Aston Martin’s progress for momentum continues at Laguna Seca
- Ghazlan Atqiya Firmansyah
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
Written by Ghazlan Atqiya Firmansyah, Edited by Aaron Carroll
Ahead of this week’s Detroit race, the Heart of Racing (THOR) team made progress in their maiden GTP campaign with the Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR-LMH at Laguna Seca. While the weekend was anything but smooth, both of their entries in GTD and GTP are showing promising momentum.
Saturday denied THOR more opportunities
Casper Stevenson took the No.27 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo to third place in GTD, positioning them for a promising race. However, all of their lap times were deleted due to failing post-qualifying technical inspection, which revealed their ground clearance was below the minimum. This sent the car to the back of the grid.
Darren Turner returned to IMSA and THOR, replacing regular driver Tom Gamble, who campaigned the Valkyrie in Spa-Francorchamps in the WEC (World Endurance Championship). It was Turner’s first Laguna Seca entry since 2013, driving an Aston Martin during that year’s Rolex Grand-Am series.
Roman De Angelis piloted the No.23 Valkyrie in the GTP class. However, the Canadian can only muster 11th, the last place in their class. THOR was trailing the pole-sitting No.24 BMW by +0.864.
A challenging but “progressing” Sunday
Despite qualifying out of position, both THOR cars were eager to put their qualifying woes behind them and approach the race in an optimistic fashion.
When the race got underway, Stevenson moved his way up in the GTD ranks. The team received a wake-up call when the car hit the curb on its way to the pit lane and slid into the wall during its early scheduled pit stop.
De Angelis in the Valkyrie returned to the pits due to a puncture that threatened to cause further damage to the car. Ross Gunn took over the driving duties at the same stop.
Meanwhile, the No.27 car found itself in fifth before a contact with No.120 Wright Motorsports Porsche in turn five sent the former off.
While the No.27 car managed to rejoin the track, the race directors dished out a drive-through penalty for both cars, with the No.27 being penalized for a blocking offense. By this point, the No.27 car was already in 11th place and would eventually finish 12th after being overtaken by the No.021 Ferrari.
Consolation came when the No.23 car made it into the Top 10 after a big mistake from the No.60 Acura car sent the car off track and leaving debris. Gunn managed to hold on to tenth until the end of the race, finishing behind the No.85 JDC–Miller MotorSports Porsche.
While the weekend shows there is still a lot of work to be done, De Angelis was pleased with his results: “I think the weekend as a whole went quite well. On a personal level, it was my first qualifying in the GTP, so that was a great experience that went quite well.”
“I think we were as close to the front as we’ve been during the race. I thought the first half of the race went according to plan and the pace was competitive.”
“We had some contact with a GT that caused a tire puncture and put us out of contention for a top seven or eight”, De Angles continued. “Ross [Gunn] did a great job to keep us where we were, but now we are looking forward to Detroit.”
Gunn echoed his teammate’s words and was pleased with the Valkyrie’s pace in the midfield: “In general, it was a progressing weekend at Laguna Seca.”
“We suffered a puncture when we were running within 20 seconds of the leaders after forty-five minutes of the race. Then from there, it was just about bringing it home to the finish, and we did that.”
“It’s been a positive weekend in terms of the steps that we’ve made and now how we managed to get closer to the midfield of the class. It’s very encouraging.”
Turner credited Stevenson’s qualifying efforts and lamented the post-qualifying infringement: “It was a weekend like Laguna, up and down. Casper [Stevenson] qualified really well, but then we were shuffled to the back of the pack for a post-qualifying infringement.”
“I had a lot of fun [in] the last 12 minutes of the race and really enjoyed being back in IMSA”, Turner continued. “The team did a great job this weekend, and it was great to be back with the Heart of Racing IMSA team.”
Stevenson claimed it was a challenging weekend: “It was a bit of a challenging weekend. We had a great qualifying, but a very tiny thing, and there we were put in the back of the field.”
“It was always going to be hearts to come through the field, but we had a great strategy”, Stevenson added. “We had contact with the Porsche.”
“It’s been great to share a car with Darren [Turner]. I’ve learned a lot, but it's still tough after such a good opening two rounds”, Stevenson concluded.
