The Heart of Racing Finishes Fourth at CTMP
De Angelis breaks CTMP GTD record during qualifying
Bowmanville, ON, Canada (9 July 2023) – The Heart of Racing (HOR) completed the seventh round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship this weekend at the Canadian Tire Motorsports Park (CTMP) scoring a fourth place finish in GTD competition.
Roman De Angelis qualified the No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage Saturday afternoon, setting a 1:15.478-second lap to break the GTD class record at CTMP.
Qualifying the No. 23 Heart of Racing GTD PRO entry was Alex Riberas, who laid down the third fastest lap in the GT field with a 1:15.314-second lap.
De Angelis started the Chevrolet Grand Prix and held his lead for eight laps before falling to second due to an unfortunate block by an LMP3 car. De Angelis maintained his position for the first stint. De Angelis was able to take back the lead after beating the leader off of pit road and kept the lead for 13 laps before falling back to second. On lap 69 during the first caution period of the race, Marco Sorensen went in for De Angelis. Sorensen came out of the pits in fifth, but was able to work his way up to sit fourth when a caution came out to finish the race.
“I think it was another missed opportunity here,” said De Angelis. “Another race that we were quick our whole race. I was able to stay in the lead for a little and fight from second. We tried some different strategy calls and I really don’t know where we lost out today. We got to climb back and get some points, hopefully at some point our luck switches. I’m happy that Ross is okay, that was a horrible accident. That’s the most important thing. We’ll move on and try in a couple weeks at Lime Rock Park.”
“Just a little bit disappointed,” said Sorensen. “I think we had the pace to be further up and I think we deserved a better result than we got today. It’s a super fun track to drive, but it’s pretty difficult to race on. It’s hard to pass here so you’re just kind of stuck in a train for most of it and that’s where we lost out today at least.”
The No. 23 Heart of Racing GTD PRO race saw fast pace at the beginning of the race. Riberas started behind the wheel quickly making a pass from third to second place. Riberas maintained second when he passed the Aston Martin over to Ross Gunn on lap 31. Gunn fell back to fourth and was working his way up to third. On lap 65 Gunn went for a bold outside pass, but the other car lost control momentarily, bumping the Aston Martin into a high-speed spin as the No 23 made hard contact with the tire wall. Gunn was evaluated and released from the infield care center.
“It’s tough to come out with a good mood from today,” said Riberas. “The team is definitely deserving of a good result. We had good pace and a good car. The team was executing pitstops really well and we’re definitely in a position to win or at least challenge for the win. It’s definitely a hard pill to swallow, but it’s another challenge this year we have to overcome. The guys are going to have to work really really hard to get the car back together for Lime Rock, which is probably the worst part of the whole accident. We are a strong team, we’re going to bounce back at Lime Rock and I’m sure we will show up there with the best mentality and ready 100% to go for another good result.”
The Heart of Racing team will be back in action in a few short weeks at Lime Rock Park, July 21-22.
