After a GTD only event last time out about a month ago from the picturesque Virginia International Raceway, it’s all back to happy IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship families next weekend as the full suite of classes visits Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Round ten of another eleven round season, we have all seen just how these championship battles have been heating up upon track recently where both the GTD Pro and GTD class battles have remained spirited by competitive, the battles within the headlining GTP class has almost become personal to a point of almost being dangerous.

 

That was reflected upon track the last time all the classes raced at Road America but there were still traces of some of that overzealous driver going on within the GTD ranks last time out at VIR where the then GTD class leading #27 Heart of Racing was penalised for contact which dropped them down both the race order and within the championship standing itself. Hopefully, Race Control has now made its mark, and the race next weekend from IMS will remain competitive but thoroughly respectful.

Forty-four cars are being listed across GTP, LMP2, GTD Pro and the GTD classes with one Aston Martin/Aston Martin Racing powered crew being listed within each class other than the LMP2 class (obviously). The #23 Heart of Racing AM Valkyrie of both Roman de Angelis and Ross Gunn will be back after their very encouraging P5 finish at Road America at the start of August as well as the #68 Car Blanche entry within GTD Pro (for the remainder of the season) and the #27 HoRT car in GTD.

 

Valentin Hasse-Clot again pairs with fellow AMR factory driver Marco Sorensen as he did at VIR where the new combination finished fourth in class after their P5 start whilst the #27 is again being piloted by Eduardo Barrichello and Tom Gamble for this two hours forty-minute race on Sunday.

Photo credits – Teams / social media

 

 

The Heart of Racing team extended their best collective performance within the FIA World Endurance Championship from Hyperpole and into the race itself yesterday as both blue Aston Martin Racing Vantage LMGT3 powered crews finished on the class podium but with one of their Hypercar entries only just missing out on similar.

Saturday had already seen the #27 secure pole position for Sundays six-hour race at the Circuit of the Americas, just ahead of its #23 sister car for the first ever front row lockout in the championship whilst the #007 Valkyrie had claimed its best Hyperpole finish to date with a P4 starting position.

 

All of that work could have been literally washed away at the start of this fifth round of the season as the heavens opened around parts of the Texan circuit just as the cars were going to the grid. Race Control fortunately became wise to the developing situation, allowing the grid to procession around the circuit at a Safety Car enforced speed that helped to dissipate the water, allowing the race to kick off as designed in its two-by-two formation just a few laps later.

Whilst the was some side-to-side door bashing going on, especially within the opening few laps and sometimes with blue Aston upon blue Aston, all successfully made it around the circuit for the first time except for two minor spins.

 

With pole setter Gray Newell initially losing several places at the start, we presume that wise calming words over the radio from his co-drivers of Jonny Adam and Edurdo Barrichello helped the young American to calm his nerves and to pick himself up again from where he had left off in qualifying as tehir sister #27 car of Ian James jockeyed for the class lead up front.

Within the Hypercar class, the hard tyred #007 of Harry Tincknell and Ton Gamble were still able to get away and still ran better than the medium tyre shod #009 sister car of Marco Sorensen and Alex Riberas for much of the opening half of the race as (especially) the #007 race position continued to be just outside of the top five for much of the time.

 

Soon it was minimum drive time done for both Newell and James as they handed over to their silver co-drivers in Barrichello and Zacharie Robichon respectively for the middle section of the race – something that was interrupted with a somewhat prolonged Virtual Safety Car / Safety Car period whilst various issues with the circuit were sorted. When the racing did finally resume, the #007 was holding P3 overall, #009 P9 in hypercar with the #27 still at the front of the LMGT3 class but with the #23 now in hot pursuit in fourth.

Whilst most of the drivers were reporting back high tyre degradation issues with their respective Michelin and Goodyear tyres (as expected), nothing really hampered the cars for too long as the two drivers cycled through their stints within both Valkyries whilst both Vantage LMGT3 crews still had three of them in each to utilise.

 

Eventually in LMGT3, the #27 began to pull clear of its closest rivals as the race headed into its final hour for Mattia Drudi to take the chequered flag for their first race win of the season by a comfortable five second gap but with the #23 car of Adam just another couple of seconds back again to round off an American 1-3 for the team.

