The Heart of Racing finishes eighth in GT World Challenge America debut
Sonoma, Calif. (March 31, 2025) - Racing on a revered and renowned California wine country track, the Heart of Racing Team started the 2025 SRO season off with an eighth place finish in GT World Challenge America and a fourth place finish in Pirelli GT4 America this weekend.
Gray Newell and Darren Turner teamed up in the No. 24 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 to make their GT World Challenge America debut.
Newell and Turner had two 15-minute qualifying sessions Saturday morning, setting the stage for the weekend. Newell set the sixth fastest lap in the Pro-Am category. Unfortunately, Turner’s session was cut short due to a red flag. Race two starting positions were then based on the second practice’s fastest lap times giving the duo a ninth place starting position in the Pro-Am class.
Newell started the first 90-minute race of the weekend Saturday afternoon. Newell was battling for eighth position when he was called to the pits for a driver change near the halfway point. A technical issue during the pitstop prevented the team from changing three of four tires. Turner was forced to run the remainder of the race on worn tires against a field on fresh tires. Turner defended his position and crossed the finish line in eighth.
Sunday afternoon Turner battled the first fifty minutes, but contact early on in the race forced the No. 24 Aston Martin Vantage back to tenth. Turner worked his way back up to pit from eighth, Newell rejoined the field from eleventh. Newell continued to fight for position for the remainder of the race before ultimately finishing eleventh.
Hannah Grisham and Hannah Greenemeier piloted the Heart of Racing Team’s Aston Martin Vantage GT4 in Pirelli GT4 America this weekend, marking their second season together. The duo qualified on Saturday morning securing eighth place starting positions in both races for the Silver category.
Greenemeier was first behind the wheel for Saturday’s afternoon race, spending a majority of her stint under yellow flag conditions. Grisham took over the No. 26 Aston Martin Vantage around the halfway point of the 60-minute race. Grisham’s stint was full of green flag racing, the California native crossed the finish line in fourth.
Sunday morning brought wet track conditions for the second Pirelli GT4 America race of the weekend. Grisham took the first stint driving under green flag conditions for the opening 30 minutes. The lap after Greenemeier took command of the No. 26 machine, a caution came out closing the gap from the previous pit stop. Greenemeier drove to finish the race in seventh.
The Heart of Racing Team will next be in action at the Grand Prix of Long Beach (April 11-13) with the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Series and SRO GT America powered by AWS. The team’s next GT World Challenge and Pirelli GT4 America outing will be April 25-27 at Circuit of the Americas.
The Heart of Racing Driver Quotes :
Gray Newell : “This weekend was like ripping off the band-aid. It was shaping up to be a pretty good weekend. Our pace was good, but little things bogged us down. We had a rough pit stop in the first race and then the damage in the second race just knocked us off pace, there’s just not much we can do about that. It’s clear we have the ability to be competitive this season. I’m very much looking forward to the next couple of races, I think our car will be a lot stronger.”
Darren Turner : “I knew it was always going to be a hard challenge with it being a strong championship with great teams and driver lineups. Overall, I’d say it’s been a baptism of fire this weekend. The team did a great job and I’m really happy to be here with the Heart of Racing. It’s been great watching Gray make progress this weekend. He’s adapted to racing the Aston Martin Vantage GT3. I think we have a strong foundation going forward, but there’s still work to do.”
Hannah Grisham : “We had a really good points weekend and really that’s all we can ask for. We are still getting used to the new version of the Vantage and thankfully we were able to walk away with a clean car. This weekend is really just the starting point and we can only go up from here. A huge thank you to the team for working really hard to give us the best car possible.”
Hannah Greenemeier : “Overall I think we need to look at all the positives from the weekend. We not only came away with a clean car, but also points for both races. We have a lot to progress on, but it’s still the beginning of the season. We’ll take what we learned from here and we’ll apply to COTA in a few weeks and come back stronger.”
