Heart of Racing wins both GTD Pro and GTD in Lime Rock Park

IMSA

Jul 23

Written By Car Racing Reporter

📷 Courtesy of IMSA: #27 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 leading the pack of GT3s

What a race! it was fascinating with all drivers driving brilliantly following each other with

a hard fought victory for Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 who have doubled up in GTD PRO and GTD,
a brilliant stint of Julian Andlauer who moved up from P15 to P6
a GTD leading #1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 of Madison Snow losing any contention chance after being assessed a drive-through penalty
a #3 Corvette losing P3 after Taylor lost almost 10 seconds as he couldn’t get the car back into gear.

Aston Martin, Lexus and Porsche on the podium

📷 Courtesy of IMSA: #23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 pit stop at Lime Rock 2023.

Ross Gunn in #23 Aston Martin only lost the lead during 15 laps during his stint to regained it by staying on track under the race’s first full course caution. When Riberas took over with 76 laps to go, he dropped into P14 only due to the last round of pit stops to regain it back with 67 laps to go. In total the #23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 squad let 146 laps of the 168 covered demonstrating a constant pace dominating the field.

The #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus driven by Jack Hawksworth and Ben Barnicoat resisted during the whole race to the pressures of #3 corvette and #9 Porsche to end in P2 thereby extending their championship lead.

📷 Courtesy of IMSA: #9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R at Lime Park.

The #9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R of Klaus Bachler and Patrick Pilet completed the overall podium in third after benefitting from a gear selection issue during #3 Corvette final pit stop.

The difficulty for Garcia in third and the second-place Lexus to get around the Aston Martin was evident during a long green-flag run in the middle of the race. When Garcia swapped to Taylor for the last pitstop, Taylor lost nearly 10 seconds as the car wouldn’t go back into gear. That cycled the Corvette back to fourth for the final run to the finish.

ANTONIO GARCIA, #3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: “A very frustrating race. It felt like it was impossible to pass anybody on track, and it was all about track position. It’s a shame we didn’t have a better starting position in qualifying, but that was kind of a key thing this year. We never had the ultimate pace to be upfront in qualifying, especially. I thought being P3 would’ve been enough just to have race pace, but everybody kind of had pretty much the same thing. Here, it seemed impossible to pass with what we had. On top of that, we had to play the strategy, and I think we probably had the Lexus covered because I was saving quite a bit of fuel behind them. I think it was the right call to pit behind them, but then the car had an issue (on the driver change). I don’t really know what happened there, but we lost six, seven, or eight seconds and we lost position even to the Porsche. So just frustrating. As we knew, Jordan (Taylor) did 70 laps behind them, and there’s nothing you can do. We didn’t seem to have anything extra to pass them. We need to look back and see what we can do different.”

JORDAN TAYLOR, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: “It was a pretty frustrating day. We didn’t have the fastest car, but with the way the strategy was looking, it looked like we were going to be able to jump a bunch of guys on that last stop and then something went wrong on the stop itself. I couldn’t get it back in gear, and we were sitting there for an extra 10 seconds. Once you lose all that track position, it’s impossible to pass around here. Even if we had a stronger car, you’re just sitting behind guys. We were just waiting for someone to make a mistake or something like that to cruise by. But that wasn’t the case. Everyone kind of drove around in a line, and that was it.”

Source: Corvette Racing

Heart of Racing wins GTD

📷 Courtesy of IMSA: #27 Aston Martin Vantage GT3

Second class win of the season and P5 overall for Sorensen and De Angelis with #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 who held off Julien Andlauer’s Porsches after benefitting from drive-through penalty to the leading #1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3.

Brilliant P6 for #92 Kellymoss with Riley

📷 Courtesy of IMSA: #92 Porsche 911 GT3 R

When Julien Andlauer took over from Alec Udell in #92 Kellymoss with Riley Porsche 911 GT3, he was behind #70 Mc Laren and #77 Porsche in P15. Andlauer’s art of overtaking progressively each competitor to end P6 overall and P2 in class was nice to watch. Sorensen (#27 Heart of Racing) didn't let him continue his ascent!

Overall race results