We’ve Joined the FIA World Endurance Championship, Le Mans
SPA, BE (24 April 2023) - Reigning IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTD class champion team, Heart of Racing (HOR), will make its FIA World Endurance Championship [WEC] debut at Spa-Francorchamps, in Belgium, this weekend.
The North American squad already runs multiple Aston Martin programmes with its fleet of Vantage GT3 and GT4 race cars in IMSA and the US-based SRO-run GT World Series GT4 categories, as well as the 2022 Spa 24 Hours. It now adds WEC to its roster with Anglo-American driver and team principal Ian James, IMSA GTD Pro class race-winner Alex Riberas (ESP) and Italian GT racer Daniel Mancinelli. Heart of Racing’s WEC campaign will run through to the end of the season, and will include the team’s first attempt at the 24 Hours of Le Mans with the centenary edition taking place on the 10-11 June.
Heart of Racing joins two of Aston Martin’s other regular partner teams on the WEC grid – ORT by TF Sport and D’station Racing – but is only able to do so by taking over the entry from NorthWest AMR, owned by Paul Dalla Lana.
“The Heart of Racing team has had ambitions to compete in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and the FIA WEC for some time,” said Ian James. “We are an ambitious group and to add WEC to what we have been fortunate to achieve in our other programmes over the past three years is an honour. Going for the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona/24 Hours of Le Mans double is very exciting. I’d like to take the opportunity to wish Paul well in the future, and to thank him for giving us the chance to take over his entry for the rest of 2023. It will be a baptism of fire in Spa, but we hope to continue the successful heritage of the #98 plate in WEC.”
Spa will be the first time that HOR has raced the Vantage GTE; the prototype version of the British-built race car derived from Aston Martin’s critically-acclaimed ultra-luxury sportscar. The car shares the same aluminium body-frame and a specially-tuned version of the four-litre V8 turbo-charged production engine. Under regulations, the HOR entry will continue to compete under the NorthWest AMR banner and use the #98 plate.
HOR is joined in the Aston Martin attack at Spa by the WEC GTE LM reigning champion, the #23 ORT by TF Vantage GTE driven by Omani driver Ahmad Al Harthy, Michael Dinan (USA) works star Charlie Eastwood (IRL), and the Japanese entry, D'station Racing, whose owner Satoshi Hoshino (JPN) regular co-driver Tomonobu Fujii (JPN) and rookie Casper Stevenson (GBR) are looking to improve on their best result of seventh in Belgium.
Huw Tasker, AMR Head of Partner Racing, said: “What Paul has achieved in his career with Aston Martin is quite simply outstanding. On behalf of all of us at Aston Martin, thank you Paul, and congratulations on a fantastic career, you have done us all proud. We’d also like to take this opportunity to welcome Heart of Racing into the WEC paddock. The team has been doing a stellar job in IMSA for some time now, which was clearly shown by its victory in the Rolex 24 and IMSA GTD title, and we have every confidence that it can grow and develop to mirror those championship-winning achievements at world level.”
Official practice for the TotalEnergies 6 Hours of Spa begins on Thursday, 27 April, at 1130 CET, with the race beginning at 12:45 on Saturday. Follow details of the event via the official WEC website and App.
