YRB Aston Martin Takes First Win at Road America

YRB Racing drivers Trenton Estep and Allen Patten claimed the team’s first victory in the Road America 120 IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge race.

The No. 66 Car Blanche Aston Martin Vantage GT4 Evo crossed the line behind the safety car, just ahead of Matt Plumb and Paul Holton’s No. 46 Team TGM Ford Mustang GT4.

Guilherme Salas and Caio Chaves took their first podium finish of the season with a third place in the No. 54 Panam Motorsport Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2.

The No. 23 Koch-Copeland Motorsports Toyota finished fourth, ahead of the No. 60 KohR Motorsports Mustang.

Pit stop strategy was key to the No. 66 crew’s victory, as it was able to cycle up the race order by pitting at the ideal times.

The two-hour race was interrupted by four full-course caution periods.

The second caution was key to shuffling up the running order as the majority of cars in both GS and TCR decided to stop for fuel when the pit window opened, but some of the frontrunners decided to gamble on a one-stop strategy.

The longer-than-expected caution period forced a handful of these gamblers to pit as they did not have enough fuel to reach the finish line.

Crucially, the points leading No. 13 McCumbee McAleer Racing Mustang was one of these cars, meaning it sacrificed its leading position and dropped down to the back of the field.

The pairing now hold just a 100-point advantage in the championship standings.

Back-to-back safety car periods followed the pit stop mix-up. The cars which had dropped down the order were therefore unable to make use of their fuel advantage and fight back up the timing screens.

YRB, on the other hand, held the net lead amongst the GS class cars which pitted early. Just ahead was Plumb in the Team TGM Mustang, which had decided to stay out and had just enough fuel to reach the finish.

When the race briefly resumed, Estep snatched the lead from Plumb in traffic. A caution in the final ten minutes for a crashed No. 4 Medusa Motorsports Aston essentially handed the win to Estep.

Medusa driver Athan Sterling was transported to a local area hospital after the incident. He was awake and alert, according to an IMSA spokesperson.

The pole-sitting No. 26 Heart of Racing Team Aston jumped up and down the order throughout the race.

Both Hannah Greenemeier and Hannah Grisham showed consistent pace, but lost out in back-to-back safety car restarts to finish the race in ninth position.

Greenemeier made contact with championship contender Stevan McAleer on the second safety car restart, dropping her down the field.

McAleer’s AutoTechnic Racing BMW M4 GT4 EVO was handed a ten-second penalty for the incident. The Scottish driver missed out on key championship points, eventually finishing in seventeenth place.

In TCR, Bryan Herta Autosport driver Denis Dupont snatched the win from Celso Neto in the No. 55 Gou Racing with Stallion Audi RS 3 LMS TCR in the final minutes.

Dupont and co-driver Preston Brown also held a fuel advantage over the Gou Audi, which didn’t pit under the second caution. The No. 76 Hyundai Elantra N TCR made a feisty move past Neto just before the last caution.

RESULTS: Road America 120