A repeat of this wouldn't go amiss for the Heart of Racing team at this weekend's Petit Le Mans IMSA finale
Monday, November 08, 2021
Sadly, more series will be rounding off another very exciting and fruitful year for some season this weekend as both the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship and its supporting Michelin Pilot Challenge Series race out their outstanding Championship’s to a conclusion around the iconic circuit of Road Atlanta.
For the IMSA series itself, that means the final endurance round of the Championship for the Heart of Racing Aston Martin Racing Vantage GTD crew of Roman de Angelis and Ross Gunn as they chase another first for themselves and AMR after having both secured the Sprint Championship at the last round at Virginia International Raceway last month.
A change in their cars Balance of Performance has blighted the #23 car since their string of podium success in class during the middle of the season to a point now where they are having to race their socks off just to pick up the scraps just off the podium each time so we will have to wait to see if any further adjustments have been made to any of the platforms within the grid.
For the last three rounds of the season, the Heart of Racing team have been entering two AMR Vantage GTD’s – one for De Angelis and Gunn and the other for team boss and former De Angelis co-driver Ian James with Alex Riberas.
For this year’s Motul Petit Le Mans finale, the regular #23 crew is again re-joined by James for this extended race as the team’s second car steps to one side having served its purpose in keeping James GT3 race fresh (as possible) leading into this event.
Presently laying third in the GTD Championship table behind the Laurens Vanthoor/Zacharie Robichon Porsche and the Bryan Sellars/Madison Snow Lamborghini, the #23 crew will need something like a class win (certainly podium) to help overcome their 177-point deficit to the leaders going into the race and even then, they may be dependent upon the results of others?
Fifteen GTD cars help make up the 43 car multi-class grid for this ten-hour race that takes place on Saturday.
Photo credits – IMSA / HoRT / CSJ Motorsport / F Lagunas