There was also smiles around the performance of the #007 Valkyrie as Tincknell and Gamble gambled a bit with both strategy and race craft to finally come home P4 overall for the cars best ever finish within the FIA WEC. The #009 car finished P13.

 

As the cars now head towards Japan and the next round of the season from Fuji Speedway at the end of September, those results see Adam and Newell move up to 6th in the Drivers’ Championship with the #27 crew up to 9th – all still within easy reach of the existing leaders with still three rounds to go.

Photo Credits – Team / DPPI

 

 

 

 

The Heart of Racing team produced their best collective qualifying performance to date within last night’s FIA World Endurance Championship Hyperpole session as the Circuit of the Americas.

Running again their two full season Aston Martin Valkyrie’s and two Aston Martin Racing Vantage LMGT3’s, their performances within the events earlier Free Practice sessions were at least partly recognised going through the two qualifying rounds for both the #007 and #009 Valkyries whilst both the #23 and #27 AMR Vantage powered crews improved upon their steady progress through Free Practice 1,2 and 3 to look out the front row of the LMGT3 grid.

 

Despite their early pace, it was sadly just the #007 car of Harry Tincknell and Tom Gamble who made it through qualifying and into Hyperpole after the #009 car of Marco Sorensen and Alex Riberas strangely lost over 1.2 seconds of pace between Free Practice and Qualifying. Going into the final top ten shoot out for pole, Tincknell was narrowly edged out of a P3 slot at the death for them to claim a P4 slot for today’s race.

In LMGT3, Gray Newell managed to overcome his persistent breach of track limits during Free Practice to rally to an overall lap time that crept him and his #23 car into the top ten and managed to stay there during the closing minutes of the session to claim his next passage into Hyperpole whilst the #27 car of Ian James, Zacharie Robichoin and Mattia Drudi were more comfortably positioned five places higher up.

 

Into LMGT3 Hyperpole and this time it was the turn of Eduardo Barrichello in the #23 and Robichon within the #27 cars to do their stuff and two quick ‘banker’ laps were all it took for the Brazilian to outgun his Canadian stable mate to claim his second pole position of his FIA WEC career with a lap time just 0.12 of a second quicker to put himself, Newell and birthday boy Jonny Adam at the head of the pack.

Obviously, a single lap pace of qualifying compared to another arduous six-hour race around CoTA are two different things for all concerned.

Photo credits – DPPI

 

 

 

After those six hours that were the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship’s visit to Road America at the weekend, we certainly needed time to digest exactly what did happen out on track, but whatever it was, it did leave one Aston Martin Racing powered crew with a well-earned podium finish.

Despite the mixed track conditions through Free Practice and into Qualifying didn’t seem to hamper the two AMR Vantage GTD entries from the Heart of Racing and Car Blanche teams as Zacharie Robichon secured a P3 start in that class for his #27 car, but only just ahead of Valentin Hasse-Clot and his #068 entry before a penalty for a car ahead moved them both one car forward. Further forward, Ross Gunn had again qualified the HoRT Aston Martin Valkyrie in eighth ahead of the Sunday afternoon start.

 

Cooler but importantly dry were the track conditions as the new for 2026 six-hour race got underway but with over fifty multi-classed cars upon track, it wasn’t too long before the first casualty came to bear when another GTD was ‘encouraged’ into the wall after contact from a passing GTP and into immediate retirement.

The inevitable start-stop cycle of Full Course Yellow into restart before diving sooner or later into another quickly blighted what should have been a cleaner race than what it had been until that point. By the end of the first hour, Robichon was still at the head at the GTD class whilst Hasse-Clot had already swapped out for Marius Fossard to take his first stint whilst hanging onto fourth. The #23 Valkyrie of Gunn was also hanging on in there around seventh to eighth in GTP.

 

At the two-hour mark both Heart of Racing entries had a driver change as Roman De Angelis took over the #23 Valkyrie with Eduardo Barrichello assuming control of the #27 Vantage after which, both cars slotted back into their previous racing position as two further single car incidents on track slowed things down again to aid their recovery.

The #068 Car Blanche AMR then put Trenton Estep behind the wheel and whilst that combination did slide down the GTD order somewhat, a differing pit and fuel strategy would again see their factory driver (VHC) behind the wheel again very soon whilst the Brazilian, continued to cement the hard early graft of his Canadian team-mate within the #27 car up front.

