Heart of Racing Team set for first home WEC race at COTA

Austin, TX (30 August 2024) - After a season of racing that has seen the team compete on tracks in Brazil, France, Italy, and Qatar, The Heart of Racing will have the chance to race on home soil as the World Endurance Championship (WEC) stages the Lone Star Le Mans at Austin’s Circuit of the Americas (COTA) this weekend. 

The Heart of Racing heads into the COTA weekend with the No. 27 Aston Martin Vantage LMGT3 fourth in championship points standings, just 45 points behind the leader. Ian James, Alex Riberas, and Daniel Mancinelli will team up behind the wheel of the Heart of Racing entry, with each driver bringing their fair share of experience at the Texas track. 

The team has continued to show improvement in its second season of WEC competition, as James, Riberas, and Mancinelli scored a second place finish at the season opener at Qatar and most recently took second place in Sáo Paulo in July. 

James has driven both GT3 and GT4-specification cars at the Texas track with a pole position and win on his record at COTA. James made his first start at the 3.426-mile course in 2014 in the IMSA WeatherTech Championship competing with current IMSA teammate, Mario Farnbacher. Most recently James competed at COTA in 2021 in SRO’s Pirelli GT4 America.

Riberas made his COTA debut in 2015 in Porsche SuperCup competition as part of the United States’ Formula 1 weekend. Riberas won in his debut outing at the Texas track, also scoring the fastest lap of the race. The Spanish driver returned in 2016 with the IMSA WeatherTech series scoring seventh with Farnbacher. 

“COTA, without a doubt, is one of my favorite tracks on the calendar, if not my favorite track of the year,” said Riberas. “I used to live in Austin for a couple of years so it’s a very special place for me to return to. It feels like a second home and on top of it, it’s the home race for the Heart of Racing being the only event in US territory. All in all I think very good circumstances for us to do well. We are coming off of a very strong performance in Brazil. I’m very confident that we can replicate that and continue to push for good results. Hopefully we can get a similar result at COTA.” 

Mancinelli has had his share of starts at the Formula One grade circuit. Making his first start at COTA in the 2017 SprintX GT Championship tripleheader weekend. The Italian driver scored a second place finish in his debut race, then followed it up with a win in the second race of the weekend. Most recently Mancinelli competed in the 2021 Lamborghini Super Trofeo weekend scoring a fifth and eighth place finish.  

“The Lone Star six hour race will be geographically the home race for The Heart of Racing and is the only US team running in LMGT3 making it extra special,” said Mancinelli. “We are all excited about that and will have a lot of fans coming to watch the race. Our goal is to keep up to catch the top two in the championship standings. It will be very hot, so tire degradation will be very high and it will be tough, but I think our team can handle the challenge. I can’t wait to be there!” 

The Lone Star Le Mans event will kick off with practice on Friday before qualifying on Saturday. Sunday’s six hour endurance race will begin at 2:00pm ET with live coverage on MAX and the WEC.tv.