It’s the First LMH Platform Car to Confirm Plans to Compete in IMSA
October 4, 2023
By Mark Robinson
IMSA Wire Service
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Aston Martin is planning to bring the first Le Mans Hypercar (LMH) platform prototype to the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in 2025, following the manufacturer’s announcement today that its Valkyrie is gearing up for a run in both North America’s most prestigious sports car racing series as well as the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC).The Aston Martin Valkyrie program, operated by current WeatherTech Championship team Heart of Racing, will compete alongside the hybrid-powered LMDh platform cars in the Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class. Aston Martin and Heart of Racing Team also plan to enter a Valkyrie in the Hypercar class of the WEC, but the car’s global racing debut is expected to come at the 2025 Rolex 24 At Daytona.“Today marks the beginning of a new chapter for Aston Martin in endurance racing,” said Adam Carter, Aston Martin head of Endurance Motorsport. “As a manufacturer, Aston Martin has a consistent record of success at world championship level and, through the efforts of the Heart of Racing, also now in IMSA.“Valkyrie takes us back into the top tier of sports car racing, and together with our partners we are absolutely confident that we can deliver a race car with the potential and the performance capabilities to fight alongside the benchmark machinery in the class. To be able to do this in cooperation with a proven championship-winning operation such as Heart of Racing ensures we have all we need to race from a competitive platform. It’s a fascinating program, given that this is the only Hypercar in the class with direct synergies to its road car counterpart, but the Valkyrie concept was always intended to break through boundaries, and now we have the opportunity to show what it can do on a track.”
The Valkyrie prototype is based on the Valkyrie AMR Pro track Hypercar, the fastest car ever built by Aston Martin. The prototype will be powered by a 6.5-liter, V-12 Cosworth engine but will not include the hybrid powertrain system used in all LMDh cars running in the GTP class. That list currently includes entries from Acura, BMW, Cadillac and Porsche, with Lamborghini joining in 2024. The ability for LMH and LMDh cars to compete alongside each other was made possible through the convergence of regulations among IMSA, FIA and the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO).Ian James, team principal at Heart of Racing which currently operates a two-car program competing in the GT Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) and GT Daytona (GTD) classes of the WeatherTech Championship, called it “a privilege” to be tabbed to operate the LMH program as well. The team and driver Roman De Angelis won the 2022 WeatherTech Championship GTD title.“Our team has grown exponentially since we began racing with those famous (Aston Martin) wings at Daytona in 2020,” James said. “We understand and are aligned with the ethos of the brand and we have developed our own systems and technologies to extract the maximum performance of the cars we compete with. Our understanding of Valkyrie is strong and we have worked closely with it through our customer activation programs for two years now
“This HoR team has big ambitions in endurance racing, and this is absolutely the right time for us to step into the top classes of WEC and IMSA and challenge for overall honors,” James added. “This is not an easy target, but between our partners and the support of Aston Martin Performance Technologies, it is one we have all the tools and capabilities in place to hit the bullseye with.”Aston Martin also announced that it is building all-new GT3 and GT4 race cars built on the Vantage platform that will be ready for the 2024 season. The GT3 specification car will be available to compete in the GTD PRO and GTD classes of the WeatherTech Championship, with the GT4 available for the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge and IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge.“In addition to our presence in the FIA Formula 1 World Championship, Aston Martin’s return to the pinnacle of endurance racing will allow us to build a deeper connection with our customers and community, many of whom found their passion for the brand through our past success at Le Mans,” Lawrence Stroll, executive chairman of Aston Martin Lagonda, said. “And of course, the complex knowledge base we are building through our F1 team is data that Aston Martin Performance Technologies can harness to further enhance the capabilities of the Valkyrie race car at Le Mans, in WEC and IMSA. Just as the learnings we gain through endurance competition will feed directly into our road car programs, further improving the ultimate performance of our products.” |
