Heart of Racing Looking at “All Avenues” for 2024 LMGT3 Effort

Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA

The Heart of Racing is hoping to mount a full season FIA World Endurance Championship program in 2024 after missing out on a full-time entry in the globe-trotting series this year according to team principal Ian James.

James revealed to Sportscar365 that the defending IMSA GTD championship-winning squad was denied a full-season GTE-Am entry for this season, with its Aston Martin Vantage GTE instead placed as the first reserve by the WEC selection committee.

Additionally, the American squad was confirmed as the tenth and final reserve entry for Le Mans, which James said has since been pulled by the team.

Sportscar365 understands that the team’s proposed WEC effort this year would have come with logistical support from Prodrive and was likely to have featured an Aston Martin factory driver alongside a Silver pilot and Bronze-rated James.

“Unfortunately we didn’t get an entry this year; we were very close,” he told Sportscar365. “It’s definitely a team goal to be a part of the WEC and go to Le Mans in the future.

“We’ll look at all avenues to do that.”

While admitting it’s now irrelevant, James said they already had a contingency plan in place to contest both the full WEC and IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship seasons despite two date clashes.

The WEC program would have come in addition to its full-time WeatherTech Championship GTD Pro/GTD effort, two-car effort in Pirelli GT4 America and 24H Series program.

“We like to be ambitious,” James said.

James said the WEC’s transformation to GT3-spec machinery in 2024 doesn’t make a significant difference although noted the benefits of being able to run the same machinery in multiple series.

“I don’t think GT3 makes it any different from GTE, to be honest, for us,” he said.

“For sure with it being GT3 around the world, we can race in any of these big races if we get an entry, with the same equipment and the same knowledge base, which is always an advantage.”

Heart of Racing’s potential bid for the LMGT3 class in 2024 comes amid rumors of longtime Aston Martin squad TF Sport looking to switch manufacturers amid the arrival of Chevrolet and Ford to the GT3 arena.

James said it remains to be seen if the team will attempt to submit one or two entry requests in the class, which could be dependent on manufacturer nominations.

“There’s talk of two cars per manufacturer but whether the manufacturers split that up into different teams or there’s cooperation, I still think that’s TBD,” he said.

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