The Heart of Racing announced Wednesday (Dec. 11) that they will have two Aston Martin Vantage GT3s in January’s Rolex 24 at Daytona. The GTD entry (No. 27) will be their full-time entry in the class. The second car will be a one-off entry (No. 007) in the GTD Pro class as the team continues to prepare their new Valkyrie.
The one-off No. 007 will be shared by Roman DeAngelis, Ross Gunn, Alex Riberas and Marco Sorensen, all of whom have previously driven for the organization in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Gunn was full-time in the No. 23 Aston Martin in GTD Pro in 2024, scoring one victory at Watkins Glen and four third-place finishes. A strong season saw him miss out on the GTD Pro championship by a mere four points to AO Racing’s Laurin Heinrich.
DeAngelis was originally full-time in the GTD No. 27. He was second in GTD points when he was moved to the rear of the class at VIR due to his car having non-homologated parts. When that happened, the car moved to the GTD Pro class for the final two races.
Riberas and Sorensen ran part-time schedules due to their commitments to race in the FIA World Endurance Championship.
The No. 27 in the GTD class will have a fully revised lineup. The only returning driver to the car from 2024 for Daytona will be Zacharie Robichon. He will be joined by Tom Gamble, Mattia Drudi and Casper Stevenson.
“We have two really strong lineups this year for Daytona,” stated Ian James, team principal of The Heart of Racing. “Though it is a little bittersweet for me, it will be the first Rolex 24 I will not be driving in since we started the team in 2020. I think these young guys will do a great job and hopefully we can come out after 24 hours with a podium finish.”
Robichon split his 2024 season between WeatherTech and the WEC. In WeatherTech, Robichon made six starts (five in GTD, one in GTD Pro). His best finishes were a pair of fourths, one in GTD at Sebring and the other in GTD Pro at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.
The WEC campaign in a Ford Mustang GT3 for Proton Competition was a struggle. He ended up 22nd in LMGT3 points with a best finish of sixth at Circuit of the Americas.
Gamble made only one start in WeatherTech in 2024. That was in the Rolex 24 at Daytona for Inception Racing, where he finished 13th in class. Previously, he made three starts for The Heart of Racing in 2022 (two in GTD Pro, one in GTD) with a best finish of fourth in GTD at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.
Both Drudi and Stevenson will be making their WeatherTech debuts at Daytona. Drudi comes to the team after racing an Aston Martin for Comtoyou Racing in Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS (both Sprint Cup and Endurance Cup). Drudi finished fourth in Endurance Cup points with an overall victory in the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa and 11th in Sprint Cup.
Stevenson spent 2024 racing in the European Le Mans Series’ LMGT3 class for Racing Spirit of Leman. He finished third in points with a best finish of second at Imola and a third-place finish at Paul Ricard.
The Heart of Racing has two full-time entries for 2025. The No. 23 car used to be the team’s GTD Pro entry. That team has moved up to the GTP class and will race the new Aston Martin Valkyrie. However, that car will not race in Daytona and is currently planned to debut at Sebring.
The team did not announce full-time driver lineups in the press release for either the Valkyrie or the full-time No. 27. That announcement will be made at a later date.
About the author
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the site's FREE e-mail newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the site's Sports Car racing editor.
Outside of Frontstretch, Phil is the press officer for Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. He covers all the action on the high-banked dirt track from regular DIRTcar Modified racing to occasional visits from touring series such as the Super DIRTcar Series.
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