Tom Gamble third in class at the ISMA Rolex 24 hours of Daytona as part of the Heart of Racing Team in America’s biggest sportscar race
By Paul Horton
Epperstone’s Tom Gamble reaped rewards in the ISMA Rolex 24 hours of Daytona to take a third in class and podium spot last weekend.
The 23-year-old teamed up with Canadian Zacharie Robichon, Italy’s Mattia Drudi and Brit Casper Stevenson in the Heart of Racing Team’s Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo endurance race car in America’s biggest sportscar race to take the accolade.
All the action began on Thursday last week that saw teamwork pay off, Robichon qualified for the No.27 squad, taking seventh place with a time of 1:46.905s second lap ready for a seventh place class start on the grid for the 24-hour endurance that started on Saturday afternoon
Robichon started proceedings for the GTD class team, he made his way up to P2 before handing the reins over to Stevenson. He took control of the race lead for 23 laps before Gamble climbed into the supercar that saw lots of position-changing during the first four hours.
Over the course of the next 20 hours, Stevenson, Drudi, Robichon and Gamble completed 118 total laps between them as the team executed on strategy and pit stop performance.
The podium run included a strong fightback, after Stevenson suffered a spin, not his own fault. Gamble got the car back into third spot in class with four hours left on the clock, 30 minutes later Drudi was back in the driver’s seat.
He left the pits in P4, shortly after taking a spin at turn 1 and got away without any damage.
Remaining in fourth spot as the clock ticked away and just under two hours left, three minutes later Drudi pounced back into P3.
With 15 minutes remaining in the race Drudi was in the lead, after a run-in with a Corvette, the Aston Martin was forced back into third place where Drudi took the chequered flag after 24 hours of hard-fought racing by the team.
Gamble said “It was a very exciting race! A lot of times throughout the race I thought, okay, maybe a top five might be unrealistic now and then next minute, we’re in the lead and it was always changing.
“Matti was leading with 30 minutes on the clock. We didn’t quite have the speed in the car to keep the gap at the front, but the team did an excellent job to give us the best opportunity to do that.
“Matti, Zach and Casper all drove fantastic as well. I think we did everything we could, and to come away with third is a great way to start the year.”
Gamble is back on home soil now for a short time this week before he makes his way to the Middle East to take part in the last two rounds of the Asian Le Mans series.