Heart of Racing with Ross Gunn and Roman De Angelis clinched the IMSA WeatherTech Sprint Cup Championship for 2021 on Saturday at Virginia International Raceway on Saturday. This is the first title for the Aston Martin Vantage GT3 in IMSA.

“I’m just trying to calm down after that one,” De Angelis said. “Quite a bit of issues on track and a lot of just messy [stuff] out there in general. Ross obviously got the job done for us, the team did an amazing job the whole race to ensure that we were in the position that we could be to win the sprint title and also grab points for the overall, which is also what we’re still fighting for.

“I couldn’t be prouder of everyone at the Heart of Racing team — everybody back in Seattle, in New Zealand at the time, supporting us as well. Aston Martin Racing has obviously given us a pretty decent driver but also a really good car.”

The team’s margin of victory was just 19 points over the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3.

“It’s obviously a massive honor to be in this championship in the first place but to do it with such a great bunch of people and a great team and have such a successful year it’s been an amazing, amazing ride. Amazing journey and this guy has done a phenomenal job,” Gunn said, pointing towards De Angelis. “He’s the star of the future, and he’s going to go a long, long, way. He’s made my life much easier this year, putting me in a position to fight for race wins and podiums.

“Today was a tough race. I made a bit of a silly mistake in the pit stop which I was very angry with, but we kept fighting,” added Gunn.

The No. 23 Aston Martin had two wins this season at Detroit and Lime Rock Park. The team will head to Petit Le Mans in third place in the full-season championship and in all likelihood needs to win and have the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports and No. 1 Paul Miller Racing teams finish last in order to win the title there.