Aston Martin joins IMSA GTD Pro field with Heart of Racing
Aston Martin has become the latest manufacturer to commit to the IMSA SportsCar Championship's new-for-2022 GTD Pro class, which replaces the dwindling GTLM class as the series' top GT division.
The British marque will be represented in the new GT3-based division by The Heart of Racing, which will enter a pair of Vantage GT3s split between the GTD Pro and GTD categories next year.
Factory Aston driver Ross Gunn will partner Alex Riberas for the full season in the GTD Pro entry, joined by World Endurance Championship ace Maxime Martin for the four Michelin Endurance Cup events, beginning with next month's Daytona 24 Hours season opener.
Piloting the GTD Vantage at Daytona will be Gunn's 2020 GTD partner Roman de Angelis, long-time Aston factory driver Darren Turner, sportscar racing sophomore Tom Gamble and team principal Ian James.
De Angelis will be joined by Martin for the separate Sprint Cup classification.
Aston becomes the sixth marque to confirm that it will have at least one entry in the GTD Pro class that takes over from the GTE-based GTLM category, which only had three full-time entrants in 2021 following the withdrawal of Porsche's factory team.
Stalwart GTLM supporter Corvette and BMW - which reduced its commitment to the four endurance races in 2021 - have committed to two-car works squads, the former entering C8.Rs modified for GT3 specification with its in-house Pratt & Miller team and the latter fielding its new M4 GT3 with Rahal Letterman Lanigan.
Porsche, via reigning GTD champion squad Pfaff Motorsports, Lexus (Vasser-Sullivan Racing) and Lamborghini (TR3 Racing) will all have at least one car on the grid at Daytona entered their customer teams.
Gunn and De Angelis finished third in the IMSA standings last year with HOR Aston
Photo by: Richard Dole / Motorsport Images
Heart of Racing made its IMSA debut in 2020, scoring two podium finishes in the pro-am GTD class.
Last year it's full-time drivers Gunn and de Angelis finished third in the GTD standings with three wins.
They led the standings after winning at Lime Rock, but a late run of form for Pfaff's Laurens Vanthoor and Zachary Robichon meant victory in the season-ending Petit Le Mans wasn't enough to secure the title, although they did wrap up the Sprint Cup crown.
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