Hot on the heels of a highly-respectable top-ten finish in the Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring last month – the first points finish of any car built to hypercar regulations in the history of IMSA – the British ultra-luxury high performance brand’s all-new Valkyrie now takes on the challenge of one of the world’s most legendary street circuits.
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, masterminded by the works Aston Martin THOR team at Sebring, produced an encouraging result (9th overall) running solidly on a circuit recognised as one of the world’s most grueling racetracks. Canadian Roman De Angelis, the 2022 IMSA GTD champion, and Ross Gunn (GBR), a regular race winner in the GTD and The Heart of Racing’s first GTD Pro winner at Long Beach in 2022, who were both part of the driving strength, will race the #23 Valkyrie this weekend and for the rest of the season. They shared the Valkyrie with Alex Riberas (ESP) who now moves back to the WEC line-up before returning to IMSA in the season finale at Road Atlanta in October.
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.
Valkyrie positions Aston Martin in the top division of US sportscar racing for the first time since 2011; a season in which five outright victories (including one at Long Beach) and seven podiums were achieved in the American Le Mans Series.
