mattia Drudi secured their best ever result within the IMSA series so far as they took a remarkable class win.

 

With the team and their YRB Racing backers having taken over what was then the Van Der Steur Racing team mid-season, the new look team started their new adventure within GTD before sticking one metaphorical toe into the GTD Pro class before committing to the latter for the final couple of rounds of the season.

With one AMR factory driver (Hasse-Clot) joining forces with another (Sorensen) from the sprint round at VIR, the writing was already upon the wall as to the teams intent moving forward as both drivers were soon confirmed as the first crew to be listed in class ahead of next season.

 

Drudi’s inclusion for this round also cemented that racing possibility at Petit Le Mans as the Italian qualified the car second in class and for the crew then to cycle through the hours never short of being within the top five for much of it. Keeping themselves importantly out of trouble, that pace and consistency was rewarded at the end with the class win.

Results at the end of the season also confirmed the retention of P3 within the GTD Drivers Championship for Barrichello with him and co-driver Gamble also securing third within the GTD Endurance Cup just two points off the title win.

 

It’s been another great IMSA season and it all starts again in mid-December with the Balance of Performance tests at Daytona – all ahead of the Roar before the 24 and the Rolex 24 later in January 2027.

Photo credits – Teams / social media

 

Qualifying ahead of tomorrow’s final round of the IMSA Wethertech Sportscar Championship from Michelin raceway Road Atlanta is also in the bag for the four Aston Martin powered crews entered as the season rounds off at its traditional Petit Le Mans venue.

For the 2026 season, we still have the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Racing Vantage GTD of Eduardo Barrichello needing to overcome and surpass the 126 points deficit within his GTD class if he is to lift that class title at the end of tomorrows ten-hour marathon as both Tom Gamble and Zacharie Robichon assist the young Brazilian to that end.

 

With this event also being the round of the parallel Endurance Cup season, that opened up the qualifying role from the lowest graded driver to one of choice where Robichon this time went about looking for both grid position and the final qualifying points of the season. However, he had to make do with a P6 finish after the session was red flagged due to two other cars coming together, leaving one in the gravel going into the downhill turn 10.

That also meant that the #44 Magnus Racing AMR Vantage GTD of John Potter, Spencer Pumpelly and Mario Farnbacher would be starting from the rear of the pack P18 in class after bronze ranked driver Potter elected to qualify his car.

 

Next up was the GTD Pro class with AMR being represented again by the #68 Car Blanche Vantage GTD Valentin Hasse-Clot, Marco Sorensen and with Mattia Drudi completing the qualifying honours for the squad who have already been confirmed as full season entrants for next year.

Some awesome sequence of laps from the Italian will see the #68 car start tomorrows race from P2 on the grid – their best position to date this season within either their GTD or GTD class entries.

 

Finally, it was the turn of the GTP class runners with Ross Gunn again on Qualifying duty with the #23 Aston Martin Valkyrie that he will share with both season regular Roman De Angelis alongside third man in Alex Riberas.

Running the same preparatory programme in the session as most others, Gunn would soon post some progressive laps times that would see him comfortably placed within the midst of the eleven strong class but as his tyres faded, the #23 would still come away with another respectable P8 start to tomorrows race where their starting position will have absolutely no relevance to where they eventually finish in the dark of night tomorrow.

Photo credits – Teams / social media

 

 

 

Whilst an Aston Martin Racing powered crew missed out upon the overall GS Drivers Championship within the final round of the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Series from the Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta earlier today, one did claim their maiden race win to make amends for what has been a tough first season for them.

Six AMR Vantage GT4 powered crews took the start to today’s final two-hour race of the season with just the #26 Heart of Racing car of Hannah’s Grisham and Greenemeir anyway near the sharp end of the battle but still sadly (we later learn) to be already out of championship contention even before the race had started.

 

Other cars and crews had been within a similar situation until the penultimate race of the year from Indianapolis Motor Speedway when an early collision with spun car saw the #66 Oore Motorsport (Car Blanche) AMR of Allen Patten and Trenton Estep taken out of the overall equation with race ending damage there. For the remaining four entries, this race was all about going out upon something of a high whilst also preparing for next year will still many seats within these teams as yet unconfirmed.

Earlier qualifying had seen the #66 Oore car secure the lead Aston in fourth but only just ahead of the #26 Heart of Racing and the #2 CSM Motorsport car of Zach Veach and Morgan Burkhard in fifth and sixth respectively. The #4 Medusa Motorsport AMR of Hunter Yeany and Athan Sterling were next quickest, rounding off the top ten with the #3 CSM car of Ayrton Houk and Ismaeel Ellahi were next quickest P19 in class and the #14 Circle H AMR of Thomas Merrill and Martin Sarukhanyan deputising for a absent David Hampton down in P23 within the GS class set of thirty one cars.

 

Another typically frenetic start saw the #66 car soon lose its track position from their good start after paying too much attention to his mirrors than where they were going to understeer off track and drop at least eight places as a result, something that lifted the #26 car of Greenemeir up to third and the #2 car of Veach into fifth whilst the other three were still somewhere relative to where they had started.

