Valkyries IMSA debut and two Vantage GTD crews chasing further class reward around Sebring
Monday, March 10, 2025
Whilst the opening round of the season at the Rolex 24 did not include the international debut of the new Aston Martin Valkyrie GTP car, we have of course now seen that creation in its World Endurance Championship guise after the opening round of that championship in Qatar at the start of the month. That will be corrected this weekend as the #23 Heart of Racing Valkyrie GTP will be racing in its blue IMSA livery for the first time with a driver crew of Ross Gunn, Roman De Angelis and Alex Riberas behind the wheel.
Complimenting a top-class reappearance of an Aston Martin brand within the IMSA Championship will also be the two Aston Martin Racing Vantage GTD entries from the Heart of Racing and Van Der Steur teams as they both go about improving upon their Rolex 24 finishing positions at Daytona earlier.
Both Vantage GTD crews will compete with three of their four drivers that they competed with at the season opener with Casper Stevenson and Tom Gamble again being joined by Zacharie Robichon within the #27 Heart of Racing car whilst the #19 Van Der Steur car will again be driven by Rory Van Der Steur, Valentin Hasse-Clot and Anthony McIntosh.
Both Vantage GTD crews will compete with three of their four drivers that they competed with at the season opener with Casper Stevenson and Tom Gamble again being joined by Zacharie Robichon within the #27 Heart of Racing car whilst the #19 Van Der Steur car will again be driven by Rory Van Der Steur, Valentin Hasse-Clot and Anthony McIntosh.
Both crews enjoyed a successful opener with the #27 car stealing third place in class at the end whilst the #19 crew celebrated their own successes with a P6 finish in class in their first ever GTD (GT3) based race together.
The first official track action for the combined fifty-six car entry will be on Thursday morning before Qualifying later on Friday, with the start of the twelve-hour race early on Saturday morning local time.
If the opening rounds of both the IMSA and WEC Championships were anything to go by, this round will surely be equally as impressive!
Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media
