The second-place finish for the British ultra-luxury brand’s most successful ever racing car, by the Heart of Racing (THOR) Team, ensured an increased points advantage in the Drivers’ and Teams’ championships with more than a third of the season now complete.
The StubHub Monterey Sportscar Championship was the first IMSA sprint race of 2026 to run to the series’ regular two-hour, forty-minute duration, and featured a fast and consistent weekend performance by THOR duo Dudu Barrichello (BRA) and Aston Martin works driver Tom Gamble (GBR).
Barrichello qualified third in the GTD class and he and Gamble ran inside the top three for the duration of the race to finish second. It was Barrichello’s third GTD podium finish of what has been a superb rookie IMSA season that also included class pole position for the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, and was the fourth time a Vantage crew had stood on an IMSA podium in 2026; Magnus Racing’s John Potter (USA), Spencer Pumpelly (USA), Madison Snow (USA) and Nicki Thiim (DEN) finished a brilliant second in the season-opening Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona.
Additionally, the Brazilian has now more than doubled his advantage at the head of the Drivers’ championship while The Heart of Racing has done likewise at the top of the Teams’ title fight.
Fellow Aston Martin partner team Van Der Steur Racing (VDSR) secured a strong qualifying result on Saturday as Rory van der Steur (USA) put the #19 Vantage sixth on the grid in the GTD Class. With works driver Valentin Hasse Clot (FRA) on European Le Mans Series duty in France, van der Steur was partnered by Scott Andrews (AUS) at Laguna Seca.
After suffering first-lap damage that led to an early unplanned pitstop for repairs, the duo fought back brilliantly to regain the lead lap and run as high as second in GTD thanks to adopting a fuel strategy that was unlike most of the field. With no Full-Course Yellow periods to save fuel in the second half of the race, they required a late ‘splash and dash’ to reach the finish. They crossed the line 10th.
Vantage will next be in IMSA action at the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen at Watkins Glen on June 25-28, as the upcoming Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear (May 29-30) does not feature the GTD class.
Sharing the mechanical architecture of the ultra-luxury Vantage road car, the Vantage GT3, which triumphed at the 24 Hours of Spa in 2024 – the world’s most prestigious GT3-only event, is built around Aston Martin’s proven bonded aluminium chassis and powered by its fearsome twin-turbo 4.0-litre V8 engine.
Adam Carter, Aston Martin Head of Endurance Motorsport, said: “Laguna Seca is a challenging circuit for any kind of racing car, and after the variety of tracks we’ve experienced at Daytona, Sebring and Long Beach, this is arguably the first of the traditional road course venues that Vantage has raced at in IMSA this year. That the Heart of Racing Team and Van Der Steur Racing put on two of the strongest weekend-long performances that we’ve seen from Vantage at Laguna Seca shows that the technical package appears extremely capable of achieving strong results through the rest of the North American season. This can only be a positive as Dudu Barrichello and THOR leave with increased leads in their respective championships and we look forward to the next few races.”
