Exotic Prototypes and bare carbon GTs tickle the fancy at last weekends IMSA test
Monday, November 18, 2024
Pounding the banked over circuit that sets the scene for the opening round of the 2025 IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship in late January saw the Heart of Racing deliver upon their promise to step up to the GTP class within this series with another example of their Valkyrie that they have groomed out of the original Aston Martin design with Multimatic.
Controlling the song of its V12 normally aspirated engine were three familiar Heart of Racing faces with Ross Gunn, Alex Riberas and Roman De Angelis all getting ‘the nod’ to take on their first true collective test with most of next season’s GTP entries aboard but we understand that this line is not necessarily the one that will take to the track for the Rolex 24 in just over two month’s time.
Still carrying its rather fetching camo’ livery, the #23 Valkyrie was the centre of the media’s attention as it clocked up over 270 important data collecting laps before the car moves onto its next pivotable point in time with its formal race homologation.
Still carrying its rather fetching camo’ livery, the #23 Valkyrie was the centre of the media’s attention as it clocked up over 270 important data collecting laps before the car moves onto its next pivotable point in time with its formal race homologation.
The return of an Aston Martin V12 to the racetracks is something certainly worth waiting for next season as further examples will also run within the FIA World Endurance Championship.
Joining them on track was one returning GTD line up in Magnus Racing together with the new #19 Aston Martin Racing Vantage GTD from the Van Der Steur team as they make the giant leap up the racing ladder from the GT4 based IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Series and into certainly all five Endurance rounds of the full IMSA plus (maybe) selected Sprint races too.
Whilst the #44 Magnus team ran with their usual trio of John Potter, Andy Lally and Spencer Pumpelly ahead of what will be the sole 2025 entry at the Rolex 24 in January, the #19 car had a whole host of drivers eager to sample its wears.
Joining the entry’s designated drivers of Rory Van Der Steur and Valentin Hasse-Clot were Maxime Robin, Eric Filgueiras and Brady Behrman as they too collated over 260 laps between them over the seven sessions.
Joining the entry’s designated drivers of Rory Van Der Steur and Valentin Hasse-Clot were Maxime Robin, Eric Filgueiras and Brady Behrman as they too collated over 260 laps between them over the seven sessions.
Whilst in GTP, lap times may have not been of such a great consequence for the #23 Valkyrie, the AMR Vantage GTD Evo platform is now about to enter its second full season since its global launch at the Rolex 24 this year with both the Heart of Racing and Magnus racing teams so it was unsurprising to see the likes of Lally, Hasse-Clot and Pumpelly hit the top six in class at the end of the day.
For all AMR powered teams, the next step will be confirmation of their driver line ups for both the full season and Rolex 24 within these three cars present at the test as well as the Heart of Racing GTD entry that will also run but the teams attention is obviously turned to the preparation of its Valkyrie effort at this stage.
Then, it will be the Roar before the 24 test at Daytona (which now of course includes the 24’s Qualifying session) over the 17-19th January – just a week before another season formally kicks off.
Photo credits – Team / IMSA / Michelin / AMR / social media
