Story By: HALEIGH JORDAN / THE HEART OF RACING – BOWMANVILLE, ONT – The Heart of Racing (HOR) will start Sunday’s Chevrolet Grand Prix (live coverage on NBC 12:00 PM ET) from pole with one Aston Martin and from the inside of the second row with the second team Aston Martin as the squad looks to make the most of the annual visit to Canadian Tire Motorsports Park.
The No. 27 Heart of Racing entry scored its second pole award of the season on the fabled high-speed circuit based about an hour east of Toronto. Roman De Angelis was behind the wheel of the No. 27 Aston Martin claiming his first pole position since 2021 at Lime Rock Park. De Angelis drove a 1:15.478-second lap to net his best qualifying position of the season in GTD competition. This pole award is extra special due to CTMP being De Angelis’ home track, where he grew up racing starting in karts.
“I definitely have a long racing career here, starting at the karting track and my first time ever on track in a car,” said De Angelis. “I’ve had a lot of track time here and I hope that it translates over to the race tomorrow. It’s been a difficult last couple of years to put qualifying together for myself. That’s definitely my weak point, I tend to overdrive and I’ve been really focusing on that the last few rounds. I’m glad it’s all starting to come together and I’m excited to see what the race brings.”
The No. 27 Heart of Racing team’s first pole award of the season came on the streets of Long Beach with Marco Sorensen behind the wheel.
Starting beside De Angelis in the GT field will be Alex Riberas, driver of the No. 23 Aston Martin Vantage GTD PRO entry. Riberas set the third fastest lap time of the session with a 1:15.341-second lap.
“I think the team executed everything well,” said Riberas. “We followed our plan in practice and it paid off. Both cars in the second row of the overall GT field, I think, are a perfect place to start the race. Tomorrow is going to be all about strategy, executing pit stops, and race pace, but at the end of the day I think we have a package together enough to be race winning contenders, and hopefully we can come out of Mosport with a solid result.”