De Angelis, HOR Overcame “All the Chaos” for GTD Title

Photo: Mike Levitt/IMSA

Roman De Angelis said Saturday’s Motul Petit Le Mans was filled with lots of “chaos” and unexpected incidents that had put his and The Heart of Racing’s GTD title hopes in jeopardy.

The Silver-rated Canadian came out as the solo champion in the class, finishing just 23 points ahead of Wright Motorsports’ Jan Heylen and Ryan Hardwick following a nearly race-long struggle for the team’s No. 27 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 De Angelis shared with Maxime Martin and team principal Ian James.

The trio crossed the line seventh, two laps behind the class-winning No. 66 Gradient Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo22.

“There were definitely lots of lows today up until now,” said De Angelis. “It was a pretty hectic race.

“We qualified in a pretty good spot but just very messy. We went through a couple of steering wheels today, swapping them during the pit stops and driver changes.

“Honestly there were just a lot of issues like a drive through [penalty].

“We really just fought to try and get that lap back the whole race because the points gap was basically one position that we won by.

“The team did an awesome job through all of the chaos and through points where we were very far away from getting the championship to keep motivated and keep fighting.

“It definitely all paid off in the end. I’m just really happy to come home with the championship. I wish I could have my other teammates here. I think they deserve it as much as I do.”

When asked by Sportscar365 at what point did he think his championship would be over, De Angelis replied: “The first nine hours and 59 minutes pretty much!” and revealed a late-race scare with the Wright Porsche of Heylen, which came just prior to the race-ending caution.

“It definitely wasn’t going our way,” he said. “Two laps before the caution we got taken out by the car that we were actually fighting the championship with.

“It sent the car off into the grass at that point. I thought it was over and definitely not the way you’d want it to be over with stuff like that happening.

“It was just a tough race in general but the guys did an awesome job in the pits and they just motivating me through the whole night, which was very chaotic on both ends. Just really fortunate to be part of the group.”

“We had been a lap down for quite some time. Maxime somehow ended up being in front of the Wright car, who was a lap ahead of us. The last stint, going into Turn 6, they put a bumper on us and took us off into the grass.

“That is where we pretty much thought it was over at that point. It was fortunate that it didn’t end in that way, which would have been pretty awful.”

It marked the Heart of Racing’s first season-long GTD teams’ title following De Angelis and Gunn’s WeatherTech Sprint Cup triumph last year.

“There were definitely a lot of highs and lows,” De Angelis said. “I think it shows, to get a championship after the amount of chaos and differentiating results we had shows how strong the season was in the GTD field.”

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