 

Going into the final seventy minutes or so of the race, the third drivers were mainly aboard as Tom Gamble was tasked with taking the #27 car to the flag with Hasse-Clot getting back into the #068 with as much fuel as his car could carry. Whilst the faster GTP prototypes were mainly squabbling amongst themselves both with contact and technical issues, that saw the #23 Valkyrie slowly lift itself up the order and into the top six for the first time in the race.

A further single car off track set up for a final twenty-five-minute dash to the flag with podium potential looking very plausible for all three Aston Martins. Hasse-Clot had managed to get his car past that of Gamble during the #27 car’s final stop to be running in third whilst the #23 was now up to fifth as the final FCY situation caused by one GTP going off alone before another GTP/GTP contact again set off the chat about driving standards changed everything yet again.

 

Those two incidents had lifted the #23 into P2 overall, with the #068 still in third but with the #27 down in fifth and with only two laps remaining, the hopes of any restart to racing looked slim.

Despite finishing second on track, there would be no trip to the podium for either Gunn or De Angelis as a late Drive Through Penalty (converted post-race into a time Penalty) saw the #23 car drop down the order as incident responsibility was cast their way.

 

Whilst the #068 crew did make it to the GTD podium with their P3 finish in class, the #23 Valkyrie still notched up another best at the circuit by beating their last years result by one but for the #27 car, Road America would become another case of what might have been. Despite leading the class for much of the race, a post-race time penalty of their own saw them tumble to P15 in class.

Photo credits – Teams / social media

 

 

The IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship enters its homeward stretch to its 2026 campaign next weekend as the combined grid of GTP, LMP2 and GTD based entries make their way to Road America Circuit near the Great Lakes for another endurance round.

Whilst the GTD based entries were running last time out at the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park three weeks ago, the prototype-based entries haven’t run since Watkins Glenn a further two weeks before that.

 

That round was certainly one to forget for the #23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Valkyrie GTP car of Ross Gunn and Roman De Angelis after the Canadian emerged from pit lane and into a wall of stationary traffic putting himself and two other cars out of the race. That lull in the schedule has at least allowed the team to make the necessary repairs to what was quite an extensively damaged Valkyrie – again all valuable information for the team running the same chassis in both IMSA and the FIA World Endurance Championship in just how the car fairs in situations like that. Fortunately, all drivers concerned were able to walk away otherwise unscathed with is the important thing at the end of the day.

Within the GTD classes, we will have just the championship leading #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 of Eduardo Barrichello, Zacharie Robichon and Tom Gamble alongside the #068 Car Blanche AMR of Valentin Hasse-Clot Trenton Estep and Marius Fossard to cheer on – ie. No return as yet of the #44 Magnus Racing AMR team this time around.

 

For the white #068 car, it’s also a return to the GTD class after both Hasse-Clot and the guesting Scot Andrews stepped into the realms of the GTD Pro class for the first time in what was only their second race together in the post Van Der Steur Racing and now Car Blanche era. Despite finishing at the back of the more established pack, the team and crew showed pace at but also indiscipline at times, something that pushed them down the order.

For the #27 Heart of Racing crew, Canada started well after Barrichello missed the home race of his FIA WEC campaign to concentrate upon his and the teams IMSA GTD hopes to secure his first pole position of the season. After the two hours and forty minutes of that race alongside De Angelis this time around, the P6 finish in class was still enough for the Brazilian to maintain his championship lead going into these four final rounds of the season.

 

Track action for the combined IMSA grid of fifty-four cars starts on Friday with Practice One before running through further practice sessions and qualifying on Saturday before being waved off to this six-hour affair at 11:40hrs local next weekend.

Photo credits – Teams / social media

 

 

The Six Hours of Sao Paulo was something of a mixed bag of results for the Heart of Racing team as their Aston Martin Racing Vantage LMGT3 crews struggled for pace whilst their Aston Martin Valkyrie Hypercar powered colleagues chalked up another milestone within the FIA World Endurance Championship.

Earlier rain had left the Interlagos circuit at least damp in places ahead of yesterday morning’s start as the #007 Valkyrie of Tom Gamble/Harry Tincknell had beaten the sister #009 car of Ale Riberas/Marco Sorenson into Hyperpole to qualifying P9 against the #009’s P15 but each of the LMGT3 crews were nearly at extreme ends to third grid.

