Aston Martin targets more history with Vantage as 2023 FIA World Endurance Championship begins at Sebring
March 15, 2023 by Aston Martin The Americas
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Vantage heads into an extended 2023 FIA WEC season with two GT world titles from the past three campaigns, but it will need to be on its best game to bring home a third in a packed 14-car field featuring strong competition from Corvette, Porsche and Ferrari, particularly as the LMGTE Am class now constitutes the only GT competition within the WEC. Moreover, the season will be longer this year thanks to the addition of the 6 Hours of Portimão in Portugal on 16 April, which runs before the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps (BEL) race on 29 April. The centenary edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans (FRA) takes place on 10-11 June, followed by the 6 Hours of Monza (ITA) on 9 July, the 6 Hours of Fuji (JPN) on 10 September and the now traditional 8-Hour finale taking place in Bahrain on 4 November. The world championship opener forms one half of a mouth-watering endurance racing double-bill this weekend as the venue also plays host to the 71st running of the world-famous Sebring 12 Hours – round two of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship – on Saturday. Hot off the back of its maiden class win in the Rolex 24 at Daytona with the Heart of Racing (HoR) team, Aston Martin aims to celebrate the 70th anniversary of its first Sebring class victory (racing a DB3 driven by Reg Parnell and George Abecassis), with an inaugural 12-Hour class success for the current Vantage. In fact, the Sebring 12 Hours is one of the few endurance classics Vantage – derived from Aston Martin's critically-acclaimed road car, sharing the same aluminium body-frame and a specially tuned version of the four-litre V8 turbo-charged production engine – has left to conquer. In all its variants (GTE, GT3 and GT4), Vantage has proved to be phenomenally successful, and is currently the reigning Rolex 24 at Daytona and 24 Hours of Le Mans class winner as well as defending champion in the GT Am class of both the world's leading endurance series – the FIA WEC and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. That's an accolade that works driver and reigning LMGTE Am world champion Marco Sørensen is also pursuing. The Dane, who won his class in the 24 Hours of Le Mans last June, was part of the victorious Heart of Racing crew, alongside Darren Turner (GBR), Ian James (GBR) and Roman De Angelis (CDN) at Daytona. He once again share the #27 GTD Vantage with team principal James and IMSA champion De Angelis at Sebring. Works driver Ross Gunn (GBR), Alex Ribeiras (ESP) and David Pittard (GBR), were long-time race leaders in the #23 GTD Pro class Vantage during the Rolex 24, and they hope to carry this form into Sebring and get their IMSA title challenge on track before the early-season endurance races are done with. Magnus Racing, with the #44 Aston Martin Vantage, whose driver crew of John Potter (USA), Andy Lally (USA), Spencer Pumpelly (USA) and guest star Nicki Thiim (DEN) finished second in GTD and third GT car home at the Rolex 24, return for Sebring as part of their endurance race 2023 campaign. With two second places in the bag since switching to Vantage in 2022, the team is chasing its first Aston Martin race win in Florida. Huw Tasker, AMR Head of Partner Racing, said: 'It's been a tremendous start to the season for Vantage in the US. An outstanding showing for the Vantage GT3 at the Rolex 24, was followed up by a clean sweep of poles and wins at St Petersburg for the Vantage GT4 in the GT America series. Now it's the GTE's turn to show its class as we look to defend its championship-winning pedigree. Across WEC and IMSA we have five world-class partner teams all capable of winning with Vantage, and we'll do all we can to support them in this endeavour on an amazing weekend of endurance racing.' Official practice for the WEC 1000 Miles of Sebring begins on Wednesday 15th March at 1055 EST, with the race beginning at noon on Friday. Follow details of the event via the official WEC website and App. The Sebring 12 Hours begins with free practice at 1010 on Thursday with the race starting at 1010 EST on Saturday. Go to the IMSA website for details of how to follow the race.
posted on conceptcarz.com
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