The race for the #2 car would soon go south however, as they were forced to pit after just half an hour as part of their rear defuser was noted to be dragging along the track – whilst they will refuel and re-shod the car, that strategy would prove to be wildly optimistic being two laps down to the leaders already.

 

Forty minutes in and that was the completion of the minimum drive time for whoever wanted that to apply to with the #14, #4 and #66 cars the first to do so. For the #66 car, their race would effectively end at that first stop as Trenton Estep promptly had two incidences of contact with other cars for which he earned himself a drive through penalty for each as the first Full Course Yellow came just ahead of the first hour for debris on track.

That would be another protracted affair as circuit clean-up and wave around was then undertaken – something that took another ten minutes off the race lock for those looking to fuel save till the end. During that caution, we also had the extra-ordinary scenes of having the track service trucks actually blocking the circuit at turn seven and preventing the cars from passing on what was the start of the wave around. One big race car traffic jam was the result as nobody wanted to inadvertently overtake another car under yellows.

 

By the team things went back to green, most of the driver changes had been completed with almost exactly an hour left in the season as the #26 car of Grisham had lost ground during their stop to come out fifth but saw the #14 car of now Merrills behind the wheel coming through strong in P12 at the restart. The #2 cars race would go from bad to worse as they completed their driver change under green flag running to drop even further back as Grisham put in some very determined laps.

For a time, the #26 car assumed the lead of the race and those GS cars on a two stop strategy made their final stops for fuel and maybe tyre – something that Grisham would do just a few laps later to emerge within the then multicar battle for what would eventually turn out to the battle for the lead. The #4 Medusa AMR was one of those way out front at the time, but they still owed their final stop of the afternoon which would obviously drop them down the order again.

 

With the pole setting Toyota then dropping out with damage, Grisham was fortunate not to incur damage of her own as she battled Ford Mustang after Ford Mustang for position, with the #14 Circle H AMR quietly climbing the order all the time. Trouble for Grisham would come with half an hour left to go as she suddenly slowed under the turn ten bridge (unseen for the reason why) buy enough to drop down to tenth whilst the Medusa crew would again ruin their days work with another sloppy final stop that saw Yeany pull away with the refuelling hose still attached. Nobody hurt luckily but they would be coming down pit lane again soon enough.

As the GS Championship opened up with the retirement of the #44 McLaren, that allowed Merrills up to P4 – somewhere he was obviously fast enough down the straights to start picking off the final cars ahead to eventually lead with just ten minutes remaining. The race was then effectively cut three minutes short after a GS/TCR car contact going onto the start straight saw both cars damage and stopped on track forcing the race to be neutralised with not enough time to get going for the Circle H Aston Martin Racing crew to take their maiden Michelin Pilot Challenge race win at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. An awesome achievement.

 

The #26 Heart of Racing crew would eventually finish a plucky sixth overall with the #2 CSM a surprising P8 in class. Their sister #3 car was next in P16, the #66 Oore crew finished P20 with the Medusa crew rounding things off for the year in P23.

Just another box standard IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Series season again really!!

Photo credits – Teams / social media

Another very frustrating round of the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship last night from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway had left us thinking that a trio of good class finishes were this time upon the cards for the two Heart of Racing and one Car Blanche Aston Martin entries, only for another elongated caution throwing all that to the wind for all cars to come home with nothing.

The change within the norm came during Qualifying when an untimely weather front brought rain and lightning to the circuit which meant that the GTD and GTD Pro Qualifying session was cancelled meaning that starting positions for Sundays grid would be determined via the respective car’s championship position.

Whilst the LMP2 and GTP sessions did run after all with the #23 HoRT Aston Martin Valkyrie of Ross Gunn and Roman De Angelis securing P10 in class, the #68 Car Blanche Aston Martin Racing Vantage GTD of Valentin Hasse-Clot and Marco Sorensen would be starting last within their GTD Pro class (seeing that the team only ventured into that class at the mid-season mark) whilst the #27 HoRT AMR Vantage GTD of Edurdo Barrichello and Tom Gamble would be starting from the second row of their class in P4.

 

At the start of this two hours and forty-minute affair, the forty-four cars of the GTP, LMP2, GTD Pro and GTD classes soon found out that sometimes there is only enough room for one car at a time as two GTP entries came together into only the second corner of the first lap and for one of those to be speared by at least three other LMP2 cars. Safety Car no.1.

Getting back to green after something of a fifteen-minute clean-up operation and Gamble was soon able to take the lead within GTD and did close up upon the rear of the #68 Car Blanche entry as Sorensen this time took the start. As what has become the norm within their partnership, Gunn again took the start within the #23 Valkyrie and was able to miss the carnage at turn two to move up as high as sixth overall.

