Van der Steur Challenges in GS With Rotation of Co-Drivers

Considering the merry-go-round of co-drivers that he’s shared his namesake team’s car with this season, the fact that Rory van der Steur essentially sits second in the GS class standings of the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge is nothing short of amazing.

And while the 24-year-old American admits that closing the gap to the leaders will be difficult in the final four races, he isn’t ruling anything out heading to this weekend’s Road America 120.

Leading into Saturday’s race, the No. 19 van der Steur Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT4 is second in the GS team standings, 330 points behind a fellow Aston Martin entry, the No. 46 Team TGM Aston.

Van der Steur is officially third in the driver standings, the same 330 points behind leader Matt Plumb but just 30 in back of Plumb’s Team TGM co-driver Paul Holton, who missed the opening race of the season.

“They’ve been doing so well this year; they haven’t had one mistake,” van der Steur said of his Team TGM rivals. “All it takes is one mistake in one race and I think we’re right back in it, but to have that happen it’s not a guarantee.”

In this season of ultimate GS parity (each of the first six races has crowned a different winner) and with the sheer size of the class field (23 GS cars are entered this week), van der Steur’s assertion that one slip-up by Plumb and the No. 46 could bring them back within reach is true.

That’s yet to happen this year, though.

The Team TGM car has not finished worse than sixth while each of the next four closest pursuers have registered at least one result of 14th place or lower.

“There’s so much depth this year in GS that it’s hard to get on the podium for anyone,” said van der Steur, who does have a pair of second-place finishes this season.

“It’s hard for us to separate ourselves from (the No. 46 car) because we have the same chassis and same car. It will be quite hard but you can’t rule it out. Anything can happen in four races.”

Van der Steur is excited to reunite this week with his primary co-driver Valentin Hasse-Clot for their fifth race together this season. Other drivers to be in the No. 19 Aston have been Dominic Starkweather, Alexandre Premat, Danny Formal and Scott Andrews.

While van der Steur has enjoyed gleaning pointers from this varied mix of co-drivers – “every person has a different driving style,” he said, “every person has different feedback” – he believes it’s Hasse-Clot who can put the team in the best position for a podium or victory.

“He’s very aggressive, he takes care of the equipment very, very well, which is very important,” van der Steur said.

“He comes from a lot of GT4 in Europe, as he won GT4 Euro and GT4 France a few years back, so he’s driven this car a lot.

“He has the most experience out of anyone with this car because he’s an Aston factory driver. … And he’s a really good friend of mine actually as well, he’s not just a teammate.”

There will be another GS driver in an Aston Martin that everyone will have their eye on this week. NASCAR Cup Series driver Ross Chastain will take advantage of NASCAR and NBC’s break for the Olympics to trade in his usual No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet Camero ZL1 as he makes his IMSA debut.

Chastain will compete in the No. 16 Skip Barber Racing Vantage with co-driver Ken Fukuda, the current IMSA Diverse Driver Development scholarship recipient.

The TCR class, meanwhile, has 13 entries this week. Chris Miller, Mikey Taylor and the No. 17 Unitronic/JDC-Miller MotorSports Audi RS 3 LMS TCR are four-time winners this season but saw their points lead trimmed to 150 over Preston Brown, Denis Dupont and the No. 76 Bryan Herta Autosport Hyundai Elantra N TCR after the last round at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.

CTMP class winners Harry Gottsacker and Robert Wickens (No. 33 BHA Hyundai) are just 40 points behind their teammates.