Heart of Racing take on the challenge of Long Beach's street circuit this weekend

A tight schedule lays ahead for this weekend’s latest round of the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship from Long Beach, California as it shares the coastal road circuit with the headlining IndyCar Series.

Featuring a much-reduced grid from last time out at Laguna Seca, this weekend sees just six DPi’s, three GTLM’s but seventeen GTD cars take to the tight 1.96 mile circuit with the two Heart of Racing Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3’s again taking up two of those positions.

Laguna Seca was something of a reality check for the Heart team after a recent long string of podium finishes for the #23 car of Roman de Angelis and Ross Gunn after the lost their qualifying position at Laguna Seca due to a technicality of Gunn exiting the car before the formal end of the session, to be then spun around in the opening minutes of the race before the crew to battle hard to achieve a P5 position to help their overall and sprint championship positions along.

Laguna Seca was also the first time that the time had run their second AMR for drivers Ian James and Alex Riberas since the latter’s return to the States from his yearlong ‘racing sabbatical’ in New Zealand! For them, the race ended on the first lap with James having dropped a wheel off track, spun around mid-pack and was collected by a GTD car from behind – contact which eventually put both cars out of the race.

This Friday sees the IMSA paddock complete both Free Practice rounds and qualifying ahead of Saturdays 1 hour 40 minutes race.

Photo credits – HoRT / CSJ Motorsport / F Lagunas