Heart of Racing chasing that class title as IMSA rounds off for another season at Petit Le Mans

It was just a week ago that we reported upon the last round of the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship as that series GTP, LMP2, GTD Pro and GTD entries battled out another standard two hours and forty-minute race around the infield circuit of Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

At that event, all looked to be running surprisingly smoothly for the Aston Martin Valkyrie GTP and two Aston Martin Racing Vantage GTD Pro and GTD entries – well, right up until the final Safety Car intervention that eventually saw the #23 GTP and #68 Vantage GTD Pro entries drop back within their respective classes whilst the GTD championship chasing #27 Heart of Racing AMR Vantage of Eduardo Barrichello could do no more than fifth in class.

 

Next weekend’s final round at the Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta and the series traditional event of Petit Le Mans sees all three cars return plus one other GTD to round off the 2026 season with a simple ten hour into the night race.

Completing their second season within IMSA (but only their first full season having skipped the opening round at Daytona last year) sees both Ross Gunn and Roman De Angelis get joined again by Alex Riveras for this nearly once around the clock race as they and the Heart of Racing team look to push the performance success of their car to higher levels have ran quite legitimately within the top five last time out at IMS.

 

Championship wise – that was never quite the plan again in only year two of the only true road derived hypercar chassis running within the IMSA GTP class again with good old BoP sometimes never being their friend that would otherwise let their V12 normally aspirated engine sing.

Next down the order is the #68 GTD Pro entry from the YRB Racing Car Blanche AMR Vantage GTD of Valentin Hasse-Clot and Marco Sorensen as they did last time out at IMS but this time, they are joined by fellow AMR factory driver Matia Drudi for this season finale. Being only part-time entrants and then mainly for the last three rounds of the season, everything is gearing the team up for a full GTD pro assault on the class with Hasse-Clot and Sorensen already confirmed for the shorter sprint races.

 

Finally, but by no means least for the full season runners at least, the #27 Heart of Racing AMR Vantage GTD of Barrichello does still have GTD Drivers Championship possibilities going into this round but the Brazilian now has a substantial points deficit to first overcome and then exceed at the end of next weekend’s race if he is to become the latest class champion for the Heart of Racing team.

Joining him at circuit in the south-east of the country will again be his more usual stable mate in Tom Gamble whilst they will be joined Zacharie Robichon as he did at the Rolex 24 this year where the #27 car finished third in class.

 

Making something of a rare comeback to end their own part-time season within IMSA this year with some more fun both on and off track is the #44 Magnus Racing AMR Vantage GTD of John Potter, Spencer Pumpelly and Mario Farnbacher.

They too were at the Rolex 24 this season where they beat the #27 car by one to finish second overall in class at the end of that event with that and another race at Watkins Glen later in the season being their only run outs. Their inclusion brings the GTD entry up to eighteen cars out of total expected grid entry of some fifty-four cars for the race that is scheduled to start at 12:10hrs local on Saturday.

Photo credits – Teams / social media