Heart of Racing finish second overall after another thrilling Petit Le Mans finale to the IMSA season
Sunday, October 13, 2024
Going into this eleventh and final round of the season, Gunn and his #23 AMR Vantage GTD Pro entry were just over one hundred points behind the Porsche driver of Laurin Heinrich and his #72 AO Racing Porsche but with over three times that number of Championship points still available, Petit Le Mans was still a three- or four-way battle for the overall win. This time, Gunn would have both Alex Riberas and Roman De Angelis to help him achieve those goals and him and the team.
Unlike the Team TGM AMR Vantage GT4 powered team that ran this weekend before finally scooping the top prize within their IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Series, the Heart of Racing didn’t have the added pressures of defending that slender points margin and going into this final ten-hour race, but that wasn’t being felt by the AO Racing crew at the time as they took Pole in Qualifying alongside a P3 Qualifying position for the #23.
Heart of Racings second AMR Vantage GTD Pro entry within the #27 car for Mario Farnbacher, Zacharie Robichon and Marco Sorensen would start only their second within the GTD Pro class from P8 of the thirteen strong grid.
Heart of Racings second AMR Vantage GTD Pro entry within the #27 car for Mario Farnbacher, Zacharie Robichon and Marco Sorensen would start only their second within the GTD Pro class from P8 of the thirteen strong grid.
As the race started under warm autumnal sunshine however, heartbreak quickly befell the #44 Magnus Racing AMR Vantage GTD of John Potter, Andy Lally and Spencer Pumpelly as what was first thought to be a driveshaft issue eventually resulted in being diagnosed as terminable gearbox issue. Their race was run even before the race had settled in any rhythm.
Cycling through the hours, numerous caution periods that brought the class packs back together again, the two Heart of Racing cars had managed to keep themselves very much in contention with the #23 in third and the #27 in fifth in class as the final hours of the race descended into darkness.
At late caution threw out all last-minute bets on the result as that left the remaining cars just a thirty-five-minute sprint to determine – not just the result of the race but also the many other undecided championship winning positions.
Unfortunately, Lady Luck wasn’t to be smiling down upon the team this year as the #23 succeeded in securing another P3 podium finish at the end (with the #27 being listed as P4 finishers as well) but that wasn’t enough for them to lift the overall crown despite the #72 OR Racing Porsche finishing down in P11.
Unfortunately, Lady Luck wasn’t to be smiling down upon the team this year as the #23 succeeded in securing another P3 podium finish at the end (with the #27 being listed as P4 finishers as well) but that wasn’t enough for them to lift the overall crown despite the #72 OR Racing Porsche finishing down in P11.
Provisional results from IMSA confirm that Heinrich eventually finished with 3122 points and Gunn just four points behind at the end for the Brit to still claim a very credible runners up position for himself, the team and AMR.
Next season, the team are of course going to debut their new Aston Martin Valkyrie GTP car for the first time at the Rolex 24 from Daytona. 2024 season may have now finished but 2025 has already begun.
Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media