A busy week for the Heart of Racing Valkyrie on both sides of the pond

“The performance of all three Valkyries was encouraging this weekend,” said Aston Martin Head of Endurance Adam Carter. “That both WEC entries were able to run on the lead lap throughout the six hours, on a fast and challenging circuit such as Spa, demonstrates the progress we’ve made with our performance development of the car. The upwards trajectory of Valkyrie’s pace in comparison to our WEC Hypercar class rivals is positive as we look ahead to the most important race of the season – the 24 Hours of Le Mans [14-15 June].

“In America, Valkyrie ran well and deep in the points-scoring positions until it was struck by an unfortunate tyre issue after contact. Despite this, the car was able to collect points for the third race in succession which is satisfying. Across the two championships Valkyrie has achieved eight finishes in nine starts, which is a strong record for a brand new Hypercar programme. This robust reliability is a strong asset as we look to continue building performance into Valkyrie through its debut season.

Both the #007 Valkyrie, driven by British racers Tom Gamble and Harry Tincknell, which finished 13th, and the sister #009 car of Alex Riberas and Marco Sørensen which placed 14th, ran without issue throughout an eventful, Safety Car-interrupted six-hour race at Spa. Indeed the #007 was running 10th (having placed as high as fourth through the stop sequence in the final hour) with four laps to go when it became necessary for a ‘splash-and-dash’ energy stop.

“Step by step everything is improving all the time,” said Tincknell. “We were legitimately fighting for a point at the end of the race, but unfortunately, we needed to box for some energy. We just needed one more Full Course Yellow for half a lap, but there was no way anyone was going to pass me on track. We’re flying now, and at the end of the stint the car is coming back to us more and more. From Qatar, to Imola, to here, we’ve made huge steps and this is fantastic.”

At Laguna Seca, another challenging track for drivers and cars Aston Martin THOR Team drivers Ross Gunn – an IMSA GTD Pro class winner at Long Beach – and Roman De Angelis, the 2022 IMSA GTD champion, delivered on another solid, competitive run to bring Valkyrie home in tenth and finish in the points again. This follows on from tenth place on the car’s debut at Sebring in February, and then eighth place at Long Beach last month. Yesterday’s result extends a record-setting run of points finishes for a car built to FIA-homologated Hypercar Regulations.

“We had another progressive race at Laguna Seca,” said Gunn. “Unfortunately, in the race we suffered a puncture when we were within 20 seconds of the leaders after 45 minutes. From then on it was just about bringing it home to the finish, which we did. In general, it’s been a positive weekend in terms of the steps that we have made and how we managed to get closer to the midfield of the GTP class. Now we can take everything we have learned and build it into Detroit in three weeks’ time.

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.

Source material / photo credits – AMR