 

Gray Newell, Kobe Pauwel and Jonny Adam had secured their first ever FIA WEC LMGT3 pole position within their #23 car whilst the sister #27 car of Ian James, Zacharie Robichon and Mattia Drudi had uncharacteristically struggled to also end up no better than P15 in class.

Come the start, Newell’s inexperience at the head of the group quickly showed within the degree of racing talent around him and the #23 car quickly tumbled down the order during the opening laps as both Valkyries also slipped back as well with both Vantages then running nose to tail to one another just prior to the end of the first hour.

 

Just after the opening hour, the #23 car also suffered a spin as another Hypercar came around the outside and whilst no real damage was done, the time lost in returning to track was considerable. A later rearward impact from the yellow Ferrari Hypercar for the #23 car (with Pauwel then behind the wheel) would result in rear defuser damage – something that would hobble the car for the rest of the race in addition to the immediate spin.

Further up the order, the respective running positions of the two Valkyrie’s was similar to that of the two Vantage LMGT3 crews for the Heart of Racing team as nether class set were seemingly able to progress themselves up the order outside of the natural cyclic movements up and down the order as each class went through the pit stop strategies.

 

Beyond the halfway point, the sunshine and residential warmth of the day began to drop as both Valkyries finally both made it into the top ten in class and with the #27 Vantage still several cars ahead of the #23 despite a drive through penalty of their own for tyre pressure irregularities.

Going into the final ninety minutes, the ambient temperature had dropped to just sixteen degrees C as the mist began to drop around the periphery of the circuit leading most to believe that rain was on its way as the two Valkyries received their final stop for service with little under fifty minutes remaining as they both defended their top ten positions in class.

 

In the glum of the Brazilian evening, the fourth round of the FIA WEC finally came to an end with the #007 taking P7 and the #009 P9 on track at least. The #27 would eventually finish P13 and the #23 P18 in class to end what quickly became for them a very disappointing weekend and with both crews failing to add a championship point to their tallies. A post -ace penalty for the #20 BMW Hypercar, however, would see the #007 car elevate up to P6 in class – the two Aston Martin Valkyries best combined finish to date within the Championship.

The next round will be the Heart of Racing's effective home race at the Circuit of The Americas at the beginning of September.

 

Photo credits – Team / DPPI / social media

 

 

 

The FIA World Endurance Championship dream continues for the #23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Racing Vantage LMGT3 crew earlier today as they went from their P3 podium finish at Le Mans last time out to LMGT3 Pole Position at the end of todays class Hyperpole.

Racing this weekend in Brazil with the fourth round of the FIA WEC season and the six hours of Sao Paulo, saw Gray Newell first set up the teams assault within Hyperpole by finishing fourth during class Qualifying before team substitute driver Kobe Pauwel go for gold in the second session.

 

Today’s results in qualifying and Hyperpole across the LMGT3 and Hypercar classes saw the #27 AMR Vantage LMGT3 finish a surprising P15 in class and not make it through to Hyperpole wilts the teams two Hypercar entries rotated on the usual qualifying format.

 

This time it was the #007 car of Tom Gamble and Harry Tincknell who progressed through to the second stage with their P10 result and will start tomorrows race from nineth on the grid whilst the #009 car of Alex Riberas and Marco Sorensen start P15 overall.

Photo credits – DPPI / Team / social media

 

With the early track sessions to the FIA World Endurance Championship’s Six Hours of Sao Paulo just about to take place for the first time later today, there’s probably just about enough time to highlight that fact.

Round four of the revised 2026 calendar, this weekend’s visit to Brazil is also the first fly away round of the season following the postponement of the scheduled opener from Qatar as well as being the first round since the 24 Hours of Le Mans back in mid-June.

 

The Heart of Racing team of course return with their pair of Aston Martin Valkyrie Hypercars as well as their pair of Aston Martin Racing Vantage LMGT3’s but with a little driver change within one of the latter’s, thanks to another diary clash with the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship.

Unfortunately for local racing hero, Brazilian Eduardo Barrichello will be missing his second home race of his so far short WEC career to concentrate upon his IMSA championship lead for the Heart of Racing team up in Canada so for him, there will be no repeat of his podium winning finish that he enjoyed last time out with the Racing Spirit of Leman team.

