The Heart of Racing Finishes Fifth at Indianapolis
Speedway, Ind. (September 23, 2024) - The Heart of Racing Team crossed the finish line with a fifth and sixth place finish in IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s Battle on the Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday. The No. 23 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 remains second in the provisional points standings heading into the final event of the season at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta on October 12th.
Ross Gunn and Alex Riberas piloted the No. 23 Heart of Racing GTD PRO entry during IMSA’s first six hour endurance race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Riberas qualified for the duo, and the Spanish driver overcame several challenges during the 15-minute session to qualify the Aston Martin in fifth.
Sunday’s Battle on the Bricks presented its own set of challenges as weather rolled into the Indianapolis area towards the start of the race. Under dry conditions, Riberas was able to make his way to third on the first lap. Over the course of Riberas’ 74 laps behind the wheel, 32 of those laps were under caution due to heavy rain causing standing water on both the track and pit lane.
Gunn was in the driver's seat for the remainder of the race, but needed to fight his way back after a strategy call for the No. 23 Heart of Racing Team didn’t pan out, leaving the entry one lap down to the leader. Gunn drove his way through the field to finish the race in fifth.
The No. 23 Heart of Racing Team is provisionally 99 points behind the GTD PRO championship leader going into the final 10 hour race, Motul Petit Le Mans.
“It was a difficult race today with the different weather conditions,” said Riberas. “We experienced a lot of rain then the track went dry. We were trying to drive on slicks on a wet track, and that made everything a little bit more influenced by luck, and we tried to maximize everything we had. P5 is not the result we wanted today, but I think that that is a solid position for how our day went. It should still keep us in the mix for the championship going into the last race. I’m looking forward to Petit Le Mans and we know that anything can happen there.”
Roman De Angelis and Mario Farnbacher teamed up for the first time together In the No. 27 Aston Martin Vantage GT3, marking De Angelis’ debut in the GTD PRO category. The GTD PRO rookie qualified for the pair setting the seventh fastest lap.
On Sunday, De Angelis drove the first two stints of the six hour enduro where he passed for sixth on the first lap and maintained position until the first caution period. During that time, the No. 27 Heart of Racing team decided to pit, placing the Aston Martin in 10th. The Canadian drove up to fifth over the course of the next 16 laps. De Angelis passed the wheel to Farnbacher in fourth at the three hour mark.
Farnbacher was behind the wheel for the next two stints on a fuel saving strategy before handing the Aston Martin back to De Angelis in sixth for the final hour of the race. De Angelis took the checkered in sixth.
“It was my first weekend in GTD PRO,” said De Angelis. “The whole team did a great job. We ended up fifth and sixth with both cars, which I think is a good result. I had lots of fun in the first first few stints in the wet. I also was able to get to race with some great drivers. I had some really good, strong battles and felt really good about the performance. We struggled a bit in the last stint with pace. We hope to come back a bit stronger at Petit and hopefully get the team their championship.”
“It was a difficult race,” said Farnbacher. “The weather conditions at the beginning of the race mixed up the strategy quite a bit. When I got in the car I jumped in with slicks and damp conditions and just tried to keep the nose clean. Then in my second stint, I struggled quite a lot through my whole time in the car. I just tried to keep the car in a good, clean position for Roman to finish.”
The Heart of Racing IMSA teams will be back in action October 10-12 at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta for the IMSA WeatherTech season finale. In the meantime, the team’s SRO teams will head to Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the SRO season finale October 3-6.
