Heart of Racing Stripped of VIR GTD Podium

Heart of Racing Team has been stripped of its second-place GTD finish in the Michelin GT Challenge at VIR for use of non-homologated parts on the No. 27 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo.

Roman de Angelis and Zach Robichon had initially finished on the podium behind the class-winning No. 32 Korthoff Preston Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 during the two-hour, 40 minute contest on Aug. 25.

However, a stewards’ bulletin published by IMSA on Monday outlines that the No. 27 car was found to have used non-homologated parts during post-race technical inspection.

As a result, the car has been placed at the back of the GTD class. This promotes the No. 78 Forte Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 to second place, while Winward Racing pairing Russell Ward and Philip Ellis moves up to third place in class.

Additionally, Aston Martin was fined $10,000 USD for violating article 2.5.1 of the GTD technical regulations.

De Angelis has dropped from sixth to eighth in the GTD drivers’ standings after losing 150 points as a result of the penalty, while the No. 27 crew drops from fifth to seventh in the teams’ standings.

Aston Martin, meanwhile, originally sat second in the GTD manufacturers’ standings only behind Mercedes-AMG, but is demoted to fifth behind Lamborghini, BMW and Lexus.

The nature of the non-homologated parts was not outlined in the stewards’ bulletin. An IMSA spokesperson told Sportscar365 that the parts were taken for further inspection after the race and were found to be outside homologation, but declined to specify which parts were impacted.

In a statement supplied to Sportscar365, an Aston Martin spokesperson declared that the penalty was due to a “clerical error” with relation to a damper mount.

“We support IMSA in its diligence in the application of the technical rules which govern the championship,” the statement read.

“This is a big part of why IMSA is a fantastic championship, and one that Aston Martin Racing [AMR] takes great pride in competing in.

“Unfortunately in this case, The Heart of Racing, through no fault of its own, have fallen foul of an AMR clerical error in relation to the labelling of an AMR homologated damper mount.

“Whilst this error did not impact performance in any way, the team have lost a result which was well earned and deserved based on their on-track performance. The issue has been identified and resolved internally.”

This story was updated at 8:15 p.m CEST (2:15 p.m. EDT) to include additional comments issued by Aston Martin