Hannah Greenemeier and Hannah Grisham match season's best, secure fourth in championship standings
Hannah Greenemeier and Hannah Grisham closed their rookie IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge campaign with a sixth-place finish at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, matching their season-best result and securing fourth place in the championship standings.
Hannah Greenemeier and Hannah Grisham closed their rookie IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge campaign with a sixth-place finish at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, matching their season-best result and securing fourth place in the championship standings.
Driving the #26 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT4, the pairing showed the pace to fight at the front throughout the two-hour season finale, with Greenemeier charging forward during the opening stint and Grisham mounting a remarkable recovery after a late technical problem briefly dropped the car to tenth in the GT4 field. Although an electrical issue ultimately prevented the duo from fighting for what had looked like a potential victory, their sixth-place finish was enough to secure an impressive fourth in the championship standings in their first season.
The season finale took place at the 2.54-mile, 12-turn Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, with the Heart of Racing pairing returning to action after another strong performance at Indianapolis. Greenemeier and Grisham immediately demonstrated that the pace remained there for the final event of the year, with Grisham placing the Aston Martin inside the top 10 during Wednesday's opening practice session.
Thursday morning brought more difficult conditions, with mist over the circuit as FP2 got underway. Greenemeier nevertheless matched the pace established by her teammate in the previous session, putting the #26 Vantage eighth fastest at the conclusion of the session and confirming the team's potential heading into qualifying and the two-hour finale.
Greenemeier remained behind the wheel for qualifying, following the same driver order the team had used at Indianapolis. She delivered her best lap of the weekend when it mattered, placing the Aston Martin fifth on the grid and giving the all-female duo a strong starting position for the final race of the year.
The two-hour finale went underway on Friday, with Greenemeier starting from the inside of the third row. She made a solid launch, although the car starting alongside her found a stronger run toward Turn 1 and initially moved ahead, dropping the #26 Aston to sixth. Greenemeier maintained her line through the opening corner, however, and completed the pass back into fifth place by Turn 3.
She immediately showed that she had the pace to move further forward: within the opening ten minutes, Greenemeier was already attacking Veach and completed an switch back manoeuvre exiting the Turn 10 chicane to take the position. Once clear, she began pulling away from the cars behind while setting her sights on the next target.
Just one lap later, Greenemeier was already on the rear of the third-place car. She looked to the inside, applied pressure and then secured a strong run onto the back straight, using the tow toward Turn 10 to put Patten's Aston Martin under further pressure. Patten defended the inside, forcing Greenemeier to try the outside in an attempt to repeat the move. When that attempt did not work, she stayed behind and tried the same move again on the following lap.
The battle eventually produced the opportunity she needed. As the Patten, Greenemeier and Veach went three-wide, both rivals were slowed sufficiently for Greenemeier to capitalize, moving through to take third place.
The Heart of Racing driver continued pushing toward the front as the opening pit window approached. Approximately 42 minutes into the race, she briefly cycled into second place before bringing the Aston Martin into pit lane for fuel, tyres and the driver change, handing the car over to Hannah Grisham.
Grisham immediately continued the attack, but a full-course caution emerged almost immediately because of debris on the circuit. The field compressed behind the safety car, leaving Grisham fifth for the restart.
Once racing resumed, she picked up where Greenemeier had left off. Grisham produced a strong run from Turn 7 and attempted to make the move into Turn 10 for fourth place on Skeen. The first three attempts did not succeed, with Grisham repeatedly slotting back into fifth, but she continued applying pressure rather than allowing the gap to grow.
The fourth attempt finally worked: Grisham again generated the necessary momentum out of Turn 7 and attacked into Turn 10, with the two cars leaving each other only the minimum amount of space. The Aston Martin was nudged onto the dirt once again, but Grisham kept control, completed a determined pass and held the inside line through the final corner to secure fourth place.
She immediately began hunting down the next car, Noaker's Ford Mustang, closing the gap to third a few tenths at a time until she was within one second of the podium position. With approximately 50 minutes remaining, the first of the leading cars made its final pit stop, and the Heart of Racing team elected to keep Grisham on track for several additional laps in order to ensure the Aston Martin would have enough fuel to reach the chequered flag without needing to conserve heavily.
The strategy temporarily cycled Grisham into the lead of the race. After the team's final stop, the #26 Aston remained in fourth place once the cars still needing to pit were taken into account, leaving Grisham with another opportunity to attack the podium.
She responded with another aggressive charge: a strong run out of Turn 7 allowed her to close on the net third-place car, which fought back as Grisham continued to apply pressure. Eventually, she completed the pass on the run down the back straight and moved into net third.
The Skeen then became the next target. Grisham looked to the outside at Turn 6, but her rival defended, forcing another close battle into Turn 10. The two cars made two light touches as Grisham continued to fight for the position, but she emerged from the exchange in net second place.
At that point, with 35 minutes remaining, the Heart of Racing Aston Martin appeared to be in an excellent position to fight for the season finale victory. Instead, the race took another frustrating turn.
The car suffered an electrical glitch in a high-speed section of the circuit and momentarily lost power. Grisham was able to recover and get the Aston Martin moving at full speed again, but the interruption proved costly, dropping the car all the way back to tenth place in the GS class.
Grisham immediately went back on the attack. She began picking off cars one by one and, with 15 minutes remaining, had already recovered to eighth in GS. The comeback continued as she caught the group running fourth through seventh with approximately ten minutes remaining. Grisham then produced a brilliant move that was one of the highlights of her stint, carrying a great run out of Turn 7 and using the momentum to take seventh place before moving into sixth just a couple of laps later.
With only three minutes remaining, Grisham was less than one second behind the fifth-placed #37 BMW of Shields and still had an opportunity to gain another position before the chequered flag. That opportunity disappeared when an incident on the front straight brought out the full-course caution.
The race therefore ended under yellow, with Grisham crossing the finish line in sixth place. It was enough to match the duo's season-best result and, more importantly, secure fourth place in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge championship standings.
For the all-female duo, the result was understandably bittersweet after the pace shown throughout the weekend and the strong position the team had been fighting for before the issue.
“Road Atlanta was another close but not close enough weekend for us,” Greenemeier said. “We had the pace, we had the pit stops, we had strategy, we just didn’t have the luck once again. It’s hard having that electrical gremlin take away what I believe would have been a win for us but that’s how racing goes sometimes.”
Despite the disappointment, Greenemeier highlighted the way her teammate responded to the setback and the progress made by the entire Heart of Racing operation throughout their first season.
“I’m super proud of Hannah Grisham for how she handled that in the race and went straight back on the charge,” she continued. “I’m super proud of the whole Heart of Racing team for all their hard work this year and to see how all of us have grown to be a force to be reckoned with.”
Grisham similarly described the Road Atlanta weekend as a mixture of frustration and pride, with the electrical failure coming at the moment when she was in position to fight for victory.
“Road Atlanta was a bit of a mixed bag to close out the season,” Grisham said. “We had a really strong car and were in a great position - it felt like it was our race to win until an unfortunate electrical gremlin caused the car to shut off mid-race.”
“It’s frustrating to end the season that way, especially knowing the pace and potential we had, but I’m proud of the fight we showed and everything we accomplished this season,” she added.
