The long haul for most to the west side of the United States proved itself to be an unproductive one for the Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 powered runners within the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Series.
After the usual two opening rounds to their 2026 had kept them within Florida, a visit to the Weathertech Raceway Laguna Seca circuit beckoned the five AMR powered runners for the next two-hour race around the infamous corkscrew circuit in California.
This time around, we welcomed back the #10 Van Der Steur prepared AMR of husband and wide racer Ben and Christine Sloss as they became just one of two bronze cup entries against the reigning and now Ford Mustang Team TGM #64 crew.
It was also the first round with their new #4 AMR Vantage GT4 car for the Medusa Motorsport crew of Hunter Yeany and Athan Sterling alongside the now more regular line up of the #26 Heart of Racing AMR of Hannah’s Grisham and Greenemeir, the #66 Van Der Steur prepared entry of Trenton Estep and Allen Patten as well as the #14 Circle H Racing car of David Hampton and Thomas Merrill.
A lowly performance from probable BoP reasons from any of the five Astons and Friday saw the best placed (#66) starting from P6 with the rest somewhere between P13 and P27 out of a GS class size of thirty-one entries.
Saturaday’s race started up at best hazy skies although (being California) the warmth was at least still there so Mother Nature wouldn’t be making her mark upon things this time around. An early Full Course Yellow for an upturned GS car in the tyre wall soon mellowed the racing again after another usual ‘busy’ start.
Losing over twenty minutes to that clean-up operation (with that driver being seen to be otherwise OK), the race quickly became one of fuel conservation as the GS class quickly found themselves within the parameters of a one stop race.
However, incident and accident soon got the better of some as the #10 car became the meat into several racing sandwiches which saw the bashed about the circuit by the faster powered crews around as well as picking up (like most of the AMR powered crews did at one point or another) a drive through penalty for one infraction or another.
The race eventually ended with the best placed crews finishing P7 overall (the #26 Heart of Racing entry) and P12 (#66 Van Der Steur). The #14 Circle H Arcing would finish a very uncharacteristically low position in P23 with the #10 just ahead in P21 – picking up second within the bronze cup class as a perk. It looked like the #4 crews debut AMR powered race would finish with a DNF – ?? having run out of fuel in the final laps of the race like several other cars did as well.
These results leave the Heart of Racing the best placed AMR crew within the GS Drivers Championship table in eight as the series looks ahead to its next round from Mid-Ohio in early June.
Photo credits – Teams / social media