- Aston Martin Valkyrie takes best finish to date at the world-famous Grand Prix of Long Beach on third-ever start
- Roman De Angelis and Ross Gunn finish eighth to make it back-to-back top 10 finishes for the British hypercar in IMSA
- Valkyrie is the only hypercar to contest the world’s two premier sportscar series, IMSA and the FIA World Endurance Championship, in 2025
- The Aston Martin THOR Team build on encouraging Sebring debut as Valkyrie continues preparations for Le Mans 24 Hours debut in June
The spectacular new Aston Martin Valkyrie hypercar scored both its best race finish (and qualifying result) with a strong weekend-long performance at the world-renowned Grand Prix of Long Beach, the latest round of the IMSA Weathertech SportsCar Championship (IMSA), last weekend.
Hot on the heels of a highly-respectable ninth-place result at the 12 Hours of Sebring last month – the first points finish of any car built to hypercar regulations in the history of IMSA competition – the British ultra-luxury high performance brand’s all-new Valkyrie went one better by finishing eighth after a competitive showing across the event.
Aston Martin THOR Team and its drivers Ross Gunn (GBR) – an IMSA GTD Pro class winner at Long Beach – and Roman De Angelis (CDN), the 2022 IMSA GTD champion, made gains in Friday practice and then achieved a best-ever 11th place in qualifying, just a tenth of a second shy of the top 10, on what was only Valkyrie’s third start and its second in IMSA’s GTP division. But a faultless and reliable run through the 100-minute race – the shortest on the IMSA calendar – was rewarded with an eighth-place finish.
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 season, masterminded by the works Aston Martin THOR team at Sebring, has already produced an encouraging pair of top-10 finishes on circuits recognised as some of the world’s most demanding.
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.
Ross Gunn, driver #23 Aston Martin Valkyrie: “I’m super-happy with our eighth-place finish at Long Beach. It was a difficult Friday with a couple of issues that we had to overcome, but at this stage of the programme, that’s completely normal. Everybody did a great job figuring out and fixing what had arisen. The main positive is that we improved throughout the weekend. We improved on our last race result at Sebring, kept it clean and completed another race. We’ve ticked a lot more boxes with Valkyrie and I’m very happy.”
Roman De Angelis, driver #23 Aston Martin Valkyrie: “It was a tough race, but we kept the car clean. We had a tricky start to the weekend with some issues in practice and I only had about 10 laps before the race, so all in all I’m happy that the car is in one piece and that the race was clean. I’m excited to see what Laguna Seca brings next time out.”
Ian James, Team Principal, Aston Martin THOR Team: “It was a very positive weekend for Valkyrie. The team had a great strategy. We were right with some of the other cars at the end so to be mixing with any of the other manufacturers at this point makes us proud. There is still lots to learn from each weekend, but it was a step forward for our performance and for the Valkyrie programme as a whole, and it will be even better come Laguna Seca.”
Adam Carter, Aston Martin Head of Endurance Motorsport: “Long Beach posed a complex test for Valkyrie; a street track with very different technical challenges to those experienced at Sebring on its first appearance in IMSA or in Qatar for its global race debut in the FIA WEC. Despite this, it came through with flying colours as Aston Martin Team THOR scored the car’s best results to date. We continue to make enormous progress every time Valkyrie goes on track and this latest achievement will give us all added determination to keep moving forwards and striving for more.”
