Ross Gunn and Roman De Angelis are optimistic that the early-season insights gained from competing in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship aboard the Aston Martin Valkyrie will transfer into a productive run for Heart of Racing in its second shot at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
The Heart of Racing duo will line up again in the No. 007 and No. 009 machines for the upcoming endurance classic in France, representing their return to the FIA World Endurance Championship’s Hypercar ranks for the first time since last season’s finale at the Bahrain 8 Hours.
Based in the United Kingdom, the Aston Martin squad fielded two-driver lineups at Imola and Spa-Francorchamps, while the Qatar 1812km race—one Gunn and De Angelis were set to race—was postponed.
Indeed, neither driver has taken part in Heart of Racing’s European pre‑Le Mans program, though Gunn believes the Sunday test day could provide a timely chance for the IMSA GTP regulars to regain pace.
“It’s been good to see the progress the WEC team has made,” Gunn told Sportscar365.
“Clearly, finishing fourth in Spa and the expectation of two cars earning points made the result particularly satisfying.
“From the IMSA side, we’ve shown substantially faster pace than we did at this stage last year. Unfortunately it hasn’t translated into results yet, but I’m really looking forward to getting to Le Mans.”
“We’re on the up as a team. Hopefully that will continue.”
Gunn feels the collaboration between the UK and Arizona-based operations has been “getting better and better.”
“Obviously for both Roman and I, the first time that we step into the 007 and 009 for the entire year will be at Le Mans,” he said.
“For sure there’s going to be some crossover of information [this weekend] and hopefully that will only take us forward.”
De Angelis added: “I think the WEC side this year has really stepped up a notch and developed the car from last year in terms of returning to these tracks where they’re able to compete at a higher level.”
“Obviously that showed with their results the last few races.”
“It’s nice to jump into a car that you know has had a lot of pace this year, at an event we all love.”
When asked about their goals for Le Mans, De Angelis feels they can definitely improve on their results from the car’s maiden appearance last year.
The Valkyries, driven by De Angelis, Marco Sorensen and Alex Riberas (No. 009) and Gunn, Harry Tincknell and Tom Gamble (No. 007) finished 12th and 15th, respectively.
“If we look at Le Mans last year, it was the first points finish in WEC for the Aston Martin Valkyrie Hypercar program,” said De Angelis.
“And if you look at the momentum they’ve had [so far this year], a top-five, I think would be fantastic and obviously everyone wants to stand on the overall podium at one point.
“That’s maybe shooting for the stars a little bit but anything’s possible. Who knows what can happen.”
Gunn, meanwhile, believes Le Mans could help jumpstart even more progress with the program, in both championships.
“Like with any new program that starts two to three years later than everybody else, you have to be realistic in the first year,” he said.
“We always knew the first year was going to be a learning year.
“I definitely believe that Petit Le Mans was slightly unexpected but we had a very good race there and then some small highlights like pole in the quali session in Bahrain.
“We had multiple points finishes in WEC as well, and in IMSA, we were running P4 at both Long Beach and Laguna and a few things happened that were out of our control.
“That for me is a very good sign of progress and one I think as a team that we can be very proud of for the second year.
“Now for the second half of the year, we want to be fighting regularly for podiums.”
