| Multiple Aston Martin Programs, Multiple Wins and Hypercar Development All Happening at Once July 25, 2024 By Tony DiZinno IMSA Wire Service |
| DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Over the last five years since 2020, Heart of Racing Team has expanded to become one of the top GT teams in this era of sports car racing. Its IMSA program has been the bedrock, but it’s expanded to become a globetrotting entity racing more than 20 event weekends across three major sports car sanctioning bodies. Within the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, Heart of Racing Team has, quietly, ascended up the ranks. The former, largely factory-based GT Le Mans (GTLM) class dominated the headlines with the manufacturer efforts from Corvette, Ford, BMW, Porsche and Ferrari standing out most prominently. Aston Martin participated in North America intermittently, more often a welcome guest addition rather than as a full-season entry. The story has changed recently and it’s Heart of Racing with Aston Martin that are poised to become an even greater force in the sports car landscape, beyond having already won the 2022 Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) class championship with Roman De Angelis and established its bona fides as one of the winningest teams in IMSA the last few years. Heart of Racing’s GT Excellence Across GTD PRO, GTD When GTLM ended after 2021, the introduction of GTD PRO for 2022 brought opportunities for those teams in GTD to rise to the top GT class. That has brought a blend of entries. Four teams – Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports, Pfaff Motorsports, Vasser Sullivan and Heart of Racing Team – have competed in all three GTD PRO seasons since the class’ introduction. That’s made them the “core four” present to this point, along with class newcomers such as AO Racing and Paul Miller Racing also making the step up from GTD to GTD PRO, along with Ford Multimatic Motorsports fielding its two cars this year. To date, through the Chevrolet Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, those core four teams have won 20 of the 27 GTD PRO races in class history. Those 20 wins are split as Pfaff has six, Heart of Racing and Vasser Sullivan five apiece and Corvette four. Add in five wins with its GTD class car spread across three seasons, and all told Heart of Racing has 10 victories in two classes – the most by any team in both GTD PRO and GTD in the current class structure. Vasser Sullivan is next up with eight wins with its two cars (five GTD PRO, three GTD). No other GT team has more than seven wins in the same time frame. |
| “I think when sometimes people look from the outside, they’ve seen the Corvette or Porsche programs and think it’s on a totally different level,” said Ian James, driver and team principal of Heart of Racing Team. “We get some support from the factory, but we’re the Heart of Racing Team, compared to Corvette, Ford, Lexus we’re racing against. To compete week-in, week-out against them is a testament to everyone on the team – we’re doing a decent job.” Proving the point, the last two race weekends have seen Heart of Racing deliver back-to-back wins for the new Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo in both classes. The No. 23 car driven by Ross Gunn and Alex Riberas took first in GTD PRO at the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen on June 23. The No. 27 car driven by De Angelis and Spencer Pumpelly had a dominant drive to the GTD victory on July 14 at CTMP, marking the lucky 13th Aston Martin Vantage win in IMSA. The No. 23 Aston Martin is second in the GTD PRO standings, just 98 points behind the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R. Despite a 22nd-place finish to open the season in the Rolex 24 At Daytona, the No. 27 sits sixth in GTD but only 97 points out of third. Valkyrie Hypercar Set for Test Program Aston Martin with the Heart of Racing Team has just begun the testing and development of its new Valkyrie AMR-LMH in mid-July in Silverstone, England. |
| The striking new prototype is based on the production-based extreme performance car, the Aston Martin Valkyrie, and is the fastest car the manufacturer has ever built. The prototype will be powered by a 6.5-liter, naturally aspirated V-12 Cosworth engine but will not include the hybrid powertrain system used in the LMDh specification cars currently running in the WeatherTech Championship’s Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class. Aston Martin has announced Heart of Racing Team will run two prototypes in WEC and one car in IMSA in 2025. “It’s Heart of Racing as the factory team representing Aston Martin,” James said. “We’re getting very close to kicking off the testing program now. There’s a finished car, the first iteration of it. That’s exciting. We’re heading into uncharted territory for us. A new class is the next step up, and the competition is fierce. We’ll enjoy the journey and see how well we can do.” GT will not be ignored, as James also expects to announce the scale and series of the team’s 2025 GT efforts at a later date. Right now, the team fields multiple GT3- and GT4-spec Aston Martins across both international and domestic sports car championships. “The end goal is to give opportunities to people that deserve it. Without a GT presence, it’d stop after GT4. Gabe (Newell, team co-founder) is very adamant we continue the ladder system and have a home for people deserving it. We’ll stay present likely in all three categories,” James said. Keeping It All in the Family The Heart of Racing continues to race for Seattle Children’s Cardiology Research Fund. “That’s still very much part of the original DNA of the program: to raise money for pediatric cardiac care at Seattle Children’s Hospital,” James said. “They are still a great partner of ours. Every lap in some form or another, we give back to the hospital.” The Heart of Racing’s driver roster, though expansive, reads like a “who’s who” of current sports car stars and they work together as part of a tight-knit, family unit. |
| In IMSA this year alone, Gunn, Riberas and Mario Farnbacher have been in the team’s No. 23 GTD PRO car with De Angelis, James, Pumpelly, Zacharie Robichon and Marco Sorensen in the No. 27 GTD car. That roster expands with Daniel Mancinelli joining James and Riberas in its WEC entry. “Continuity is good, but it’s also drivers who have already driven for the team before. Spencer’s new this year, and everyone else has driven for us before or is doing the long races,” James said. “In an ideal world you’d have the same lineup at every race, but with the (series schedule) clashes this year it wasn’t possible.” The team’s expansion and future plans have not come at the expense of the core of its mission, James said. “Any success for the team or drivers that have been part of Heart of Racing makes you feel good,” he said. “It’s a very close-knit group. We all work for each other and can’t do anything without each other. Gabe gives us these opportunities to fulfill our dreams and we try to do that every day, especially when we’re at a racetrack! “Roman (and) I met six years ago for the first time at Daytona, and I said if the opportunity ever arises I would love to drive with him again. He’s delivered twofold. “We get to do so much fun stuff, sometimes it’s hard to look back! I just got off the plane from Brazil, I’m at Silverstone now, and the Hypercar is about to go out. Life’s good.” |
