“Everything Came Together” For Heart of Racing Double Win

Photo: Rick Dole/IMSA

Ross Gunn said “everything came together” for The Heart of Racing to score a double victory on team principal Ian James’ birthday in Saturday’s FCP Euro Northeast Grand Prix.

The Aston Martin squad notched wins in both GTD Pro and GTD in the GT-only IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship round at Lime Rock Park, which saw controlling runs by the two Vantage GT3s.

While it marked the second class win of the season for the No. 27 crew of Roman De Angelis and Marco Sorensen, the No. 23 Aston of Ross Gunn and Alex Riberas broke an 11-race winless streak dating back to Watkins Glen 2022, a race that the team also doubled up at.

“This was mega important,” Gunn said. “We’ve been searching to get a clean race in for quite a while and it’s been such a tough year.

“Things just haven’t been able to click but this weekend, everything came together.

“We weren’t particularly expecting this from the Free Practice sessions but we did some amazing changes to the car before quali and in the race we had an awesome car.

“A lot of that is thanks to the hard work of the team. Without those guys, the last couple of weeks, none of this would have been possible.

“We had a big shunt at the Mosport race and that required a lot of work from the team between this race and the last race. That’s for them for sure.

“It’s also mega to get the double win for the team as well with Roman and Marco, particularly on Ian James’ birthday.

“It’s a really special day and I think we’re going to remember this one for a long time.”

As Gunn referenced, their win came in effectively a brand-new chassis that had to be built up following the Englishman’s accident at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park two weeks ago, triggered by another GTD Pro competitor, that destroyed the primary No. 23 Aston Martin.

“I think especially thanks to the crew that did such a phenomenal job preparing the car,” Riberas said.

“It’s a brand-new car; the guys spent a lot of nights working at the workshop making sure the car was ready.

“From the second the car hit the [ground] in FP1 yesterday, it worked immediately. That’s only thanks to them. It’s a huge effort and I think the victory goes to the crew.”

James added: “Just for the team, the effort they’ve put in this year. We started off great at Daytona with the 27 car. The 23 has had a lot of bad luck.

“We’ve shown glimpses of brilliance and then we’ve shot ourselves in the foot on other occasions.

“Today, for a start, that 23 car was destroyed at Mosport. We had to build a brand new car up from a new shell, so that was a lot of work for the guys and the crew.

“It never ran before it got here and it’s been faultless.

“The crew and the driving teams on both cars have just executed fully.

“Sometimes when you’re in a race like this, and you’ve got to choose your strategy and choose your path, you go from the lead to fifth or sixth and you sometimes question yourself.

“But it’s kind of like gambling. You’ve always got to stay the course and stay with your plan. Luckily today it worked out and I couldn’t be prouder.

“What an awesome gift for me.”

No. 27 Aston Martin Enjoys GTD Points Haul 

Having entered the weekend at a 212-point deficit to the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing duo Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow, Heart of Racing’s De Angelis and Sorensen have closed the gap to 86 points following the GTD class win and the BMW pairing’s eighth place result on Saturday.

“I think it was really important,” De Angelis said.

“Being at the halfway point and cresting over the mid season, I think it’s time for us to really make progress on the 1 car; they’ve had a really strong year and have pulled out a decent gap, a big number going into this weekend, of points.

“Obviously it was unfortunate they had a bad day but to win on the day they struggled quite a bit means a lot. I think it’s good to close the points gap.

“There’s still a lot of racing left but we’ll see if we can keep the ball rolling.”

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