Six Aston Martins see out IMSAs 2023 season from Petit Le Mans
Whilst the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship will again race out their season at their season at the Petit Le Mans headlining event, the two series that allows GT4’s to compete within them will also run this weekend with an expected six Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4’s amongst the extended grids albeit not for any championship position of note.
Competing again amongst another mixed GT4/TCR grid of thirty-eight cars for this final two-hour round, sees the #19 Van Der Steur crew assume the lead AMR role (in P10) from the Plumb brothers (in P12) with the #64 crew in P23 all sadly in excess of 500 points or more back from the leading BMW M4 powered crew. That means all the AMR crews will only be racing for personal satisfaction but we’re sure that no crew ahead of them in the Championship can expect an easy pass around the iconic Braselton circuit as winning this round comes with its own kudos.
For this series, just three AMR entries is something of a disappointment having had eight such cars run in the season four-hour opener at Daytona way back in January at the Rolex 24 event.
Supporting the IMSA package again will be the VP Racing Sportscar Challenge for another mixed grid of this time GT4 and LMP3 cars. Having raced at Daytona, Sebring, CTMP, Lime Rock and VIR before rounding off at Road Atlanta, three further Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4’s are expected within that provisional entry of twenty-seven cars.
Having all entered or swapped between both sets of American GT series during some point of this season sees the #33 API AMR entry of Moisey Uretsky join the ranks with Scott Blind within his #45 Archangel prepared Ruckus Racing entry with Brady Behrman completing the trio with his Van Der Steur prepared #82 car.
Racing as solo bronze rated drivers only, these guys will get a final two races around the 2.5-mile circuit starting on Thursday. Again like the Michelin Pilot Challenge, none of these guys have any championship opportunity for this first running of this new series this year.
Despite that, GT4 racing in North America continues to be in rude healthy thanks to the efforts of those at CSJ Motorsport as far as Aston Martin Racing is concerned for taking us there!
Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media
Bronze Cup success for two AMR runners in VP Fuels Sportscar Challenge from VIR
Three runners within the IMSA VP Racing Sportscar Challenge have kept the flag of race success flying high for the Aston Martin Racing customer racing fraternity this weekend as two enjoy podium success within that series Bronze Cup class.
Competing alongside the Weathertech Sportscar Championship and Michelin Pilot Challenge Series, the bronze ranked solo driver series proved itself to be a rewarding step up and across for both Brady Behrman and Scott Blind as both raced within the series at the Virginia International Raceway for the first time this weekend.
Two forty-five-minute races saw these two Aston Martins, and that of Todd Coleman join the thirteen strong GSX class (GT4) and seven strong LMP3 class for this weekend of events.
For Coleman, he was sadly having a weekend to forget as he struggled with his dual programme Michelin Pilot Challenge commitments, but at least he was able to circulate midfield within class during both Free Practice sessions.
For both Behrman and Blind, this was still very much a learning curve for the former having departed from his dual driver programme within GT4 America in his Van Der Steur prepared #82 car and the later still only in his second topflight event having stepped up from the club like WRL Series.
Qualifying saw Blind take best placed AMR honours in P6 with Behrman just behind whilst Coleman would start from P11 and whilst he would eventually stop with technical issues just after halfway, Behrman passed Blind for position before going onto secure his first Bronze Cup podium position, P2 in that and an impressive P5 overall in GSX. Blind would not finish his opening IMSA having had to stop due to a technical issue whilst challenging for fifth in class.
Sunday’s finale saw Coleman’s weekend go from bad to worse as having gained early places from his qualifying position to run line astern to the other two Aston Martins, contact with the #96 BMW say the #69 car rotate backwards into a tyre protected barrier before flipping onto its roof.
It was a few minutes before circuit officials had righted the now obviously heavily damaged car (with Colemans still inside) before Coleman was seen exiting the vehicle unaided and without any obvious injury which is always the main thing.
Losing a quarter of the race time to that incident, it became a fifteen-minute run to flag for the rest. Despite Blind having ran as high as P2 in Bronze Cup, it was Behrman again who stole top AMR honours, finishing P5 overall/P2 in Bronze cup with Blind this time just one place behind.
So, despite the AMR powered race weekend so far, there has finally been AMR success to cheer!
Photo credits – Teams / social media
Seven AMR Vantage GT4 crews to battle Michelin Pilot Challenge and VP Sportscar Challenge at VIR
Scrolling through the provisional entry lists for each sees seven Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 powered teams make the trip but this time we see a near split in preference between the two with the longer dual driver/compulsory pit stop punctuated Michelin Pilot Challenge to that of the solo driven, two races of the Sportscar Challenge four to three.
Within the more established MPC event, we see the Van Der Steur, Team TGM and Archangel teams return with their full season entries whilst in the Sportscar Challenge, we see two new entries compete for the first time alongside that of a near regular.
Thirty-seven cars are due to run in Saturday’s two-hour Virginia is for Racing Lovers Grand Prix with the #19 Van Der Steur car of Rory Van Der Steur and Austin McCusker joining the Team TGM Aston Martins of Owen Trinkler/Ted Giovanis (#64) and Hugh and Matt Plumb (#46) as well as the #88 Archangel car of Todd Coleman and Billy Johnson within a GS class of twenty-four cars.
Then in the Sportscar Challenge, the GSX class for GT4 based cars will outnumber the LMP3 runners 2:1 as both Scott Blind and Brady Behrman make their IMSA debuts aboard their Archangel and Van Der Steur prepared Vantage GT4’s.
This weekend will see itself as another step up the racing ladder for both gentleman drivers as Blind and his Ruckus Racing outfit add IMSA to their SRO GT America efforts of last weekend where he secured two P5 finishes at Road America – far removed from his World Racing League exploits undertaken until now. Behrman, meanwhile, also goes solo till season end having raced with Coby Shields within the GT4 America Series but again went solo for the first-time last weekend at Road America.
They will compete within a two forty-minute races over the weekend but with their top running AMR driver (Moisey Uretsky) still not back after was forced to miss the IMSA visit to Road America due to Covid.
Recent results in MPC have seen the #46 Team TGM crew drop to P9 within the GS drivers’ Championship as the Plumb brothers now sit just above the #19 Van Der Steur/McCusker partnership – some four hundred points in arrears to the leaders.
Photo credits – Team / Series / social media / GT America
