Heart of Racing dominated the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship from Lime Rock Park with its pair of Aston Martin Vantages taking the top honors in both GTD Pro and GTD. It’s the first win and podium finish of the season for the No. 23 Aston Martin of Alex Riberas and Ross Gunn.
Gunn started the car from pole position and held onto the lead for the opening forty minutes before dropping back into the pack as others leapfrogged them with strategic undercuts. The strategy dice then went the team’s way as they elected to not pit under the first full course yellow of the race.
Let’s go! 💪#IMSA | #NortheastGP | @limerockpark pic.twitter.com/FJ5P4YLHfc
— #IMSA (@IMSA) July 22, 2023
With track position and clean air regained, Gunn fended off those on fresher tires. The GTD Pro runners ran until the pit window opened to make it to the end before diving into the pits in quick succession. This time around the No. 23 Aston Martin held onto its lead while installing Riberas into the car.
One more full course yellow set up a fifty-minute sprint to the end wherein Riberas kept Ben Barnicoat and Klaus Bachler behind him to secure Heart of Racing’s first GTD Pro win of the season. Barnicoat and Jack Hawksworth settled for second in the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC-F GT3. The No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R of Bachler and Patrick Pilet was third.
Meanwhile, Roman De Angelis and Marco Sorensen completed Heart of Racing’s sweep with a strong performance in their No. 27 Aston Martin Vantage. De Angelis started the car in fourth and a strong performance in the pits during the first full course yellow moved the car up to second.
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1406]
As the race neared the closure of its first hour, the No. 27 Aston Martin was sitting behind the race-leading No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3. That soon changed when the No. 1 was given a penalty for an unsafe release during its previous pitstop. This promoted the Aston Martin to the class lead. It would hold that lead for the rest of the race.
Kelly-Moss with Riley’s Porsche 911 GT3R of Julian Andlauer and Alec Udell was second, with the No. 77 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R of Trent Hindman and Alan Brynjolfsson third.
There were three retirements in the race — the first pair stemming from the same incident involving the No. 94 Andretti Autosport Aston Martin Vantage GT3 and the No. 91 Kelly-Moss with Riley Porsche 911 GT3R. Alan Metni was onboard the No. 91 Porsche when he missed his braking point into turn one and slammed into the rear of the Jarett Andretti-piloted No. 94 Aston Martin, sending both cars into the tire barrier.
Andretti’s car needed to be recovered on the flatbed while the Porsche limped back to the pits before going behind the wall where it remained for the rest of the day. Metni was given a drive-through penalty for the incident but with the damage done to the Porsche, it was largely moot.
Later in the race, Brendon Iribe in the No. 70 Inception Racing McLaren 720s GT3 spun off track and into the tire barrier on driver’s right at the exit of the final corner. Judging by the line Iribe was taking out of the corner, it appeared he was headed for pit road.
Iribe’s body language and fake-steering-wheel hand gesturing when speaking with the AMR safety team seemed to indicate that the car snapped loose underneath him.
The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship returns to action at Road America on August 3-6.