TRG-Aston Martin Racing battled in the rain shortened Petit Le Mans Race to Finish Second in the 2015 IMSA GTD Championship. The Northern California team featuring rising star Christina Nielsen in her first full season of racing an Aston Martin had a season to remember.
"Perhaps the feel good story of the 2015 GT race
season in North America was in the IMSA Tudor United SportsCar Championship and
the efforts of TRG-Aston Martin Racing, "said Sonny Morgan, General Manager at Late European. "This privateer team took the fight to the mighty teams of Porsche, Ferrari, BMW, Viper and Audi, and almost pulled it off.
TRG-Aston
Martin Racing driver Christina Nielsen began the season on a high note as
the team captured the Pole Position at the 24 Hours of Daytona 24 race with
co-drivers James Davison, Brandon Davis and fellow Dane, Christoffer
Nygaard. Unfortunately, part way through the race with the 007 car in the
race lead, an amateur driver in a Ferrari pulled back out onto the
racetrack after a spin and collided with the #007 V12 Vantage -- taking the
team out of contention.
The team made the decision to work throughout the
night to get the car back on the track to capture a few valuable points for
the championship. They fought back in the next race at the 12 Hours of
Sebring and rallied to a 2nd place podium finish to regain championship
points momentum that stayed with them right to the end of the season.
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Christina
Nielsen and James Davison continued to drive the #007 V12 Vantage to Top 5
qualifying and finishing results, including leading at the IMSA race
at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. The duo of Nielsen and Davison followed up
their performance with a strong P2 finish at the Belle Isle race in
Detroit.
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Later
in June, the team brought in reigning 2014 IMSA GT Le Mans champion, Kuno
Wittmer to serve as Christina’s co-driver for the balance of the season and
it proved to be an immediate fit. Wittmer provided solid driver coaching
for Nielsen as she was getting faster and faster on the track -- including
consecutive podium finishes at Lime Rock and Road America. These results
vaulted Nielsen and the team into the points lead in the IMSA GT Daytona
championships and placed an Aston Martin in the lead of a North American
championship for the first time in history. This was also the first time a
female driver had the chance of winning an international GT championship
and it vaulted Nielsen and her #007 Orion/LaSalle Solutions/Royal
Purple/Passtime V12 Vantage into the media spotlight through August and
into September.
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The
team then extended its points lead in the IMSA GT Daytona class by
finishing on the podium again at VIR with only two races remaining in the
2015 IMSA season (Circuit of the Americas, Road Atlanta).
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The
three-way battle for the GT Daytona championship between Aston Martin,
Ferrari and Audi made for epic media coverage and fan excitement. At
Circuit of the Americas, TRG-AMR would see their luck change however, as an
untimely full-course caution flag undermined the team’s fuel strategy and
the #007 V12 Vantage would finish the race off the podium and allow the
Ferrari and Audi to regain ground as TRG-AMR were now leading the driver and
manufacturer championship by only 1 point heading into the final race of
the year -- Petit Le Mans.
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As
the team entered the final stretch, the pressure was on as the media and
the fans wanted to see history made with the #007 V12 Vantage and driver
Christina Nielsen in this epic 10 hour battle. The torrential rain and poor
weather conditions that had struck the Atlanta area for the October 2-3
weekend had disrupted race strategy for all the teams. Multiple full course
caution flags, safety cars, and even a red flag stoppage of the race
wreaked havoc on all fronts.
The team went down a lap due to poor
visibility conditions but was just moments away from regaining the position
due to fuel strategy but IMSA officials decided to stop the race just
before eight of the scheduled ten hours had been completed. That IMSA
decision placed TRG-AMR one lap down to the Scuderia Corsa Ferrari team and
resulted in a 2 point advantage for the Ferrari over the Aston Martin after
10 months of hard racing.
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While
not the season result that TRG-AMR had hoped for, the team proudly accepted
its second place driver and team championship awards as the crowd cheered
Danish driver Christina Nielsen, the team and the performance displayed
throughout the 2015 race season. The TRG-AMR team has much to be
proud of and is determined to return in 2016 to win the GT Daytona
championship and with an Aston Martin racecar.
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