It was another tough and sometimes physical day at the IMSA office for the sole running Heart of Racing entry at last night’s fifth round of the Weathertech Sportscar Championship around the improvised street circuit of downtown Detroit.
Again in support of the IndyCar Series, this weekend’s episode was just for the headlining GTP and GTD classes putting out a grid size of twenty-one cars that still made the 1.7mile circuit appear extremely tight.
Ross Gunn again got things underway in Qualifying with a P9 position for the #23 Aston Martin Valkyie that he shares with Roman De Angelis within the IMSA series with their being little expectation upon the car and crew already knowing that the power characteristics and available BoP of the car never favoured the V12 normally aspirated engine.
Gunn also took the start of the one-hundred-minute race where it took little over four minutes for the first Full Course Yellow to be thrown for debris after an opening lap bash between two prototypes. That used up the five-minute restriction placed upon all crews in GTP before driver changes could be made but the #23 car elected to stay out for a further fifteen minutes or so.
Mistakenly, the crew were then penalised at that stop for having too many crew members over the wall at the refuel and driver change sequence meaning that any remaining hope of a decent finish evaporate with an untimely Drive Through Penalty next time around for De Angelis.
With another GTP crew also falling foul to a DTP of their own, the #23 car quickly became the target for the #11 car but that drivers method in their manner of passing and then forcing the #23 into a sideways glance with the wall earned himself another stop +60 seconds penalty for their efforts. Thankfully, the #23 was able to continue.
Two more successive caution periods later within the final fifteen minutes, the Valkyrie was running as high as P8 in class, but the Vanthoor brothers were soon as able to relegate the #23 car back down to tenth at the end as the team’s and driver’s attentions quickly turn to the Le Mans 24 Test Day next weekend in France.
Photo credits – Team / AMR / social media