The Heart of Racing secures its first GTD victory of the year at Watkins Glen
- Ghazlan Atqiya Firmansyah
- 17 hours ago
- 3 min read
Written by Ghazlan Atqiya Firmansyah, Edited by Aaron Carroll
The Heart of Racing (THOR) is riding high on its successful Le Mans momentum. It followed this up with its first GTD victory this season at the Six Hours of The Glen.
Their No.27 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo was at the scene of the very late GTD drama, where the race-leading No.12 Lexus ran out of fuel, handing THOR the win under changing conditions.
Second pole in two weeks
On Saturday, Zacharie Robichon was given the nod to drive the Vantage in qualifying. The Canadian topped the GTD timing sheet with a lap time of 1:44.788, which would eventually be impossible to beat.
Robichon’s pole puts THOR in prime condition to contend for the win. And what better way to achieve pole in one of the team’s favourite hunting grounds, where they secured a double win in the GTD Pro and GTD classes in 2022?
Robichon said: “Honestly, we did a semi-mock qualy in practice and the car is very ‘higher temperature dependent. It’s just one of the characteristics of the Aston; we definitely over-pressurised on the tires [later] because I tried another [lap] after and it had definitely fallen off a cliff.”
The 33-year-old would start the race on pole for two weeks in a row after starting Le Mans from the front two weeks ago. Robichon was full of praise for his Vantage and eyes a podium, since the team missed out in Le Mans.
“These endurance races, qualifying doesn’t mean that much. But the car was fantastic, easy to drive”, Robichon said. “Second time I’m on pole in two weeks. Last week we didn’t get a podium, so hopefully we turn that around.”
Battle in the changing conditions
On Saturday, the drivers were greeted with scorching hot temperatures, but the beginning of Sunday’s race was anything but. Just a few minutes into the race, the drivers have to battle treacherous wet conditions.
Robichon successfully navigated his No.27 car in the rain and handed over to Casper Stevenson after driving for 55 laps. For his driving shift, Stevenson had to drive for 50 laps before Tom Gamble took over, rejoining the race from seventh.
Until the very last drop
Gamble had a monumental task to fight for the podium after resuming the race in seventh. The Briton’s hard work paid off as he took the No.27 car up into second place by the final lap. Things would turn out even sweeter for the team.
Gamble then passed the race-leading No.12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus that ran out of fuel on the very last lap. The Vantage still had enough on its tank to sail to the finish line en route to THOR’s first victory of the 2025 IMSA SportsCar Championship campaign.
After the race, Robichon felt relieved that the team’s luck had changed and joked that they needed several knocks first: “It feels like we’ve been knocked back a few times these last few races, so it’s nice to get lucky. We were pretty confident from the time we rolled off the truck.”
“Honestly, the car felt really good. I felt like we were very close to the window and the Vantage was taking temperature changes very well. It was a great job by the team. We definitely got lucky, but ultimately, we put ourselves in the right position to win there in the end.”
Stevenson was at a loss for words and was not expecting the Lexus to run out of steam: “I’m so happy! It was a crazy race, but it all came together there in the end. I knew we had the fuel there at the end and I thought other people had fuel as well.”
“When we were P3, I was happy, then when we had P2. I was incredibly happy, now that we are P1, I don’t know what to say! We are just going to try to keep the momentum going.”
“Going into that last lap, I definitely thought we had finished second, especially with the Porsche between me and the Lexus”, Gamble said. “The team had put together a great fuel-saving strategy that worked out there at the end.”
“I think we are all a bit stunned to have earned our first win, but we are happy about it! The Heart of Racing Aston Martin was absolutely phenomenal today and we will keep this going into the next one”, Gamble concluded.
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