 

His space within the #23 HoRT AMR Vantage LMGT3 alongside both Jonny Adam and Gray Newell will be Kobe Pauwels again as was the case at the rescheduled season opener from Imola in mid-April. The #23 crew enjoyed a P3 podium winning position last time out at Le Mans.

For their sister #27 AMR Vantage LMGT3 of Ian James, Zacharie Robichon and Mattia Drudi, it will be business as usual for the regular trio having suffered terminal gear box failure at Le Mans whilst being constantly being within the top three in class during the early hours of the Sunday morning.

 

That leaves the two Aston Martin Valkyrie Hypercar entries for the back to two driver line up of both Harry Tinknell/Tom Gamble within the #007 car and Alex Riberas/ Marco Sorensen within the #009 car respectively.

Both crews enjoyed a very positive Le Mans 24Hr alongside their third-man drivers of Ross Gunn and Roman De Angelis with the #009 car again getting through to Hyperpole2 before the #007 car out finished their sister crew to attain their best ever finish to the race within the cars two-year racing history at the circuit to finish P8 and P14 respectively.

That was running under ACO rules of Balance of Performance, and it will be back to the FIA WEC version of events this time around so it will be interesting to see just how the top set Hypercar series pans out.

Two ninety-minute Free Practice sessions will fill the timetable today (Friday) before Free Practice 3 precedes Qualifying/Hyperpole on Saturday. The six-hour race is flagged off at 11:30Hrs local.

Photo credits – Team / DPPI / Social media

 

 

 

 

Yesterday’s Sahlens six hour of the Glen at the Watkins Glen International circuit in upstate New York certainly proved itself to be a messy affair where both driving standards and methods employed by Race Control will need looking at moving forward.

This time featuring the full suite of classes from the GTP, LMP2 and the two GTD classes meant for a grid size of fifty-four cars circulating around what is in places, a very tight ‘old school’ circuit.

 

Whilst the headlining GTP class was able to set their grid through conventional fastest lap means, the GTD class had to resort to a starting order according to points position within the class after their session was red flagged by an incident on track without the ability of seeing out that session because of previous delays within the race programme.

 

That meant that Ross Gunn had set a time worthy of a P9 start within the #23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Valkyrie that he shares with Roman De Angelis, but it would again be the Canadian who would be taking the start to the race on Sunday. Across the garage, the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Racing Vantage GTD of Zacharie Robichon, Tom Gamble and championship leading Eduardo Barrichello would start from pole position in class (despite setting only the second fastest lap of the session before the red flag) with the rebranded and relaunched #068 YRB Racing Car Blanche entry of Valentin Hasse-Clot, Marius Fossard and Trenton Estep claiming a P9 start in their first IMSA race since swapping over from Van Der Steur Racing.

Being an endurance round, we also welcomed back the #44 Magnus Racing AMR of John Potter, Spencer Pumpelly and Mario Farnbacher as all three drivers celebrated a racing milestone within the series with a P19 start.

 

Unfortunately and just forty-five minutes into the race, things went sour for the Heart of Racing team as the #23 Valkyrie was exiting pit lane after service and was apparently passing the GTD class for the class split during an ongoing Safety Car period, that the pack ahead suddenly stopped leaving the #23 nowhere to go other than into the rear of two other cars. That was their race done on the spot with two GTP’s and one GTD car all suffering terminal damage but most importantly – all drivers were OK.

Several needless incidents later and having just passed halfway on the race clock, another green flag first lap after another safety car period saw a GTD Pro car make contact with a GTD car to spun both of them out which in the chaos of the situation unravelling before them saw other cars collect those cars on the way through – one of them the #44 Magnus Racing AMR. That incident saw a further four cars taken out of the race!

 

There was eventually some good times to record however, as whilst the pole setting #27 HoRT AMR GTD fell back down the order, we did see the #068 Car Blanche entry come through at the end with Hasse-Clot behind the wheel as he secured for his new race colleagues their first taste of racing success with a P26 overall and P3 in class finish at the end. The #27 car would eventually finish P5 in class which is still enough for the Brazilian to maintain his GTD Championship lead in the overall standings as the GTD’s now look to Canada for their next round in two weeks’ time.

Photo credits – Teams / social media