As he did last year, Aston Martin THOR Team GTP driver Roman de Angelis once again joins the Heart of Racing Team’s GTD lineup this weekend at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park (formerly Mosport) for the Chevrolet Grand Prix.
This weekend, he’ll be alongside GTD points leader Eduardo ‘Dudu’ Barrichello in the #27 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo. Mosport is de Angelis’ home race as a Canadian, and thus, it means a lot to the young man who raced at the circuit consistently as he rose through the ranks in Canadian sports cars.
“It’s a weekend I look forward to every year. When I work out my plans for the following year, every year with Heart of Racing, I always say, if somebody’s not available to do Mosport, I’d love to do it,” said de Angelis.
De Angelis raced with the GTD crew here last year during GTP’s now-typical absence from Mosport since 2024, finishing fifth in class in a gap in his GTP duties. The Windsor, Ontario-born driver won twice at home in the GTD class in 2022 and 2024 before his promotion to the Valkyrie programme for 2025.
“Not only is it a weekend I enjoy, but I really love this track. I have a lot of great memories here. My first time in a car was here. I’ve pretty much raced everything through my career at this place. So yeah, definitely just looking forward to starting the weekend,” he added. “Obviously, my teammate is leading the championship, so it’s also cool to jump into a programme that has kind of hit the ground running, and yet hopefully just do the job that they need [me to do] and get some more points for him.”
The #27 Heart of Racing crew in GTD has had a great run of finishes so far this season, taking three podiums at Daytona, Sebring, and Laguna Seca, and a fifth-place at Watkins Glen. Barrichello is in his first full season in IMSA and has quickly become a standout GT3 driver in both IMSA and WEC, finishing on the podium at Le Mans in LMGT3 a few weeks ago.
Barrichello and de Angelis have a rapport dating back to their karting days at the beginning of their careers. Barrichello made a one-off entry for Van der Steur Racing at Indianapolis last season, where the two Aston Martin drivers had the chance to reconnect.
“It’s funny,” de Angelis recalls, “I think one of his first kart races, at least in North America, we were teammates. It would have been the Florida Winter Tour, 2000-and-something, a long time ago! So we met that weekend, did a few races as teammates there, and then yeah, kind of a full-circle moment last year. He was obviously with a different team, but both being in the Aston, we were able to talk and reminisce.
“Funny enough, he moved into my house like three months ago for a month and a half, so we’re good friends. It’s nice to share a car with him.”
De Angelis was highly complimentary of the second-generation Brazilian driver, leaning on him for a refresher course on getting back into the Aston Martin Vantage GT3. “If anything, he’s helping me this weekend, I haven’t been in a GTD car in a year, so it’s getting back to grips [with the Vantage]. He’s going to be strong in whatever he’s in.”
In contrast to the #27 GTD crew, the #23 Aston Martin THOR Team Valkyrie has had a very frustrating season, with a best finish of eighth at Laguna Seca. Most recently at Watkins Glen, the Valkyrie suffered its first IMSA retirement when an incident under caution took the #23 Valkyrie out of the race: De Angelis collided with Colin Braun in the #60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing ARX-06 car under safety car, 40 minutes into the six-hour race.
The Valkyrie came into 2026 with real momentum, scoring a sixth-place finish at Road America and a standout second-place podium finish at Petit Le Mans, where the Heart of Racing team narrowly missed out on an overall win in their GTP programme’s first season. This raised expectations for the Valkyrie’s sophomore season, expectations that have not been paid off.
“It’s not been great, no need to really sugarcoat it,” lamented de Angelis. “We haven’t really had a great season, or the season we hoped for, especially coming off last year, ending quite strong with Walkins Glen, Road America, and Petit all being good races for us.
“Obviously, a lot of misfortune this year. I mean, Long Beach being taken out, and then obviously Walkins Glen crashing, and then Daytona had technical issues. Sebring had technical issues, too. So the only races we really were able to compete was Detroit and Laguna. It’s not been a great year, but now everyone’s still working hard.”
With the pace they exhibited in the latter half of the season last year, there is still an opportunity for the Valkyrie to turn its season around in the three remaining GTP rounds this year at Road America, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and Road Atlanta. De Angelis is hopeful that their fortunes will change and has confidence in the work he and the Heart of Racing team have put in behind the scenes as they continue to develop the car.
“We hope that these last three races we can really kind of improve everyone’s energy and, you know, kind of breathe life back into our results for the year because it can’t be easy for the [crew] as well.
“Everyone’s been working super hard on the simulator and behind closed doors. It’d be nice to get a result for all the boys and girls at Heart of Racing and Aston Martin Racing on both sides. So yeah, we’ll see what we can do,” he said.
Images © IMSA
