IMSA has penalised the #27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 two weeks after the Michelin GT Challenge at VIR (Virginia International Raceway), moving Roman de Angelis and Zacharie Robichon to the back of the GTD class and stripping the team of its second-place finish in class (seventh overall).
During post-race inspection, the #27 Aston Martin was found to have non-homologated parts, violating article 22.7.1 of the Sporting Regulations and 2.5.1 of the GTD Technical Regulations.
The #27 team was dropped from fifth to seventh in the GTD Teams’ Championship after the loss of 150 championship points, and De Angelis dropped from sixth to eighth in the standings.
Aston Martin was also given a $10,000 USD fine for the infraction and dropped from second to fifth in the GTD Manufacturers’ Championship.
The penalty does not impact the top two teams in the GTD standings, Winward Racing (Russell Ward/Philip Ellis) and Turner Motorsport (Patrick Gallagher/Robby Foley). The gap between them remains at 284 points after both cars were moved from fourth and fifth place, to third and fourth place respectively.
The #78 Forte Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 (Misha Goikhberg/Loris Spinelli) was elevated to second place at VIR behind the winning #32 Korthoff/Preston Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 (Kenton Koch/Mikaël Grenier).
No infractions were found on the #23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin which finished third in GTD Pro and passed its technical inspection, which is required of all podium-finishing cars in each class after every IMSA race.
An Aston Martin Racing spokesman said: “We support IMSA in its diligence in the application of the technical rules which govern the championship. This is a big part of why IMSA is a fantastic championship, and one that Aston Martin Racing [AMR] takes great pride in competing in.
“Unfortunately in this case, The Heart of Racing, through no fault of its own, have fallen foul of an AMR clerical error in relation to the labelling of an AMR homologated damper mount. Whilst this error did not impact performance in any way, the team have lost a result which was well earned and deserved based on their on-track performance. The issue has been identified and resolved internally.”
Feature image © Michael L. Levitt / IMSA
