Heart of Racing lose on on podium but close in on IMSA Championship lead

Having had de Angelis qualify the car in P7 ahead of Sunday’s race, a post Qualifying penalty for another car saw them eventually start from P6 on the grid in a race that would also feature the DPi prototypes and the LMP3 classes amongst the other twenty-four runners.

Surviving the chaotic opening laps, de Angelis soon become ‘stuck’ behind the #1 Lamborghini, unable to pass for the opening fifty minutes of the race around the tight and twisty 2.4-mile Mid-Ohio circuit.

Exceeding his minimum drive time of forty-five minutes, the silver ranked Canadian eventually handed the car over to Gunn for his first taste of the sprint races that adorn the IMSA calendar but with differing pit schedule amongst the GTD runners, that stop had him run as low as P9 in class before his second and final full-service stop with an hour to go.

Then with just under an hour to go, the race suffered from its first and only Full Course Yellow for a Porsche stuck in the final corners gravel trap. Losing nearly fifteen minutes to that caution, a super charged Gunn quickly found himself also ‘stuck’ behind the same #1 Lamborghini.

Try as he might, the circuit and calibre of those competing left the situation even by the time the chequered flag flew for the #23 to miss the podium by less than a third of a second. The only consolation was that that finish placed the team just off the head of the GTD Championship in P2 as they move onto a street race venue in Detroit in two week’s time.

Photo credits - HoRT