[ad_1]
(⏱ 4 minutes, 7 pictures)
Long Beach Street Circuit, USA, April 16 – Aston Martinmultiple championship winners Profit succeed podium three times of the opening three North American ultra-competitive rounds IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship with another strong performance at Long Beach Grand Prixin California.
Meanwhile the GTD class champions Heart of Racing take a look at their dynamic duo (below). Roman De Angelis (CAN) and Marco Sorensen (DEN) finished second on Saturday, AMR’s three partner teams next fighting for the second round FIA World Endurance Championship on 6 Hours Portimaoin Portugal.
Sørensen and De Angelis
The tight and bumpy demands of the Long Beach street circuit stand in stark contrast to the demands of the Long Beach street circuit Daytona International Raceway, where Heart of Racing’s De Angelis and Sørensen were part of the winning crew that led the one-two for the Vantage in the GTD category in January. But despite this, Aston Martin proved the perfect machine to tackle the bayside circuit with three-time FIA World Endurance GTE champion Sørensen storming into pole position just 0.2 seconds short of the previous lap record.
Sørensen took the lead in opening duty and it was handed to De Angelis as he achieved his minimum required driving time after 37 of 100 minutes. Running alongside other cars, the 2022 GTD champion was in close contention for the rest of the race and finished second.
#27 leads the group
The result put the duo second in the GTD points standings with Heart of Racing second in the Teams standings and Aston Martin second in the Manufacturers’ Championship.
Aston Martin works as a driver Ross Gun (GBR) qualified second in the GTD Pro class and finished fourth in the race in car #23 Heart of Racing which he shares with Alex Riberas (ESP). The pair (below) are fifth in GTD Pro points.
Gunn and Riberas
Less than 24 hours later, it was the turn of the three partner teams to compete in the FIA World Endurance Championship [FIA WEC] to do battle on the LM GTE Am 14 car field in 6 Hours of Portimao.
The highest completed GTE Vantage is the ORT by TF entry (below) – run by the 2022 GTE Am world champion TF Sport. Trio from Oman Ahmad Al Harthy, Michael Dinan (USA) and Charlie Eastwood (IRL) finished eighth.
FIA WEC continues with 6 Hour Spa – the last warm-up on the eve of the centenary 24 Hours of Le Mans – on April 27-29 while the IMSA season continues on dry lagoon on May 12-14.
Before the race, however, attention will turn to Barcelona Circuit-Catalonia, which hosted its second opening round European Le Mans Series And Le Mans Cup next weekend (April 21-23).
Three Vantage GTEs were included in ELMS with two for TF Sport. The team’s #95 car featured an all-British lineup Ben Tuck, John Hartshorne and double the 24 Hours of Le Mans class winner Joni Adam. The French trio rode #72 with Aston Martin drivers working Valentin Hasse’s blob beside Arnold And Maxim Robin.
Joining them is new AMR partner team GMB Motorsport, who step up after winning the Le Mans Cup GT3 crown last year with the Danish trio. Jens Moller, Gustav Birch And Nick Thiem; the latter being multiple WEC GT world champion and Aston Martin racer.
Hasse Clot and Arnold Robin will do double duty in Spain when they drive Racing Spirit of Leman’s Vantage GT3 in the Le Mans Cup.
Huh Tasker, AMR Head of Partner Racing, said: “The Heart of Racing form in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship is a shining example of Vantage’s continued potential in the world’s most prestigious endurance championship. Our team at WEC, had a tough day, you will have days like that in motorsport. Now we move on to Barcelona, where we are excited to see what Vantage can achieve in the European Le Mans Series and Michelin Le Mans Cup this year.”
[ad_2]
Source link
