The Heart of Racing Takes Third at Road America
The No. 23 team closes IMSA GTD PRO championship points gap
Elkhart Lake, Wisc. (4 August 2024) - The Heart of Racing Team scored its third podium in the GTD PRO class of the season with a third place finish in the IMSA SportsCar Weekend at Road America on Sunday. After qualifying second in class and running in podium contention during much of the hotly contested race, the No. 27 Aston Martin Vantage GTD entry finished ninth in the IMSA sprint event.
Ross Gunn and Alex Riberas rejoined forces in the No. 23 Aston Martin Vantage to come home in third, closing the gap to the lead in the provisional GTD PRO championship points standings.
Riberas started the two hour and 40 minute race in the No. 23 Aston Martin Vantage GT3, holding on to eighth place until pitting on lap 9, gaining four positions in the pit lane exchange ahead of the second restart of the two hour, forty-minute race. On lap 28 Gunn took the reins as the team executed a timely stop with four new Michelins and a full tank of fuel.
“Well, honestly it is unreal for the team to once again overachieve here at Road America,” said Riberas. “Coming back home with a trophy exceeded the expectations of everybody. We managed to nail the strategy, nail the pit stops. Everybody did fantastic. And I am just very, very proud of the Heart of Racing and the support from Aston Martin Racing, which has been crucial. We recovered a bit of ground to the Porsche who is currently leading the points championship. I’m just really happy and looking forward to the next race at VIR.”
The race featured multiple caution periods after multiple instances of some rough and tumble racing on the iconic Wisconsin circuit. During the third caution, the No. 23 Aston Martin Vantage was called to pit lane at the last second for a six second fuel fill. As Gunn was driving into the pit box another GTD PRO competitor was pulling out of its pit box making contact with the No. 23 which forced the Aston Martin to pass its pit box, unable to get fuel. The incident resulted in a penalty for the opposing team. When the field went back to green the English driver restarted from second. The Heart of Racing GTD Pro squad was able to stay out of trouble and match pace with strategy to deliver another podium performance.
“Today's result feels like a victory to us,” said Gunn. “An amazing job by the Heart of Racing guys. It was a pretty chaotic race with lots of yellows as expected. We had a bit of a hectic pit stop when I went to get into the car, but we achieved our goal on strategy. We got very fortunate with the amount of yellows at the end because it was very, very tight on fuel. I feel like we have the best team behind us with both the 23 and 27 teams. We were able to gain some points on the champion fighters, we just need to keep picking out these podiums and see how the points shape up in the final three races.”
Roman De Angelis and Zacharie Robichon co-drove the No. 27 Heart of Racing GTD entry marking the pair’s first sprint race of the season together. Robichon set the second fastest lap time in qualifying on Saturday with a 2:03.764-second lap.
Robichon took the first stint behind the wheel of the No. 27 Aston Martin Vantage. After 33 laps and the third caution period, Robichon handed the No. 27 machine to De Angelis for the last half of the race.
“We started off the race strong, but sometimes you end up at the wrong spot based on pit stops and timing, unfortunately we ended up in the middle of a bad situation,” said Robichon. “But you know what? That's part of racing, sometimes it works out for you and sometimes it doesn't. I think as a team, we did a great job. It was shown by how the 23 was able to finish on the podium. Lots of positives to take from the weekend and I'm excited to see what VIR brings.”
De Angelis was running seventh and working his way forward when he was forced off track by a GTD PRO car on lap 46. With 20 minutes to go the No. 27 team made a strategy call bringing the Aston Martin to pit lane for a sticker set of tires during the final caution of the race. De Angelis restarted eleventh, but was able to work his way up to ninth when he crossed the finish line.
“Ninth is not what we wanted after Zach’s good qualifying run,” lamented De Angelis, who was deep in the mix through some typically hard-fought IMSA GTD battling on Sunday. "Zach started the race off strong, but it was just a chaotic race for me. I made a mistake early and had some contact, and then struggled a bit with a steering issue. From there, I just had more and more contact. Ultimately in the end I was just cruising, trying to get to the finish. Not ideal, but we'll move on to the next one. Everyone at the Heart of Racing did a great job as always. It just wasn’t our day with the 27. Congrats to the 23 guys, hopefully we can be up there again with them at VIR.”
The Heart of Racing Team will see the final sprint race of the season at VIRginia International Raceway during the Michelin GT Challenge, August 23-25.