This time it was Gamble’s turn to run a short race stint length as he pitted the #27 car from the class lead at the hour mark to hand over to class title contender Barrichello to the end. With an hour and a half left on the race clock, Gunn would pit from sixth to hand over to De Angelis whilst the Dane would continue for what would be become a double stint and as the differing pit strategies would cycle through, he would at times find himself running as high as third in class.

 

Just before the final hour mark, all was looking good with the three Aston Martin powered runners for at least a healthy points scoring finish as the #23 was still running just outside the top five whilst the #27 was then still in a podium contesting position too. Whilst the #68 did still owe a final stop and driver change, maybe their best GTD Pro finish to date was on the cards for them too.

Then things all changed as an innocuous looking contact between two other GTD cars left part of a rear fender on track for another Full Course Yellow to be called which seemed to upset everything. Invoking full yellow flag procedures, a simple clear up operation for one track worker turned into a full wave around, pit lane closed and circuit clean-up operation that lost more race minutes than the lap one turn two incident ever did as each class was forced to wait until each were then allowed into pit lane for service without penalty.

It was then back to green with just forty-eight minutes to go but all were bunched back up together where in the inevitable contact was made – this time with the #25 BMW GTP on the #23 Valkyrie which spun both cars around. Whilst the #25 was given a penalty for that move, the result was that the #23 was now down to P9 in class with not enough time or performance to do much about it other than to eventually finish P8 overall.

 

The #68 of Hasse-Clot would also get a drive through penalty for unseen contact with the #14 that would see the Frenchman drop from P6 in class to last – compounded further by getting pinged for speeding within pit lane. That was their day done too.

Finally, Barrichello seemed unable to hang onto his GTD class rivals as his #27 slowly faded over the final laps for them to finish a disappointing P31 overall – P5 in class which means that they have lost further ground in the championship with only the visit to Petit Le Mans from Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta to come in a few weeks’ time.

The only good news that did come out on Sunday was confirmation that the Car Blanche AMR team have been accepted into next season’s GTD Pro class entry with drivers Hasse-Clot and Sorensen behind the wheel.

Photo credits – Teams / social media

 

 

 

 

Last night witnessed an incredible round off to the 2025 IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship at its annual pilgrimage to its Petit Le Mans event from Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta for the Aston Martin and Heart of Racing programme.

Having already seen large steps forward within its FIA WEC Hypercar programme, the parallel and supporting #23 Valkyrie GTP effort of Ross Gunn, Roman De Angelis (and Alex Riberas for this ten-hour race) saw them duplicate those advances in performance and achieve their best results of the season so far by qualifying in fifth before the start to yesterday’s race.

 

The grid has now been set ahead of tomorrow’s final round of the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship with its annual running of the Motul Petit Le Mans from Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.

Featuring all four classes from the championship, there were this time three Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 crews racing within the GTD class alongside the sole Aston Martin Valkyrie that would again race within the top-flight GTP class.

 

Aston Martin heads to the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship [IMSA] finale, at the Motul Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta this weekend, in contention for another US-based title with its most successful racing car – the Vantage GT3.

Just as in 2024, when The Heart of Racing [THOR] Team began the 10-hour series decider fighting for the GTD Pro title with Ross Gunn (GBR), the team is again a title contender both for GTD class honours as well as the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup.

Casper Stevenson (GBR) goes into the finale in second position in the GTD class thanks to a victory at Watkins Glen and podiums in the Rolex 24 at Daytona, 12 Hours of Sebring and the sprint race at Virginia International Raceway. The Briton is 224 points behind the championship leader, with a potential 385 available across the event.Source material – Aston Martin

 

Another closing race weekend of the season approaching this time around as other Aston Martin Racing powered teams battle for Championship supremacy in class within the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Series visit to Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.

Another bumper packed forty-three strong GS and TCR based entry for this weekend’s two-hour finale in support of the main Weathertech Sportscar Championship Petit Le Mans event sees the #64 Team TGM AMR Vantage GT4 crew of Ted Giovanis and Hugh Plumb battle it out with the #15 Van Der Steur AMR Vantage GT4 of husband-and-wife duo Ben and Christine Sloss for the GS Bronze Cup title.

 

It’s a very busy race weekend next weekend from Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta as the IMSA Series descends upon the Georgia circuit en-masse for its final rounds of its Weathertech Sportscar Championship, Michelin Pilot Challenge and VP Racing Sportscar Challenge Series amongst others.

The Weathertech Championship obviously gets all the attention this weekend as this will be its annual ten-hour round which has been traditional bannered as Petit Le Mans for which there will be over fifty entries within its available GTP, LMP2, GTD Pro and GTD classes.

 

The was further Aston Martin Racing powered success within the Bronze Cup sub-category of the Michelin Pilot Challenge Series yesterday as the GS and TCR based series raced out their penultimate round of the season around Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Four Vantage GT4 entries again from the Team TGM, Rebel Rock and Van Der Steur teams saw the forty-one strong combined grid run almost an entirely clean first hour (except for the usual technical infractions here and there) before the Safety Car was finally called out for duty just before that milestone which of course bumped the grid back together again.