Turner: “Very Encouraging” Start to Heart of Racing Effort

Photo: Heart of Racing Team

Darren Turner said that he feels it’s been a “very encouraging” start to his new full-time venture with Heart of Racing Team, in his first season-long program in the U.S. in nearly two decades.

The Aston Martin veteran has been brought into the Ian James-led operation amid Gray Newell’s step up to GT World Challenge America powered by AWS competition, following previous seasons of Pirelli GT4 America and GT America competition for Newell.

For Turner, a three-time class winner at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, it comes as a new challenge after last competing full-time in the 2022 British GT Championship season.

The 50-year-old Brit was due to contest the full NLS season in Dorr Motorsport Aston Martin Vantage GT3 last year until the program was scrapped after an accident in the opening round.

“It’s nice to have a full program, and it’s especially great to be back racing in America, which has been something like 19 years ago!” Turner told Sportscar365.

“Over the years I’ve had a number of races with Heart of Racing and obviously in 2023 with the [GTD] class win in Daytona.

“It’s been a nice relationship. I’ve known Ian [James] for 30-odd years. What they’ve done with the team in this fairly short period has been fantastic.

“It looks strong, numbers-wise, and everything else, and obviously the driver talent is really high. I’m not expecting it to be anything but a challenge.”

Turner said he feels like he can help Newell the most in the program, given the team’s existing GT3 success around the world.

“They’ve been running the GT3 car for a number of years in IMSA and stuff, so it’s not like they don’t know things about the car,” he said.

“They’re integrated with Aston Martin Racing when they’re doing the World Endurance Championship, so they know it as much as anyone.

“The working relationship I’ve had with Gray, we’ve done the Dubai 24 Hours [last year]. That was a last-minute jump-in with Gray there.

“Although we didn’t have the best result we had a really good weekend in terms of his performance relative to everyone.

“It felt comfortable. I think there’s been a change in where he’s maybe not had the confidence of his own ability, he know [realizes] that he can do this.

“It’s nice to see that confidence come through and I’m hoping that — I’ve been around the sport for a long time — there’s lot of experience.

“I’m not trying to manage every second of every lap that he’s doing, but just to give him little pointers here and there that will help in the next stage of his learning.

“He has adapted really well already to the GT3 car. It’s very encouraging.”

When asked about the team’s goals for this weekend’s season-opener at Sonoma Raceway, Turner stressed that they need to just get through the weekend unscathed.

“We need to have a clean weekend, stay out of trouble, hopefully collect some points and get an understanding of the championship as well,” he said.

“It’s the first weekend of just me and Gray working together. We’ve had the test days the last couple of days and it’s worked really well.

“We have very similar opinions on the car, so it’s not like we’re going in different directions with setup.

“But in terms of us versus the competition, I think we just need to get a couple of the official [practice] sessions out of the way to really sort of work out who are the strong pairings and where our strengths and weaknesses are and build from there.”

Turner ‘Amazed’ By Heart of Racing’s Growth

Turner, considered one of Aston’s most successful drivers of the last two decades, said he’s been impressed with Heart of Racing’s growth since the launch of the current team’s iteration in 2020.

It’s grown to an even higher level this year with the factory Aston Martin Valkyrie LMH program in the FIA World Endurance Championship and IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

“It’s been amazing to see the growth of the team and their trajectory in everything they’ve been doing from the GT4 programs to the GT3 programs and now obviously in Hypercar with the Valkyrie,” said Turner.

“I never would have thought that when the team was formed.

“I can remember the first time when Ian got in touch and said, ‘I need to speak to someone at Aston. Who do I speak to?’

“John Gaw was at the helm at the time. I said, ‘He’s the man you need to speak to about the GT3/GT4 program.’

“Then it all sort of rolled on from there.

“It’s a fairly new team, relative to the existing stuff out there. Their journey with Aston has been fantastic.

“I think Aston Martin is super lucky to have that partnership with a team like Heart of Racing. It would have been very difficult, if not impossible, for the Valkyrie program to have even existed without Heart of Racing.

“It’s one of those partnerships that’s win-win for everyone.”