The Heart of Racing finishes ninth at Fuji Speedway
Shizuoka, Japan (16 September 2024) - The Heart of Racing Team crossed the finish line in ninth on Sunday after running in podium contintention for a majority of the six hour endurance race at Fuji Speedway in the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) weekend.
Ian James, Daniel Mancinelli, and Alex Riberas teamed up in the No. 27 Aston Martin Vantage LMGT3 for the penultimate round of the FIA WEC season. The trio went into the Fuji weekend fourth in championship points standings, just nine points shy of the second place contender. Leaving Japan, the No. 27 Heart of Racing team closed the gap placing the American team seven points behind second place.
James qualified into his seventh Hyperpole session of the season on Saturday, securing a fourth row starting position. Unfortunately ahead of qualifying - James, Mancinelli, and Riberas only had one full practice session after an issue with the No. 27 machine cut free practice one short and a fault in the exit curbing in Turn 1 ended the third free practice early.
On Sunday, James made an impressive drive from eighth to start the race as the Anglo-American driver brought the Aston Martin Vantage down pit lane in third after the first two stints of the six hour enduro. Mancinelli was behind the wheel for the middle portion of the race keeping the No. 27 machine in podium contention when handing the Aston Martin Vantage over to Riberas.
The Spanish driver had just made his first pit stop with an hour and 30 minutes remaining, when an unfortunately timed virtual safety car slowed the field just ten minutes later, resetting the fuel strategy for the LMGT3 class. After the final pit stop, Riberas was gaining two seconds a lap on his competitors, but ultimately crossed the finish line in ninth.
“Fuji’s final result did not reflect our potential due to some race circumstances as multiple VSCs (virtual safety car) were deployed at the wrong moment for our strategy,” said Mancinelli. “With our strategy we were set for at least a fourth place finish, maybe even a podium. The positive thing is that finishing P9 has put us in a better position for second place in the championship. A big thank you to the Heart of Racing team and my teammates for giving everything they could throughout the weekend. Now we head to the final race in Bahrain where we will try our best to get second place in the championship.”
The Heart of Racing Team’s WEC program will head to Bahrain for the final round of the championship November 2nd. In the meantime, the team’s IMSA campaign will conclude with the final two rounds in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Then, the first weekend in October will also mark the team’s SRO program’s final round of the season at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
