The Heart of Racing Looking to Chase Championship Lead Heading to Laguna Seca
De Angelis and Sorensen sit second in both the IMSA GTD Championship and IMSA Sprint Cup Challenge
Monterey, Calif. (8 May 2023) – The Heart of Racing (HOR) heads to WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca for the fourth round of IMSA WeatherTech competition. Following the previous IMSA event in Long Beach, the No. 27 GTD entry of Roman De Angelis and Marco Sorensen sit just 99 points out of the IMSA GTD Championship lead.
The two hour and 40-minute event at Laguna Seca will air live on NBC on Sunday, May 14th at 3:00pm ET.
Though Sorensen will be making his Laguna Seca debut, De Angelis is no stranger to the 2.238-mile track as he will be making his fourth IMSA start at the famed California track. In 2020 De Angelis earned his best finish at Laguna Seca with a fourth place result.
“We’ve had some pretty bad luck at Laguna to be honest, but we’ve always had a really good car,” said De Angelis. “Hopefully this year we can keep the pace we’ve had and learn from our experience that we’ve had at Laguna previously to give us a bit of an advantage there. Obviously we are still early in the championship season, so we are just focused on getting points and getting clean results, then at the end we’ll see where we end up.”
As Sorenson continues his debut season of IMSA competition, he will add another track to his racing resume this weekend when he takes his first official laps at WeatherTech Raceway.
“I’m ready to get back in action in the United States,” said Sorensen. “I’ve heard so much about Laguna Seca and I’m excited to get there and check it out for myself. The Heart of Racing team continues to bring us a great Aston Martin every race weekend. Hopefully we can continue our momentum and get another good finish.”
Returning to the No. 23 Aston Martin Vantage will be Alex Riberas and Ross Gunn. After a run of bad luck at Daytona and Sebring, the team earned a fourth place finish at the Grand Prix of Long Beach last month. The No. 23 Heart of Racing squad sits fifth in GTD PRO championship point standings
“Laguna Seca is one of my favorite tracks on the IMSA calendar,” said Gunn. “It’s really tricky on the tire degradation, that’s something we will have to focus on during practice sessions to get the car into a better window for the race. I’m looking forward to getting back out from a little bit of a break since Long Beach. We have a few things to look at to improve, but I am super excited to get back out!”
Riberas and Gunn will both be making their third start at the northern California track with the HOR team. Last season the couplet had a strong qualifying run, putting the No. 23 Aston Martin third on the grid.
“I’m definitely really excited about Laguna Seca,” said Riberas “It’s one of the most iconic tracks on Earth. It has a layout that suits the Aston Martin really well. I’m 100 percent convinced that we can come out of the weekend with a good result. Both Ross and I feel really good about competing there. It’s all about executing and putting it all together and then letting the result come to us.”
The MOTUL Course de Monterey powered by Hyundai N at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca weekend will start on Friday, May 12th with practice. The race will go green on Sunday May 14th at 3:00 pm ET with live coverage of the race on NBC.
