Heart of Racing on Indianapolis Podium

Indianapolis, Ind. (19 September 2023) – Heart of Racing returned to the IMSA WeatherTech podium once again on Sunday as the No. 23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin of Alex Riberas and Ross Gunn scored a GTD PRO class second place in the Battle on the Bricks at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Heart of Racing stablemates Roman De Angelis and Marco Sorensen made it a double-top five day for the team as the duo brought the No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin home fourth in the GTD class after nearly three hours of racing at the Brickyard.

Riberas qualified the No. 23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin for the duo securing a fourth place starting position with a 1:23.395 second lap time as he took the first stint of the two hour and 40 minute race. Gunn took over the controls on a lap 27 yellow, rejoining the fray 38th in the overall order but quickly moving back to race his way back to second in the GTD PRO order by lap 40. The team delivered a perfect pitstop on lap 64 for Gunn, who raced all the way to the checkered flag in podium position to come home second.

“Yeah, definitely an amazing feeling today, getting a podium at a race that presented as a challenge for us,” said Riberas. “We knew we were not going to be the quickest car out there. And that was confirmed that during the race, our pace was not amazing. But the team executed on all phases. Perfect pitstops great strategy calls. We also got a bit lucky with the yellow and that resulted in a phenomenal result for the team. So really, really happy. And looking forward now to Petit.”

“To be honest, super happy with how the weekend ended up,” said Gunn. “We haven’t really had out and out pace, but to come away with a P2 is a phenomenal job by the team. Joe did an awesome job calling the first pitstop, which really set the race up for us in the second half and made life much easier. Great pit stops by the guys, awesome qualy yesterday by Alex to put us in the mix when probably the car wasn’t really able to. Just super happy to be honest. I feel like we executed the best that we possibly could and we didn’t have the pace to fight with the Mercedes at the end but really happy with this result and we go to the last round of the championship after what’s been fairly tough year, so let’s try and make sure that we get one better.”

After De Angelis and Sorensen struggled to find a set up that worked to their liking with the  No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin on the 2.438 mile course during the two practice sessions of the weekend, the team worked to improve the car as De Angelis set the sixth fastest lap of qualifying with a 1:23.910 second lap time.

“I mean, definitely a difficult weekend for us,” said De Angelis. “I don’t think we had the overall pace compared to some of the other manufacturers. But a really good result for the No. 23 getting a podium. We were in the hunt, we led a lot of laps and had really good strategy calls to try and save fuel to beat the other cars. We just couldn’t keep the pace that they had and manage the fuel numbers they had as well. So we settled for fourth. It sucks to be out of the championship now. Good job from the team. We will come back and try to win at Petit.”

De Angelis took the controls for the start, and kept the Aston Martin in top five contention through the opening stages of the race,moving up to race as high as second before turning the car over to Sorensen. A final stop for fuel and tires set the Danish World Champion driver up to make a hard charge all the way to the finish, crossing the line fourth at the checkered flag.

“It was another difficult weekend regarding the pace,” said Sorensen. “It was hard to fight others with the speed we had. P4 was for sure not what we came for, but we did what we could in the race. But coming from Virginia I think it was a good result.”

The Heart of Racing team will be back in action at the IMSA WeatherTech season finale of Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta on October 14th. In the meantime, the Heart of Racing SRO program will close out its season with the penultimate race at Sebring International Raceway next weekend, followed by the season finale at Indianapolis Motor Speedway October 6th and 8th.