Stoner Car Care Racing Sebring Bound 14.03.2019: After Landing on Daytona Podium, Automatic Racing returns to Sebring with new Aston Martin Vantage GT4 The 2019 IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge season recommence

After Landing on Daytona Podium, Automatic Racing returns to Sebring with new Aston Martin Vantage GT4




The 2019 IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge season recommences this weekend with the Stoner Car Care Racing fielded by Automatic Racing team looking to add to their podium tally in Friday’s two-hour Alan Jay Automotive Network 120, part of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring weekend.



Stoner Car Care Racing officially debuts the Invisible Glass livery on the brand-new Aston Martin Vantage GT4 this weekend.



The No. 97 finished 13th in the four-hour season opener at Daytona, mere days after the team received the car – the first customer Aston Martin delivered in the United States. The new car has big shoes to fill as its sister car, the older Aston Martin, battled with the leaders through the entire race at Daytona and brought home a second-place finish.



Sebring marks the second “home” race in a row for the Stoner Car Care team, as Automatic Racing is based two hours away in Orlando. The weekend is also a hometown event for driver Ramin Abdolvahabi (Palm Beach Gardens, FL), who shares the No. 97 Invisible Glass Aston Martin with Rob Ecklin, Jr. (Lancaster, PA).



Both drivers highly anticipate the race weekend at the historic, 3.74-mile, 17-turn concrete and asphalt road course, knowing that the notorious Florida heat and equally notorious Sebring bumps will make for a game of survival for the team and the new Aston Martin.



“We had several changes from Daytona which were all positive,” said Ecklin after getting some laps in during the test day on Wednesday. “The car feels very good, very nicely balanced, and it’s coming off the apexes better than it did at Daytona. It handles the big sweeper turns here better than the old car so I’m quite pleased. It’s very drivable and very predictable. Sebring is a legendary place, and this is a legendary event. Everyone you talk to is intrigued by its World War II history, and you can get glimpses of the old runway when you come down the front straight. This place has a good story.”



“The conditions are simple: Sebring and heat,” said Abdolvahabi.  “So it’s always a little bit slippery. So much depends on where you are after practice and qualifying, though race day is so hard to predict. We just need to put our heads down and stay out of trouble. We started 34th at Daytona and finished 13th and in a two-hour race in the afternoon at Sebring, anything can happen.



And we are still getting used to the new car, especially given the huge difference between the old car and this one. The newer cars have so much technology but they’re so much fun to drive. But the platform is nice, we’ve made some advances from Daytona which make it very stable.”



The Alan Jay Automotive Network 120 takes the green flag at 12:05 p.m. Eastern on Friday, live on IMSA.tv and IMSA Radio. NBCSN will broadcast a two-hour race recap on Thursday, March 28 at 3:00 p.m. Eastern.




Sunday Group Management, photos Stoner Car Care