The weekend of August 30th – 1st September saw the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) arrive in the United States. The Circuit of The Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas hosted round 6 of the 2024 season.
Aston Martin were represented in the LMGT3 category by Heart of Racing (HOR) and the D’Station teams.
The weekend started well for the #27 Heart of Racing Team as team owner/driver Ian James secured the team’s first WEC pole position during Saturday’s hyperpole session and the first for the Aston Martin GT3. This was particularly special as the HOR team were competing at their home event and it was the seventh time Aston Martin have started from pole at COTA.
In temperatures close to 48 degrees centigrade the #27 drove an impeccable race leading 160 of the 164 laps to take their first-class win fighting off the highly competitive #92 Manthey Racing Porsche GT3. It was a sterling effort by drivers James, Mancinelli and Riberas accompanied by impeccable team work and pit lane strategy. It was also the first win for the Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3 and for the American team.
This victory marked Aston Martin’s tenth win at COTA.
The #777 D’Station Aston had a disappointing run finishing eighteenth in class. Overall Hypercar victory went to the AF Corse Ferrari #83 in their own maiden WEC victory closely followed by the #7 Toyota, with the #50 Ferrari taking the final position on the podium.
In 2025 the HOR team will be entering one of the Valkyrie AMR-LMH cars. This car has now started development including shakedown tests and early installation runs at Donington Park. It remains on target to become the first hypercar to race simultaneously in WEC and IMSA next year and will also be the only hypercar to date that can trace its routes back to a road going counterpart. HOR are working alongside Aston Martin Performance Technologies (AMPT) to develop the car for final FIA homologation later in 2024. AMPT is the consulting and engineering arm of Aston Martin and uses the advanced technology from the F1 team to enhance the development of Aston Martin’s road and racing cars. The first 10,000 kms of testing will take place in Europe before HOR further develop it in the USA.
Other global news includes The D’Station Vantage GT4 securing the Japan Cup GT4 Am title in August. Congratulations to drivers Tetsuya Hoshino and Kenji Hama.
The fourth round of the European Le Mans Series (ELMS) was held on 25th August. Ferrari secured an impressive 1-2-3 win in the LMGT3 category with the Aston Martins Racing Spirit of Leman and GRID Motorsport finishing fourth and fifth respectively.
The weekend of the 7th & 8th September saw the British GT Championship return to Donington Park for the second time this year.
Jonny Adam and Giacomo Petrobelli took a strong second place for Blackthorn Racing finishing just 7 seconds behind the Lamborghini of Barwell Motorsport. A late safety car denied the #87 driven by Jonny Adam the opportunity to challenge for victory in the last 15 minutes. A great drive from Andrew Howard and Jessica Hawkins for the Beechdean team secured third place in the GT3 Silver Am class.
Forsetti Motorsport arrived at Donington as GT4 favourites with both Vantage GT4s being title winning contenders. Impressive qualifying performances put both cars in strong positions. Race day arrived and the #7 car driven by Mikey Porter led the GT4 field for most of the first hour. Unfortunately, the pit stop timing did not work out well and the car dropped to seventh in class. Marc Warren and Will Orton in car #47 were hoping to clinch the Pro-Am class title. Cruel luck saw Warren innocently suffering a rear end collision sending the car off track damaging both the steering column and the rear anti roll bar. Sterling work by the mechanics in the pit garage brought the car back out but 6 seconds off the pace. Both drivers managed to wrestle with the car to finally make the finish line. The title decider will now go down to the final round at Brands Hatch 28th -29th September. It promises to be a nail-biting finish!
Thanks go to Roger Bennington and Joe Holloway for inviting me to join the Forsetti team at Donington to experience the skill, dedication, passion and hard work that is involved in running a competitive team at this top level.
Photos by Simon Hawkins and Heart of Racing.