Busy times for the Heart of Racing team within the coming weeks
Tuesday, April 08, 2025
Starting this weekend, the teams new Valkyrie GTP entry within the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship will be back in action along that of their GTD entry for the third round and first sprint race of the IMSA season from Long Beach, California.
That will be backed up with a trip to Europe next weekend for the second round of the World Endurance Championship from Imola for their two Valkyrie Hypercars and their LMGT3 entry before returning stateside for the next round of the SRO America Series from CoTA the weekend after.
For this weekend however, it will be a reduced Aston Martin Racing powered headcount both in cars entered and drivers within the ones that are with this second-round reverting to the customary 100minute sprint around the improvised street circuit. Just twenty-six cars will compete this time around the 1.97mile circuit with the #23 Heart of Racing Valkyrie of Ross Gunn and Roman De Angelis running within a class size of ten other cars whilst double podium winners Tom Gamble and Casper Stevenson return with their #27 AMR Vantage GTD entry within the larger class size of sixteen entries. There will be no Van Der Steur entry for this sprint event as they are Endurance Cup only.
For the Aston Martin powered Valkyrie, every event is a new experience for the team, but they will have taken stock from their best global event to date at the twelve hours of Sebring back in mid-March were the cars P9 finish at the end of that event was itself a feat in achievement.
The car and extended driver crew from their GTD effort stayed on at the circuit after the twelve-hour race for further endurance testing and evaluation ahead of their next racing challenge to date – around that of a street circuit this weekend.
Joining them at the event will be the #27 Vantage GTD crew of Stevenson and Gamble again after they (with Zacharie Robichon) secured podium finishing positions within both 24 and 12hr opening rounds of the season to lay second within the GTD Championship at this time.
In a tight program of events, Practice 1, 2 and Qualifying will all be on Friday ahead of a 17:05hrs local start to the hour and forty-minute race.
Then in support of the that, the team will also be fielding their AMR Vantage GT3 for Gray Newell as he dips back into the GT America Series for its second round of the season from Long Beach. Ordinarily, the son of the team owner would be with AMR factory driver Darren Turner within the GT World Challenge Series with their Vantage GT3.
This will also be his first time around a street circuit in any series within a GT3.
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