And with Valkyrie and the Aston Martin THOR Team also in action on the streets of Long Beach, USA, as the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship [IMSA] continues with the third race of the season, it is set to be an action-packed few days for the stunning British hypercar.
The competition variant of Valkyrie – the pure racing expression of the world’s ultimate roadgoing hypercar – is developed from its production sibling by Aston Martin and The Heart of Racing [THOR] and 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 the WEC’s hypercar rulebook and IMSA’s GTP regulations.
The postponement of March’s scheduled WEC opening race in Qatar – which now takes place on 22-24 October - means the season now begins this weekend at Imola; the historic Italian venue, part of the calendar since 2024 and scene of Valkyrie’s European race debut a year ago.
Aston Martin THOR Team enters two Valkyries in the WEC, fresh from a winter of testing and development. The #007 entry features an all-British crew of Harry Tincknell – who can list overall wins at IMSA’s 12 Hours of Sebring and Petit Le Mans as well as a European Le Mans Series [ELMS] crown and two class victories at the 24 Hours of Le Mans – among his achievements, and Tom Gamble; also an ELMS title winner and current leader of IMSA’s GTD points table after a superb start to the campaign.
The sister #009 Valkyrie will be raced by the international crew of Marco Sørensen [DEN] – a three-time WEC GT title-winner – and by Alex Riberas [ESP], a multiple class winner in Aston Martin racing cars in IMSA. All four raced Valkyrie in January’s Rolex 24 at Daytona while Riberas also drove it at the recent 12 Hours of Sebring.
Imola represents the first of three consecutive European races; May’s Total Energies Six Hours of Spa (BEL) being the final warm-up for the 94th running of the world’s biggest motor race, the 24 Hours of Le Mans on 13-14 June, at which Valkyrie will aim to add to Aston Martin’s legendary 1959 overall triumph with Roy Salvadori (GBR), Carroll Shelby (USA) and the legendary DBR1 race car.
The series will head across the Atlantic afterwards to Interlagos (BRA), and the Circuit of the Americas in Texas, (USA). Three Asian races conclude the season at Fuji (JAP), Lusail (QAT)* and Sakhir (BHR).
While two Valkyries will be on track in Imola, another will take to the streets of California, as IMSA continues with the third race of its season, the Grand Prix of Long Beach.
North America’s most legendary and historic street circuit, the 2.0-mile layout, set on the town’s shoreline and in the shadow of the RMS Queen Mary ocean liner, has featured Aston Martin racing cars for decades, including a successful spell in the American Le Mans Series in the early 2000s.
Works drivers Roman De Angelis (CAN), the IMSA GTD champion of 2022, and Ross Gunn (GBR), a multiple race winner in the series in both the GTD and GTD Pro divisions in Aston Martin race cars, will kick off the ‘sprint’ phase of the campaign with a race of one hour, 40 minutes duration, making it the shortest on the calendar.
Gunn has a strong record at Long Beach, having won on the streets in the GTD Pro class in 2022 with THOR, while he and De Angelis drove their Valkyrie Hypercar to eighth spot in last year’s race. This was, at the time, the car’s best finish on what was only its third start globally. The duo improved that significantly by the end of the year when they – with Riberas – took second place at the 10-hour season finale at Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta.
The solitary V12-powered car entered in IMSA, Valkyrie is also the only entry derived from a road-going hypercar competing in either North America’s premier endurance series or the WEC.
Harry Tincknell, driver #007 Aston Martin Valkyrie (WEC): “After the delay to the start of the season, I’m really looking forward to getting down to business at Imola. The late start has provided extra preparation time, which has been helpful. Where we are compared to the start of 2025 is chalk and cheese. We are fully staffed in all areas, have made some very good progress with Valkyrie’s electronics package and we come to Imola with very different targets. I’m not sure it will be the best circuit for us as Valkyrie’s high-speed cornering ability isn’t suited to a bumpy track with big kerbs, so it’s pretty hard to know where we’ll be. It is an amazing place to come though, and you feel the fans sitting right on top of you in some places. I can’t wait to get going.”
Tom Gamble, driver #007 Aston Martin Valkyrie (WEC): “I’m incredibly excited to get the WEC season underway. We’ve had to wait a little longer than expected but it’s finally time to get started. The team worked incredibly hard over the winter to make steps forward for this year, so it’s exciting to see how it’s going to go. Imola is one of the most iconic tracks we race at so it’s going to be special to drive the Valkyrie there once again.”
