This interview was originally published on our FaceBook page on Saturday, June 12, 2021 before the IMSA GTD race.

Race Canada reporter Lisa Lakian caught up with Roman De Angelis Racing at the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear to ask a few questions about today's IMSA #Weathertech race.

Roman drives the #28 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3.

This is your first time at the Detroit Grand Prix circuit at Belle Isle. Have you been able to quickly adapt to the circuit – especially racing between the walls?

“It was a lot better than I expected and within the first 20 minutes of the opening session I felt comfortable with pushing that car”

The car #23 Aston Martin Vantage seems to be well suited to the circuit with some very high-speed sections, evidenced by the performance in qualifying where you just missed the front row by the slimmest of margins. How does the car feel overall?

“In terms of qualifying this is the best result for the #23 Aston Martin so far this year and the team has worked very hard to get the qualifying pace out of the car. Definitely the car is comfortable and I am comfortable so we’ll see how we do in the race.”

You will be starting from the second row of the grid and the cars on the first three rows all seem to be evenly matched in performance. Does the team have a game plan on how to approach this sprint race which is less than two hours in length? Can you race to the front on pure pace or will pit strategy come into play – especially as there may only be one stop?

“There is a lot of strategy in this race with the one stop so we’ll be looking to minimize our time in the pits which could come down to a bit fuel saving and a bit of tire management and maybe run a bit longer. But you never know will happen, especially with a street course and there could be a lot of cautions.”

You are currently 3rd in the 2021 driver’s championship. With 8 more races to run, do you feel confident for a run at the championship this year with the mix of circuits still to come, including the street circuit at Long Beach which will be new for a lot of drivers?

“We are all very confident overall, but if we focus on consistency and going for top five finishes, we should be there at the end."

Editors Note - De Angelis and the Heart of Racing team finished second on the track, but were promoted to first place, giving De Angelis his first win in IMSA, after the winning Audi was penalized for a pit lane infraction.