Bold Strategy Call at VIR Propels De Angelis into GTD Points Lead

Photo: Sam Cobb/IMSA

A bold call for Maxime Martin to stretch the fuel mileage of his The Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 in last month’s Michelin GT Challenge has propelled co-driver Roman De Angelis to the GTD points lead heading into this weekend’s title-deciding Motul Petit Le Mans.

The 21-year-old Silver-rated Canadian enters Saturday’s ten-hour enduro at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta with a 45-point lead over Team Korthoff Motorsports’ Stevan McAleer after recording a second place class finish in Virginia.

It came amid an up-and-down season for the Ian James-led operation, which didn’t reach the GTD podium until the sixth round of the season at Belle Isle in June.

Given the challenging start to the year, De Angelis admitted he didn’t expect to be sitting in the points lead with one round to go.

“Based on where we were performance-wise last year, in terms of results, we had one [finish] outside of the top-five,” De Angelis said. “That’s what it took for us to finish third in the championship.

“The fact that we’ve had some really unlucky races this year I think really just shows how competitive the season has been for everyone.

“I think everyone has had really good weekends and really bad weekends.

“[Winward Racing] has had some great results. They’ve had a lot of pace all year but sometimes it hasn’t gone their way. I think that’s kind of been the case for everyone.

“We’ve been the one to have the least bad luck, or make the most out of situations.

“I think a lot of it was from really good strategy calls. At VIR, the team put a lot on the line to get us in the position we are and did a very off-strategy sort of move.

“As a team we’ve progressed over last year… I think we’re in a good position.”

De Angelis called co-driver Martin a “magician” for his 1 hour and 14-minute closing stint at VIR that was ultimately rewarded with a second place result, behind the class-winning No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo duo of Russell Ward and Philip Ellis.

“It was definitely not a fun one to sit and watch,” De Angelis said. “It’s never really enjoyable sitting and watching when your teammate is in a good position anyways, it’s stressful.

“We really had to take a risk. We didn’t really have great pace in VIR, especially in the 27 car. We really rolled the dice and the team stayed super committed from the beginning of Maxime’s stint to saying we’ve got to save fuel.

“By the last 30 minutes, we were driving around almost three seconds slower than what the people went for the other two-stop [strategy] were doing.

“We stayed committed to doing it. I honestly don’t really understand how Maxime was able to save as much fuel as he did.

“It was pretty impressive. I definitely owe it to the team for punching the numbers and deciding this is what we had to do, and Maxime for being a magician when it comes to saving fuel.”

De Angelis will be looking for a repeat at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta this weekend, having teamed with James and now-GTD Pro driver Ross Gunn for class victory last year,.

It capped off a season that saw De Angelis and Gunn win the WeatherTech Sprint Cup title and finish third place in the season-long GTD points standings.

“We’ve always been a strong car at Road Atlanta,” De Angelis said. “It really seems to suit the Aston as a high speed flowing track, similar to Watkins Glen or Mosport.

“There’s a definite advantage there, especially being a pretty meaningful race, obviously being the championship decider.

“It’s an endurance race and is obviously long. Unlike a sprint race, qualifying doesn’t really seem to help as much. A lot of things can happen over that long time period.

“At the end of the day, you can only really do your job and the team if they execute. A lot of the other factors are out of your control.

“We hope we can get as lucky as we were last year. You never know what happens.”

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John