Alex Riberas, driver #009 Aston Martin Valkyrie (WEC): “It feels like an eternity since we were in Bahrain last year at the finale and fighting at the front, so to finally be ready to get the new season started feels very special. Imola will be a very important race as we’ll be able to see, for the first time, where we’ve taken steps forwards as a team and how the hard work everybody’s been doing has had an impact. I’m super-excited and really looking forward to being back on track with the team.”
Marco Sørensen, driver #009 Aston Martin Valkyrie (WEC): “The wait to go racing with Valkyrie in WEC has been longer than expected, but it’s such a special car to drive that you always find yourself looking forward to getting back in it. We’re now moving into a phase where everywhere we race we have a dataset to work with, which will help us understand the car’s behaviour more quickly. This will allow us to get into a working window much faster every weekend. We ended the 2025 season in a pretty competitive position and I’m looking forward to us trying to maintain that momentum into 2026.”
Ross Gunn, driver #23 Aston Martin Valkyrie (IMSA): “I’m very excited to be back for another Long Beach Grand Prix. The event is always a fantastic weekend filled with lots of exciting racing. It’s a very challenging street circuit, and the walls are always close by. We took some good steps in Sebring in terms of pace and we want to carry that into Long Beach. We are under no illusions as to how difficult this circuit will be for our car, but the key is to make good strides and hopefully we will be fighting for a strong position in the top 10.”
Roman De Angelis, driver #23 Aston Martin Valkyrie (IMSA): “I’m looking forward to the first sprint race of the 2026 IMSA season with Ross and the Aston Martin THOR team. It’s been a challenging first two weekends, with us having to overcome some issues on the way to the flag. So I am really excited to move forward and fight for a better result at Long Beach.”
Ian James, Team Principal, Aston Martin THOR Team: “The start of a new FIA World Endurance Championship season is always an exciting time and after the strong progress made with Valkyrie across its debut year in 2025, we begin things in a very different position and with a different set of objectives. The experience and data we gained last season of racing at venues like Imola, Spa-Francorchamps and Le Mans will be invaluable and the fact that we already have the IMSA races at Daytona and Sebring to reflect on will help us to learn and move forwards even more rapidly. Imola and Long Beach are very different challenges; a traditional European circuit and a bumpy street track full of 90-degree corners that will challenge the versatility of any Hypercar. As always, we’ll focus on the areas we can control; pitwork, strategy, driver performances… We will need to execute these elements flawlessly to stay in the fight and see what results we can achieve.”
Adam Carter, Aston Martin Head of Endurance Motorsport: “A new WEC season brings a new set of challenges for Valkyrie, although, with IMSA’s two toughest races, the Rolex 24 at Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring, already behind us, many of the new personnel within the project and the technical changes made during the winter, have now seen action in a competitive environment and we can use all the experience gained to move forwards for the rest of the season. Racing on two continents on the same weekend is naturally, a major challenge, but it’s one the Valkyrie programme has been through already last season and one we’re well-equipped to take on. The WEC races will come thick and fast as we build towards the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June, but with a year of experience behind us, our objectives have moved on a step, and it will be fascinating to watch how we go about achieving these.”
Mattia Drudi named Official Reserve Driver for Valkyrie racing programme
Aston Martin works GT driver Mattia Drudi (ITA) has been named as Official Reserve Driver for the Valkyrie global racing programme. The 27-year-old Italian, who is part of THOR’s LMGT3 class line-up in the WEC, impressed on his first outing aboard Valkyrie at last year’s ‘WEC Rookie Test’, held at Bahrain International Circuit.
Drudi became an Aston Martin works driver in 2024 and was part of the crew that achieved Vantage’s first overall victory at that year’s Crowdstrike 24 Hours of Spa. He went on to achieve LMGT3 pole position at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2025 and was a podium finisher in January’s Rolex 24 at Daytona in the GTD category.
The Italian said: “I’m really grateful both to the The Heart of Racing and Aston Martin to give me the chance to be more involved in the Valkrie programme. I really enjoyed driving the car at the WEC Rookie test in Bahrain. I’m looking forward to get more driving time, and to get even more comfortable with the car, and with such a promising season, I will be ready to step up into the seat if I’m needed.”
