The Heart of Racing secures a team best GTP class finish at Road America

Elkhart Lake, Wisc. (August 4, 2025) - The Heart of Racing brought home a sixth place finish during the Motul SportsCar Weekend at Road America in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s top class. The team’s GTD entry fought back to finish eighth after enduring serious damage only 27 laps into the race. 

Ross Gunn and Roman De Angelis piloted the No. 23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Valkyrie this weekend in the GTP category. Gunn qualified for the duo on Saturday in tenth, just 0.681-seconds off from the pole setter on the legendary 4-mile Wisconsin circuit. 

On Sunday, Gunn drove the first hour of the race, moving his way to sixth after a great strategy call kept the Brit out on track during the second caution period of the race, while several GTP cars opted to pit. 

De Angelis took over for the remaining 42 laps, maintaining a top eight position for a majority of his stint. During the final caution of the race the Valkyrie was called down pit lane for a splash of fuel and four fresh tires, the crew executed a great pit stop to gain a position. De Angelis took the checkered flag in sixth, securing the team's best finish to date with the Aston Martin Valkyrie IMSA GTP program. 

“A very strong weekend and showing from the team,” said Gunn. “I’m proud of everybody that’s working tirelessly to improve the performance of the car. We were able to hold on to a lot of cars there and even pass a few. It was just a really fun afternoon. We are not where we want to be yet, but we’re definitely showing people the progress we are making. We have quite a big break until Indy so we’ll have time again to figure out how to improve even more. I think this was a bit of a breakout race for us. Let’s roll into the last two rounds of the season and keep pushing forward.”

“It was a good weekend for us, this our best result so far in the Heart of Racing Aston Martin Valkyrie,” said De Angelis. “The crew did an amazing job and Ross did a great job with qualifying just six tenths off pole. We are at the longest track and had the closest gap we’ve had to the front. The race was great. I really enjoyed finally getting to race against guys that have been here for years now in the GTP class. It was a great weekend and I can’t wait to build on it for Indy.” 

Casper Stevenson and Tom Gamble made their Road America debuts on-board the No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage competing in the GTD category. Stevenson secured his highest IMSA qualifying position with a 2:03.908-second lap earning a second place starting position. 

After losing a position at the start, Stevenson maintained third for his 22 lap stint. Stevenson was called down pit lane a lap before a caution broke out for a driver change, four tires, and fuel. Gamble restarted from second, but in an effort to avoid a car spun on track, the Vantage was hit by a Mustang causing significant damage to the drivers side. Luckily the No. 27 Vantage was drivable and Gamble was able to make his last pit stop just five laps after the field went back to green. Though the team crossed the finish line in eighth, the team closed the gap in the provisional championship points standings from 124 points to a 117 point difference. 

“The weekend was pretty good,” said Stevenson. “A lot of positives and we had good pace again. Qualifying was good and we ran a good race, but we just got very unlucky with the incident. After that, we were lucky to finish with the amount of damage we had. I was pretty happy with my qualifying run and my stint this weekend, so we’ll try to build on that for the next one.” 

“Not quite the race we hoped for,” said Gamble. “Casper did a mega job in qualifying, and we had really strong pace in the race as well. I think we definitely hoped for a little bit more from today's race, and it was all looking pretty positive. Then just got caught up in someone else's incident at the restart and then the car had a big hit. Full credit to the Heart of Racing crew for putting such a strong car together. From there, it was just kind of damage limitation really with the performance that we had. A bit of a shame, but looking at the positives, we gained points on our championship rivals. It was a little bit frustrating, but that's the way it is.”  

The Heart of Racing will be back up at Elkhart Lake in just two weeks with SRO America, August 15-17, before the IMSA GT squad goes to VIRginia International Raceway August 22-24.