KyraSage
This weekend two of the world’s most prestigious endurance racing series, FIA World Endurance Championship and IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, resume as does the new Aston Martin Vantage GT3’s hunt for victory.
The new Vantage GT3 descends from a succession of multiple world championship winning predecessors and shares the mechanical architecture of the new ultra luxury Vantage road car which was unveiled earlier this year. Built around Aston Martin’s proven bonded aluminum chassis and powered by a powerful twin turbo 4.0 liter V8 engine, the Vantage GT3 has been given all new, nose to tail aerodynamics, comprehensively revised suspension and state of the art electronics. Thus endowing the latest generation of Aston Martin GT racer with world beating potential.
WEC will begin it’s European leg on Sunday with the 6 hours of Imola, before heading to Spa-Francorchamps on May 11th, then to Le Mans on June 15th-16th for the iconic 24 Hours of Le Mans. IMSA meanwhile, will be heading to Long Beach to take on the famed street circuit for their first sprint race of the season.
On the WEC side, they will arrive in Italy in strong form. The Heart of Racing took a second place finish in the newly minted LMGT3 class, while D’station Racing took third making Aston Martin the only one of the nine GT manufacturers present to score a double podium finish in the WEC season opening 1812km of Qatar in March.
Heart of Racing Team Principal and driver Ian James is teamed up with Daniel Mancinelli and IMSA race winner Alex Riberas. The trio will be hunting for the Vantage GT3’s maiden win.
D’station Racing will also be hoping for a successful weekend. They finished second in Bahrain to close out the 2023 season and carried that momentum into 2024 with a podium in Qatar. Aston Martin works driver Marco Sorensen, a three time FIA WEC champion in the Gt classes, will be joined by Erwan Bastard, a French and European GT4 title winner and Clement Mateu, a 24 Hours of Spa class winner. D’station Racing will actually be on multiple duties this weekend, as Team Owner Satoshi Hoshino and Team Principal Tomonobu Fujii are contesting the opening round of the SRO Fanatec GT World Challenge Asia at Sepang in Malaysia.
The US based Heart of Racing team has mixed up their driver lineup for Long Beach. They will be running a single car in the GTD class as GTD Pro does not contest the street circuit. Joining 2022 IMSA GTD champion Roman De Angelis behind the wheel, will be Spencer Pumpelly. Spencer is a regular with Magnus Racing and is a known name on the IMSA circuit. He is replacing Zacharie Robichon who is participating in the WEC Imola race.
Aston Martin Racing partner team Flying Lizard Motorsports will be making a one off return to IMSA in Long Beach with Andy Lee and Elias Sabo behind the wheel.
Adam Carter, Aston Martin head of Endurance Motorsport, had this to say about the weekend, “The new Aston Martin Vantage GT3 enjoyed an encouraging start to its WEC career and there is no reason to expect it to be any less competitive in Imola than it was in Qatar. Equally, we have seen promising signs from the car in the opening races at IMSA, so we’re looking for ward to seeing what Vantage can achieve on both sides of the Atlantic this weekend. I’d also like to wish Flying Lizard Motorsports good luck on its return to IMSA and similarly D’station Racing as it embarks on its Fanatec GT World Challenge Asia campaign.”
Official practice for the 6 Hours of Imola begins on Friday, April 19th at 1200 local time with the race beginning at 1300 on Sunday. Practice for IMSA at Long Beach also begins on Friday, April 19th at 0900 local time with the race starting at 1335 on Saturday. Practice for GT World Challenge Asia begins Friday, April 19th at 1200 local time with the first race taking place at 1445 on Saturday. For more information on each race and series, follow the official series website, apps and social media.
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