Valkyries best performance so far after latest IMSA round from Long Beach
Monday, April 14, 2025
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 high-performance brand’s all-new Valkyrie went one better by finishing eighth after a competitive showing across the event.
Aston Martin The Heart of Racing Team and its drivers Ross Gunn – an IMSA GTD Pro class winner at Long Beach – and Roman De Angelis, 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’ 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 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.
Source material – Aston Martin
