The spectacular new Aston Martin Valkyrie enters the ultimate part of its debut season of world competitors because the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship (IMSA) continues with the Motul Sportscar Grand Prix of Street America (WI) this weekend.
Simply three races stay in 2025 for IMSA’s main GTP class – during which Valkyrie achieved a ninth-place end on its debut in March’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring – with the goal to keep up the British hypercar’s upwards progress and end the 12 months on a excessive. This trigger has been boosted by an ever-increasing aggressive achieve by the IMSA marketing campaign, highlighted emphatically by the #23 Valkyrie’s most up-to-date run, at Watkins Glen in June, the place it raced as much as fifth place earlier than a late-race warning combined up the order.
Aston Martin THOR Crew’s ninth place was nonetheless its fifth consecutive factors end, in a season the place Valkyrie has completed each race it has launched into throughout a
debut US marketing campaign colored by sturdy reliability. The British ultra-luxury excessive efficiency model’s all-new Valkyrie has achieved encouraging prime 10 ends in every of the 5 races contested, together with a pair of eighth place finishes on the road circuits at Lengthy Seashore (CA), and Detroit (MI).
Valkyrie drivers Roman De Angelis (CAN) and Ross Gunn (GBR), each have each carried out nicely at Street America up to now; Gunn having received the GTD Professional class from pole place in an Aston Martin Vantage GT3 in 2023. For De Angelis, the 2 hours and 40 minutes-long race marks a return to his common Valkyrie cockpit after the 2022 IMSA GTD champion stepped in to companion Casper Stevenson (GBR) in THOR’s Vantage at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park final month.
The primary ‘Le Mans Hypercar’ (LMH) to be produced by Aston Martin, Valkyrie is the one automobile in IMSA’s premier GTP class derived from a road-legal hypercar. The British contender can also be the primary LMH automobile of any type to compete in IMSA, and the one one contesting each IMSA and the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) concurrently, having made its debut within the Qatar 1812km in February.
Developed from the Valkyrie manufacturing automobile by Aston Martin and THOR, the competitors
model 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 commonplace type, however adheres to a strict 500kw (680bhp) energy restrict as per hypercar rules.
Valkyrie positions Aston Martin within the prime division of US sportscar racing for the primary time since 2011; a season during which 5 outright victories and 7 podiums have been achieved within the American Le Mans Collection.
Ross Gunn, driver #23 Aston Martin Valkyrie: “I’m actually excited to get again on board Valkyrie after the small break since Watkins Glen. We did a check lately at Street America so we now have managed to get a really feel for what the automobile is able to on one of many all-time nice circuits within the US. The racing at Elkhart Lake, is often received on technique and being in the best place on the proper time is essential. Which means we have to be prepared, and up to the mark as a lot as we are able to. I’m actually pleased with the progress we now have made to this point and now we’re in to the enterprise finish of the season, the intention is to maintain transferring ahead on the optimistic trajectory that we’re on.”
Roman De Angelis, driver #23 Aston Martin Valkyrie: “I look ahead to going to Street America yearly because it’s one other one in every of these iconic tracks on the IMSA calendar. I’m much more excited this 12 months because it’s a observe that I really feel fits the GTP class with its high-speed nature. We had a profitable check a number of weeks again and this has given us plenty of encouragement forward of the weekend. After preventing within the prime ten at Watkins Glen, I do know I converse for the entire crew once I say we’re actually motivated to lastly get the outcomes we really feel we deserve.”
Ian James, Crew Principal, Aston Martin THOR Crew: “We are saying this each race, but it surely’s clear that Valkyrie is progressing ahead incrementally with each begin it undertakes, each in IMSA and the FIA World Endurance Championship. At Watkins Glen, we maximized the efficiency of the automobile, and collectively as a crew we raced extraordinarily nicely to carry Valkyrie into the highest 5 on advantage earlier than the late-race cautions. We’ve subsequently had a profitable check at Street America, the place Valkyrie ran nicely, and so after all we’re to see how the information we’ve gained interprets in race situations.”
Adam Carter, Aston Martin Head of Endurance Motorsport: “With greater than half the IMSA season full, and prime 10 finishes in each race, it’s clear how a lot progress Valkyrie and theAston Martin THOR Crew have made to this point in 2025. Naturally we wish to proceed to construct Valkyrie’s competitiveness throughout the ultimate three occasions of the IMSA season. The information we’ve gathered and the teachings realized at Watkins Glen might be utilized to all the remaining occasions because the circuits are all the ‘conventional North American street course’ sort, and we look ahead to seeing how Valkyrie and the Aston Martin THOR Crew will use this to maintain constructing momentum.”