The new Aston Martin Vantage GT3 heads into this weekend’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship (IMSA) finale – the Petit Le Mans 10-hour race at Road Atlanta – deep in the hunt for its first major title.
The new Aston Martin Vantage GT3 has enjoyed a stellar debut season of international competition. In June, the car recorded a historic victory in the centenary edition of the Crowdstrike 24 Hours of Spa, a first for the British ultraluxury sportscar brand in the modern GT era.
It also achieved Aston Martin’s first-ever Autobacs Super GT class victory in Japan in the same month. As well as this, Vantage has clinched class wins in the FIA World Endurance Championship, IMSA, the Nürburgring Langstrecken Series and ADAC GT Masters through the summer.
Now, Aston Martin, along with partner team The Heart of Racing [THoR], and works driver Ross Gunn (GBR), begin Saturday’s final round of North America’s most significant endurance series in contention for top honours in the GTD Pro class manufacturers’, teams’ and drivers’ championship crowns.
The US-based THoR team will also enter two of the new Vantage GT3s at Road Atlanta as it goes all out to win another IMSA GT class crown on Saturday. If it is successful, it will add to the GTD class drivers’ and teams’ crowns it won in 2022 with Roman De Angelis (CDN) and further extend its extraordinary and unique run of success with Aston Martin in North America.
For Gunn and THoR, the weekend’s objective is straightforward – they must score 100 points more than their closest rivals, with 350 points on offer for the race winner plus an extra 35 for achieving pole position. Aston Martin, which will take the points from whichever the highest-finishing GTD Pro Vantage is in the results, must record 123 points more than the series leader.
Gunn will share the regular GTD Pro #23 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 entry with Alex Riberas (ESP) and 2022 IMSA GTD class champion De Angelis. The sister #27 Vantage, which would typically contest the GTD class, has been moved into GTD Pro (just as it did for the six-hour race at Indianapolis last month), where it will be eligible to score potentially crucial manufacturer points. This Aston Martin will be raced by two-time Petit Le Mans class winner Mario Farnbacher (DEU), Zach Robichon (CDN) and triple FIA GT World champion Marco Sørensen (DEN).
This change means that Magnus Racing’s new Aston Martin Vantage GT3—which made a successful international competition debut at the series-opening Rolex 24 at Daytona in January before its official unveiling in February—will be the only Aston Martin running in the GTD class.
The Utah-based team, which contests only the long-distance ‘Endurance’ rounds of IMSA, has finished on the podium four times at Petit Le Mans since making its debut there in 2010. Magnus Racing is seeking its first-class victory with Vantage for team owner John Potter and his American compatriots Andy Lally and Spencer Pumpelly.
The new Vantage GT4 makes its Road Atlanta debut this weekend, having already been victorious in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge (IMPC) with new-for-2024 AMR partner team Rebel Rock Racing, driven by Frank DePew (USA) and Robin Liddell (GBR) in the Fox Factory 120 race this weekend.
Aston Martin partners Team TGM and driver Matt Plumb (USA), leading the GS class teams’ and drivers’ championships by 110 points with a maximum of 350 on offer to the race winner. Aston Martin also leads the manufacturers’ standings by 70 points. Should Team TGM clinch the title – and they need only finish sixth or higher in Friday’s two-hour race to do so – it will be the third occasion the previous generation Aston Martin Vantage GT4 has conquered the class since 2020.
Fox Factory 120 begins at 1245 EDT local time (+4 GMT) on Friday 11 October. Official practice for the 2024 MOTUL Petit Le Mans begins on Thursday, 10 October at 1040 EDT with the race beginning at 1210 EDT on Saturday. Follow details of the event via the official IMSA website and App.
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