Ian James, Aston Martin THOR team principal, added: “We are very pleased to name Mattia as Official Reserve Driver for the Valkyrie programme. His results with Vantage speak for themselves and he’s become a vital part of our GT programme. Mattia’s performance aboard Valkyrie at the WEC Rookie Test in Bahrain last year was extremely impressive. In Mattia we have one of the world’s best GT drivers within the Aston Martin family who will be ready, if called upon, to show off his talent in either the hypercar or GTP categories.”
WEC begins at Imola for two-car THOR Vantage line-up as Aston Martin heads to streets of Long Beach as series leader
A new FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) gets underway with the 6 Hours of Imola in Italy this weekend, with two ultra-strong Aston Martin Vantage GT3s – both run by the Heart of Racing Team (THOR) vying for LMGT3 title success.
THOR’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship-leading GTD team is also in action on the legendary streets of Long Beach as North America’s premier sportscar racing series moves on to its third race of 2026. The team will be joined there by Van Der Steur Racing in another Aston Martin Vantage GT3.
Imola marks a milestone race for THOR as it will be the first time the Seattle-based squad, which finished fourth in last year’s LMGT3 points table, has fielded a pair of Aston Martins in WEC.
Team Principal Ian James (GBR), the 2004 American Le Mans Series LMP2 champion and a class winner at both the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring, will race the #27 Vantage. He has been a part of every one of his team’s WEC driver line-ups since its debut at Spa-Francorchamps in 2023.
He reunites with his 2025 team-mates Zacharie Robichon (CAN) – the 2021 IMSA GTD champion, 2023 European Le Mans Series LMGTE title winner, and polesitter at this year’s Rolex 24 at Daytona – and with Aston Martin works driver Mattia Drudi (ITA), GT World Challenge Europe Sprint champion in 2023 and Crowdstrike 24 Hours of Spa winner in 2024. It was Drudi who set pole position in LMGT3 at last year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Driving the sister #23 entry is a line-up blending youth and experience. American Gray Newell is set for his maiden season of WEC competition, having achieved podium finishes with THOR’s Vantage in GT World Challenge America last year and race victories in GT4 America with the team previously.
He shares the Vantage with two-time 24 Hours of Le Mans GT class winner and four-time British GT champion Jonny Adam (GBR) and with 2026 Aston Martin Academy winner Kobe Pauwels (BEL), the current GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup Silver champion. Pauwels is substituting at Imola for Brazilian Dudu Barrichello, who will race the car for the majority of the season, but is unavailable to drive at Imola due to his clashing IMSA commitments at Long Beach.
In IMSA, THOR have enjoyed a superb start to the season with GTD class pole positions and podium finishes at each of the first two races, the Rolex 24 at Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring to put Aston Martin at the head of the Manufacturers’ points standings.
THOR head the Teams’ standings while Barrichello, Tom Gamble (GBR) and Robichon lead the Drivers’ Championship after third and second-place finishes at Daytona (with Drudi) and Sebring. However, due to the WEC commitments of both Gamble and Robichon, only Barrichello – who is in his first season of IMSA competition – will remain in the car for the entire campaign. His team-mate at Long Beach will be the experienced American Spencer Pumpelly, whose most recent race with Vantage resulted in a second-place finish in GTD in January’s Rolex 24 at Daytona. He recorded an IMSA class win at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in 2024 on his last start with THOR.
Van Der Steur, which enjoyed a strong run at Sebring where its regular drivers Rory van der Steur (USA) and works driver Valentin Hasse-Clot (FRA) raced into the top five before misfortune struck late in the race, is embarking on its first full IMSA season. The team therefore makes its GTD debut at Long Beach this weekend.
As Aston Martin’s most successful ever racing car, Vantage’s recent record at Long Beach is a strong one. Significant highlights include a GTD Pro win for THOR’s Ross Gunn (GBR) and Alex Riberas (SPA) in 2022 and a GTD pole position for Marco Sørensen (DEN) in 2024.
Sharing the mechanical architecture of the ultra-luxury Vantage road car, the Vantage GT3, which triumphed at last year’s 24 Hours of Spa – 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.
