Works drivers Ross Gunn (GBR) and Roman De Angelis (CAN) bounced back from mid-race adversity to run second on the road in the final stages before securing the result for the ultra-luxury British brand. It marked the best finish for Valkyrie in North America’s premier sportscar series since the duo and Alex Riberas (SPA) placed second in last year’s Motul Petit Le Mans season finale.

Having set the eighth-fastest time in the top GTP class in Saturday’s qualifying session, Gunn started the race and ran competitively, but he and De Angelis – the 2022 IMSA GTD champion with THOR and the Aston Martin Vantage – were forced into recovery mode after two drive-through penalties dropped the #23 race car off the lead lap.

Strong pace and a clever strategic call by the Aston Martin THOR Team brought the duo back onto the lead lap with 90 minutes of the six-hour race to go with both drivers contributing to a climb from 10th to seventh spot as the final hour began.

A chaotic climax to the race, filled with incidents and Full-Course Yellow periods in the GTP class, meant De Angelis needed to employ a cool head to navigate the ever-changing picture. He did just that and moved through the field calmly, eventually finishing in fifth place.

Valkyrie’s US campaign, masterminded by the works Aston Martin THOR team, has shown significant performance gains compared to its debut season in 2025. The British ultra-luxury high-performance brand’s Valkyrie has achieved top-10 results in GTP in six of the seven races so far. Three races remain of the IMSA season, but only two for the GTP class; the road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (18-20 September) and the 10-hour Petit Le Mans finale at Road Atlanta (30 September – 3 October).

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.

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.

Adam Carter, Aston Martin Head of Endurance Motorsport: “This was a promising weekend for the Aston Martin THOR Team. From opening practice onward, Valkyrie showed potential, so it’s extremely satisfying to see Ross and Roman finish in the top five for the first time in 2026. This result – which could potentially have been even stronger – is a clear indication that the programme is heading in the right direction and that Valkyrie is extremely well-suited to the classic North American sportscar courses like Road America, Watkins Glen and Road Atlanta. Taking this result alongside the top-five finish Valkyrie achieved in the FIA World Endurance Championship recently shows progress. We’ll aim to move even further forwards through the rest of the season.”

Aston Martin Vantage on podium at Motul Sportscar Endurance Grand Prix with Car Blanche

Car Blanche achieves back-to-back IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTD podiums at Motul Sportscar Endurance Grand Prix

Works driver Valentin Hasse Clot, AMR Academy member Marius Fossard and Trenton Estep finish third in category at Road America

Zacharie Robichon puts the Heart of Racing Team on front row as #27 Vantage leads class for most of race

Dudu Barrichello and THOR maintain status as GTD Drivers’ and Teams’ points leaders with three races to go

Road America, Wisconsin USA, 3 August, 2026: Aston Martin’s most successful racing car, the Vantage GT3, delivered its sixth GTD category podium finish in seven IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship [IMSA] rounds of North America’s leading endurance racing series, in an eventful Motul Sportscar Endurance Grand Prix at Road America (WI) on Sunday.

A strategic masterclass by the Car Blanche entry, run by YRB Racing, provided the pathway for Aston Martin works driver Valentin Hasse Clot (FRA) to haul the Vantage GT3 up to third place during the final hour and give the team its second rostrum result in as many GTD class appearances. It’s a remarkable fact that the new team, which made its series debut at Watkins Glen less than two months ago, has only ever finished on the podium in IMSA’s GTD class.

Hasse Clot qualified the car third in class, the Frenchman returning to the GTD division after Car Blanche switched to GTD Pro for the previous race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. He and team-mates Trenton Estep (USA), and Marius Fossard (FRA) – the latter an AMR Academy candidate – ran competitively throughout, but lost ground in the fourth of six hours as some unhelpfully-timed Full-Course Yellow (FCY) periods prevented the trio making the most of the Vantage’s speed.

A clever decision to pit for the final time with more than an hour remaining dropped the car to 13th place, but with fresh tyres Hasse Clot was able to climb into the top five by the time everybody had visited the pitlane and then passed two more cars before the finish.

The result was the icing on the cake for Car Blanche, which had also finished third at Watkins Glen on its IMSA debut, and which, just 24 hours earlier, had scored its first ever race win as Estep and Allen Patten (USA) won with the Vantage GT4 in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge two-hour support race.

Sharing the mechanical architecture of the British ultra-luxury performance brand’s Vantage road car, the Vantage GT3, which leads IMSA’s GTD category with seven of 10 races completed – is built around Aston Martin’s proven bonded aluminium chassis and powered by its fearsome twin-turbo 4.0-litre V8 engine.

Former series champion Zacharie Robichon qualified second in GTD for Heart of Racing (THOR) Team and he and co-drivers Dudu Barrichello (BRA) spent much of the first four hours at the head of the GTD order aboard the #27 Vantage.

With the number of incidents increasing significantly during the final third of the race and all pitstops in the last two hours taking place under FCY conditions, the bunching effect of more than 20 cars in the pits together meant Aston Martin works driver Tom Gamble (GBR) could only watch as his track position evaporated and the car fell outside the podium spots. A post-race penalty then dropped the car to 15th in class.

Despite this, Barrichello retains the lead of the GTD Drivers’ Championship while THOR heads the points table. Aston Martin also retains second place in the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup standings in GTD, just two points shy of the series lead with a race to go.

“Car Blanche has made an excellent start and has proved to be a valuable partner for Aston Martin Racing,” said Adam Carter, Aston Martin Head of Endurance. “To not only achieve podium finishes in both of its GTD appearances so far in IMSA, but to also become a first-time winner with the Vantage GT4 in the Michelin Pilot Challenge shows not only what a formidable team it has become in a short space of time, but also what an excellent platform Aston Martin provides to all its partner teams. The pace of Vantage has been proven once again on one of North America’s most iconic sportscar venues and with the Heart of Racing Team and Dudu Barrichello maintaining the championship lead in GTD, there’s everything to play for as we enter the final stages of the season.”