Gunn, De Angelis Aiming Valkyrie “Crossover” Will Bring Gains

Photo: Ross Gunn FB

Ross Gunn and Roman De Angelis are hoping the lessons learned in the early season IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship races with the Aston Martin Valkyrie will be able to “crossover” into the team’s second attempt at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The Heart of Racing Team duo rejoin the Nos. 007 and 009 crews, respectively, for next weekend’s French endurance classic, marking their first time back in the FIA World Endurance Championship Hypercar squad since last year’s season-ending 8 Hours of Bahrain.

The UK-based Aston Martin operation ran as two-driver squads in the WEC races at Imola and Spa-Francorchamps, amid the postponement of the Qatar 1812km, a race that both Gunn and De Angelis were scheduled to contest.

In fact, neither driver has been part of Heart of Racing’s pre-Le Mans preparations in Europe, although Gunn feels Sunday’s test day could offer an opportune time for both of the IMSA GTP regulars to get back up to speed.

“It’s been good to see the progress the WEC team has made,” Gunn told Sportscar365.

“Obviously to have a fourth place finish in Spa and hopefully what was going to be a likely two cars in the points, it was great to see.

“I think on the IMSA side, we’ve had some much better pace than we had this time last year. Unfortunately it hasn’t transitioned into results yet, but I’m really looking forward to getting to Le Mans.

“We’re on the up as a team. Hopefully that will continue.”

Gunn feels the collaboration between the UK and Arizona-based operations has been “getting better and better.”

“Obviously for both Roman and I, the first time that we step into the 007 and 009 for the entire year will be at Le Mans,” he said.

“For sure there’s going to be some crossover of information [this weekend] and hopefully that will only take us forward.”

De Angelis added: “I think the WEC side this year has really stepped up a notch and developed the car from last year in terms of returning to these tracks where they’re able to compete at a higher level.

“Obviously that showed with their results the last few races.

“It’s nice to jump into a car that you know has had a lot of pace this year, at an event we all love.”

When asked about their goals for Le Mans, De Angelis feels they can definitely improve on their results from the car’s maiden appearance last year.

The Valkyries, driven by De Angelis, Marco Sorensen and Alex Riberas (No. 009) and Gunn, Harry Tincknell and Tom Gamble (No. 007) finished 12th and 15th, respectively.

“If we look at Le Mans last year, it was the first points finish in WEC for the Aston Martin Valkyrie Hypercar program,” said De Angelis.

“And if you look at the momentum they’ve had [so far this year], a top-five, I think would be fantastic and obviously everyone wants to stand on the overall podium at one point.

“That’s maybe shooting for the stars a little bit but anything’s possible. Who knows what can happen.”

Gunn, meanwhile, believes Le Mans could help jumpstart even more progress with the program, in both championships.

“Like with any new program that starts two to three years later than everybody else, you have to be realistic in the first year,” he said.

“We always knew the first year was going to be a learning year.

“I definitely believe that Petit Le Mans was slightly unexpected but we had a very good race there and then some small highlights like pole in the quali session in Bahrain.

“We had multiple points finishes in WEC as well, and in IMSA, we were running P4 at both Long Beach and Laguna and a few things happened that were out of our control.

“That for me is a very good sign of progress and one I think as a team that we can be very proud of for the second year.

“Now for the second half of the year, we want to be fighting regularly for podiums.”

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