Hot on the heels of a highly-respectable ninth-place result at the 12 Hours of Sebring last month – the first points finish of any car built to hypercar regulations in the history of IMSA competition – the British ultra-luxury high performance brand’s all-new Valkyrie went one better by finishing eighth after a competitive showing across the event.
Aston Martin THOR Team and its drivers Ross Gunn (GBR) – an IMSA GTD Pro class winner at Long Beach – and Roman De Angelis (CDN), the 2022 IMSA GTD champion, made gains in Friday practice and then achieved a best-ever 11th place in qualifying, just a tenth of a second shy of the top 10, on what was only Valkyrie’s third start and its second in IMSA’s GTP division. But a faultless and reliable run through the 100-minute race – the shortest on the IMSA calendar – was rewarded with an eighth-place finish.
The first ‘Le Mans Hypercar’ (LMH) to be produced by Aston Martin, Valkyrie is the only car in IMSA’s premier GTP category derived from a road-legal hypercar. The British contender is also the first LMH car of any kind to compete in IMSA, and the only one contesting both IMSA and the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) simultaneously, having made its debut in the Qatar 1812km in February.
Valkyrie’s US debut season, masterminded by the works Aston Martin THOR team at Sebring, has already produced an encouraging pair of top-10 finishes on circuits recognised as some of the world’s most demanding.
Developed from the Valkyrie production car by Aston Martin and THOR, the competition version blends a race-optimised carbon fibre chassis with a modified 6.5-litre V12 powerplant that revs to 11,000rpm and produces over 1000bhp in standard form, but adheres to a strict 500kw (680bhp) power limit as per hypercar regulations.
Ross Gunn, driver #23 Aston Martin Valkyrie: “I’m super-happy with our eighth-place finish at Long Beach. It was a difficult Friday with a couple of issues that we had to overcome, but at this stage of the programme, that’s completely normal. Everybody did a great job figuring out and fixing what had arisen. The main positive is that we improved throughout the weekend. We improved on our last race result at Sebring, kept it clean and completed another race. We’ve ticked a lot more boxes with Valkyrie and I’m very happy.”
Roman De Angelis, driver #23 Aston Martin Valkyrie: “It was a tough race, but we kept the car clean. We had a tricky start to the weekend with some issues in practice and I only had about 10 laps before the race, so all in all I’m happy that the car is in one piece and that the race was clean. I’m excited to see what Laguna Seca brings next time out.”
Ian James, Team Principal, Aston Martin THOR Team: “It was a very positive weekend for Valkyrie. The team had a great strategy. We were right with some of the other cars at the end so to be mixing with any of the other manufacturers at this point makes us proud. There is still lots to learn from each weekend, but it was a step forward for our performance and for the Valkyrie programme as a whole, and it will be even better come Laguna Seca."
Adam Carter, Aston Martin Head of Endurance Motorsport: “Long Beach posed a complex test for Valkyrie; a street track with very different technical challenges to those experienced at Sebring on its first appearance in IMSA or in Qatar for its global race debut in the FIA WEC. Despite this, it came through with flying colours as Aston Martin Team THOR scored the car’s best results to date. We continue to make enormous progress every time Valkyrie goes on track and this latest achievement will give us all added determination to keep moving forwards and striving for more.”
The latest iteration of Aston Martin’s most successful racing car – the Vantage GT3 – scored another podium finish last weekend as the GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS began at Circuit Paul Ricard, France.
The 2Seas Motorsport-run Verstappenracing.com Vantage was a contender for honours in the Gold Cup category across the weekend; setting the fastest time overall in opening practice and running strongly throughout the six-hour race.
Having gradually moved up from fourth place in the Gold Cup order, driver Harry King (GBR) chased down the #31 car’s race-long rival with 20 minutes left to snatch second place for himself and co-drivers Thierry Vermeulen (NED) and Chris Lulham (GBR).
The best overall Vantage finisher was the Pro-class entry from Comtoyou Racing featuring Aston Martin works drivers Marco Sørensen (DEN), Nicki Thiim (DEN) and Mattia Drudi (ITA), who started 19th but fought back throughout the six-hour race to highlight the Vantage GT3’s long-stint pace. Last year’s 24 Hours of Spa-winning crew came home fifth.
Walkenhorst Motorsport’s line-up of works drivers, David Pittard (GBR), Henrique Chaves (POR) and Norwegian Christian Krognes – who was having his first race with factory status – was eighth while the Comtoyou entry featuring Aston Martin Aramco Formula One® Team Driver Ambassador Jessica Hawkins (GBR) Jessica Hawkins was 11th in the Bronze Cup.
The IMSA Weathertech SportsCar Championship moved from its most demanding event; the 12 Hours of Sebring, to one of its shortest; a 100-minute ‘Sprint’ event on the streets of Long Beach.
Tom Gamble (GBR) qualified his Vantage GT3 a season’s-best third for Seattle-based The Heart of Racing (THOR), coming within seven hundredths of a second of pole position and putting him in a prime place to take second place on the opening lap. He and Casper Stevenson (GBR) finished ninth following contact from a GTP machine during the second half of the race but remain third in the Drivers’ title race with three rounds completed.
In Japan, D’station Racing pair Tomonobu Fujii (JPN) and Charlie Fagg (GBR) began their AUTOBACS Super GT Series title challenge with a front-row start in the GT300 class at Okayama with its Aston Martin Vantage GT3. Fujii was leading when a rival car spun him off a wet track at a quarter distance dropping the #777 Vantage out of serious contention.
