Jake Galstad/Motorsport Images
Heart of Racing stripped of second-place GTD finish at VIR
Heart of Racing has lost its second-place GTD finish from the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race at VIRginia International Raceway after non-homologated parts were found on the No. 27 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo in post-race technical inspection. The car was moved to the back of the class as a penalty.
Additionally, because the parts were found to have been supplied by the manufacturer, Aston Martin was fined $10,000. The bulletins posted by IMSA did not specify which parts were out of homologation.
The third-place finish in GTD PRO for the No. 23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin of Alex Riberas and Ross Gunn was not affected.
Roman De Angelis and Zacharie Robichon had made a strong run at VIR, pressuring winners Korthoff Preston Motorsports in the closing stages to finish second at the checker. The No. 78 Forte Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2 of Misha Goikhberg and Loris Spinelli moves up to second as a result of the penalty, and championship leaders Russell Ward and Philip Ellis in the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes AMG to third.
The penalty also means that the No. 27 team loses 150 championship points. While De Angelis and Heart of Racing were well out of the championship hunt, De Angelis dropped two places from sixth to eighth, and the team went from fifth to seventh in the team standings. Aston Martin went from second in the manufacturer standings to fifth.
The next round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship is a the six-hour IMSA Battle on the Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sept. 20-22.
Richard S. James
Richard James is motorsports journalist living in Orange County, Calif, who has been involved in the sport to some degree for three decades. He covers primarily sports car racing as a writer and photographer, with occasional forays into off-road and other forms of racing. A former editor of the SCCA’s publication, SportsCar, he has a special love for the grass-roots side of the sport and participates as a driver in amateur road racing.
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