Photo: Mike Levitt/IMSA
The Heart of Racing team principal Ian James said he’s waiting on the FIA and ACO to make its decision on which manufacturers will be represented in the LMGT3 class next year, although is hopeful Aston Martin will receive two berths in the new-for-2024 class.
The American squad, which took over NorthWest AMR’s GTE-Am entry earlier this year, has expressed continued ambitions of remaining in the world championship next year when it transitions to GT3-spec machinery.
Speaking with Sportscar365, James said TF Sport’s recent announcement that it will switch to Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs doesn’t necessarily change its outlook.
“I don’t think the TF Sport situation affects us really in terms of what potentially we could have done next year with the manufacturer but really it’s just down to WEC and the ACO and the FIA to see which manufacturers get entries,” James said.
“But I’m hopeful that there’ll be Aston there. We would definitely like to be in WEC next year.”
Should Aston Martin be confirmed in LMGT3 and it selects Heart of Racing, either in a single-car or two-car capacity, James said they would likely continue to work closely with Prodrive, which has been the backbone of its GTE-Am program this year.
“We work closely with those guys and we have for the last three years actually,” he said.
“There’s a lot of transfer between the people that come to America from Prodrive so we have a really good relationship and in some shape or form. I’m sure that would continue.”
When asked if the team could consolidate its resources and shift away from SRO America competition to focus entirely on the WEC and IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, James indicated that everything is open for evaluation.
“They’re pretty separate teams in terms of like the SRO group and the IMSA group but we definitely have to look at it,” he said.
“We’re going to continue with the female driver program so that definitely needs a home, where that is I’m not 100 percent sure next year but we’ve enjoyed our time in GT4 and that’ll probably continue.”
Missing Monza WEC Round ‘Always Planned’
James said they had always planned to miss this weekend’s 6 Hours of Monza round due to its clash with the WeatherTech Championship round at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, where it is fielding a pair of Aston Martin Vantage GT3s.
“When we rescued the NorthWest entry when Paul Dalla Lana pulled out, we already committed to doing all the IMSA schedules so that was always part of our deal that we wouldn’t be able to do that unfortunately,” he said.
“That was always part of the original intention and plan and agreement.
“We actually did a couple of test days [at Monza] before Le Mans to get used to the low downforce and it’s a lot of fun there and I really enjoy the WEC scene so yeah, [we’re] disappointed not to be there but pre-existing commitments.”
Davey Euwema contributed to this report
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