The World Endurance championship rides into CoTA town for round six of the season

Many US-based motorsport fans are familiar with Valkyrie, which is the only LMH to compete in both the FIA WEC and in North America’s IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship and has scored top 10 finishes in every race it has contested in the USA – including Road America most recently, where the US-based version of the Aston Martin THOR Team finished in an encouraging sixth place.

In WEC, where Aston Martin competes against seven of the world’s most prominent endurance sportscar manufacturers, Valkyrie is also growing in competitiveness. This was evidenced by its combined best qualifying performance (11th and 12th) in the most recent Rolex 6 Hours of Sao Paulo, in July. The car also raced deep into the top ten in the early hours of the event. This follows an encouraging 24 Hours of Le Mans (in June) where both Valkyrie Hypercars completed their maiden twice-around-the-clock event without issue, finishing 12th and 14th, and the UK-based ‘WEC’ arm of the Aston Martin THOR Team registered the cars’, and Aston Martin’s first Manufacturer’s World Championship points in the Hypercar Class.

Valkyrie made its global debut in the Qatar 1812km in February. The British machine has subsequently demonstrated outstanding reliability, having finished 14 times from 15 starts in all competitions.

The Aston Martin THOR Team will keep to its two regular WEC Valkyrie line-ups for the Lone Star Le Mans, with the #007 driven by Tom Gamble and Harry Tincknell and the #009 by Alex Riberas and Marco Sørensen.

There are few circuits on Earth more suited to showcasing the breathtaking prowess of Aston Martin’s Vantage GT3 than the Circuit of the Americas – the venue for Round 6 of the FIA World Endurance Championship and the scene of unprecedented glory for the British brand’s most successful racing car.

In its various iterations, Vantage has claimed no less than 10 class victories derived from 13 podium appearances – four of which were double-class wins – as well as seven class pole positions. Its credentials were cemented further in 2024, when the latest iteration – Vantage GT3 – underpinned The Heart of Racing’s (THOR) and team principal Ian James maiden victory in the LMGT3 Class, along with his co-drivers Alex Riberas who now forms part of the Valkyrie works line-up, and Daniel Mancinelli.

James returns this year as a regular class frontrunner, alongside Zach Robichon and Mattia Drudi looking to repeat the team’s home race heroics of 2024 with of the #27 Vantage.

The Racing Spirit of Léman crew, returns to its original 2025 driver line-up of Derek DeBoer, Eduardo Barrichello and Aston Martin works driver Valentin Hasse-Clot in the #10 Aston Martin Vantage GT3. The team arrives in Austin still on a high from its first WEC podium finish in LMGT3, after Barrichello raced to a dramatic third place in the closing stages of the 6 Hours of Sao Paulo in July. RSL will be looking to maintain that momentum in Texas this weekend.

“It seems as though we have been competitive all season long in WEC,” said Aston Martin Head of Endurance Motorsport Adam Carter. “And yet for one reason or another, it’s taken until the second half of the season for Vantage to achieve its podium potential. A winner last year in COTA, we see no reason why both cars are not capable of competing for similar results this year in the Lone Star Le Mans. We wish both our partner teams (The Heart of Racing and Racing Spirit of Léman) well in pursuit of this goal.”

Source material – Aston Martin (Racing)