Aston Martin Vantage records double victory at Watkins Glen with The Heart of Racing

MANILA: Aston Martin’s Vantage GT3 recorded a famous double-class victory in the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen at Watkins Glen on Sunday. It was a day of firsts for Aston Martin and its IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship partner team The Heart of Racing (THoR).

While THoR’s GTD PRO crew of Alex Riberas and Aston Martin Racing works driver Ross Gunn recorded its second win of the season in North America’s premier endurance series, this Six Hours of the Glen is the maiden win of the season for the #27 GTD crew. The crew consisted of AMR Driver Academy winner Roman De Angelis, works driver Maxime Martin and team principal Ian James.

It was the first time that Vantage has recorded multiple class wins in a single IMSA event. 

Powered by a four-liter, twin-turbocharged V8 engine derived from the road car, THoR’s Vantages proved competitive all weekend at the classic former Grand Prix venue in New York State.

The #23 qualified second in class, having missed the GTD PRO pole by a mere 0.048s, while the #27 ran as a front-runner for much of the six-hour race, finishing second on the road in GTD. The sister #23 led early on in the GTD PRO race in the hands of Gunn, before a small issue led to the team switching off-strategy to its rivals, but on the lead lap.

With a little more than 90 minutes left in the event, the race was red-flagged for an hour because of a nearby storm. When the cars were green-flagged with 35 minutes to run, THoR’s alternative strategy benefited Gunn’s as one by one his rivals stopped for fuel, moving him up to second on the road. Further confusion caused by the red flag meant that several teams failed to ensure each driver completed his minimum driver time of one hour and 17 minutes.

Once the resultant penalties were put into effect post-race, both Vantage crews were promoted to first in the standings. Such was the #27 GTD Vantage’s consistency and pace, it was classified as the top finishing GT car, ahead of several supposedly faster GTD PRO cars – including their own team-mates.

“We’ve always been strong at Watkins Glen and so we went into the race with a lot of confidence. We’ve had some bad luck this season, so I was thinking second place was a good result, and then we got bumped up to the win!" De Angelis exclaimed.

"The whole team deserves this, and we’ve worked as hard as we always do, sometimes for not a lot of reward, so this win feels good today!”

Photos from Aston Martin

Also read: Aston Martin to showcase most powerful models at 2022 Goodwood Festival of Speed