Aiming for Victory in Long Beach
LONG BEACH, CA (10 April 2023) - The Heart of Racing (HOR) will head to the streets of Long Beach for the third round of the IMSA WeatherTech Championship on Saturday (5:00 pm ET, USA Network). The team will look to defend its 2022 victory on the eleven turn temporary street circuit that becomes the epicenter of California car culture every year.
Alex Riberas and Ross Gunn won their first race together on board the No. 23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage at Long Beach last season, and will look to rebound from a disappointing Sebring outing with a strong race result on Saturday.
Making their first IMSA WeatherTech Sprint Cup start this weekend Marco Sorensen and Roman De Angelis will be set onboard the No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage. Sorensen will be making his Grand Prix of Long Beach debut, while De Angelis will make his third start on the street circuit with the best finish of sixth in 2021.
Sorensen and De Angelis had a strong Sebring run with a podium in sight, but with just one hour to go the Aston Martin was taken out by another competitor which ended their race.
The Acura Grand Prix at Long Beach will take the green flag on Saturday at 5:05 pm ET with live coverage on USA Network starting at 5:00 pm ET. Live race IMSA Radio coverage will be broadcast on SiriusXM Ch. 207.
Alex Riberas No. 23 GTD PRO : “The Grand Prix of Long Beach is definitely one of the highlights of the year, especially after winning there with Ross last season. It was our first victory together as a driver pairing. There really isn’t a better place for us to get our momentum back after enduring some tough luck in the first two rounds. This is a perfect event for a good result and I’m convinced we can go for another victory this year. Doing well at Long Beach would help us continue to fight for the championship this year. We just need to take it one race at a time.”
Ross Gunn No. 23 GTD PRO : “I’m really excited to go back to Long Beach. This is one of my favorite street circuits, it's a very challenging race. We had an awesome car there last year. The BOP has stabilized a little bit, so I’m really looking forward to getting back there. Alex and the team were on top of it last year and I think we can do it again. Hopefully we’ll pick up where we left off, as always, though we will have very tough competition. It’s not going to be easy, but I feel like we’re going there knowing that we’ve had good performance in the first two races, despite a bit of bad luck and hopefully we can get over that and push for a good result.”
Marco Sorensen No. 27 GTD : “I’m really looking forward to Long Beach, I love racing on street circuits. I’m sure that the Aston Martin will be flying there. Racing on the streets is a lot more technical than racing on a normal road course, you have to get close to the walls and make more calculated moves. Even though most of the tracks in the US are more old school, there is nothing more old school than doing a street circuit. The last street circuit I did was the Monaco Grand Prix in 2015, so I’m really looking forward to getting back on one at Long Beach.
Roman De Angelis No. 27 GTD : “It’s been quite busy for me lately with a race in Italy right after the Sebring weekend. It has been great preparation and has kept me in the car and in shape for the start of the sprint season. The first few months of the year have been all about endurance with two 24 hour races and two 12 hour races, so I’m looking forward to a change of scenery and style of racing in Long Beach. This track is fun to drive because you can be a lot more aggressive and all out throughout the whole race.”
