Round ten of eleven, this weekend’s six-hour race will again see all four classes return with a total expected entry list of fifty-three GTP, LMP2, GTD Pro and GTD runners.
For the Aston Martin and Aston Martin Racing powered runners, that obviously sees the return of the Heart of Racing Aston Martin Valkyrie with drivers Ross Gunn and Roman De Angelis again sharing the driving duties behind the wheel of the #23 car.
Still the debut season for the team’s new GTP/Hypercar project, the banked oval and the tricky infield section of the Brickyard circuit will give us a glimpse of what might have been had the car been ready in time for the season opening at Daytona way back at the start of the year.
For the car itself in its blue IMSA guise, 2025 has been more than encouraging for the team and its partners but has not been seen out racing since its last GTP round from Road America in early August where they secured a season best (so far) P6 finish. Hopefully, that trail of continuous learning and continuous development with the car in-between rounds will see something a bit higher up the ladder at either this or the final round of the year from Petit Le Mans in about four weeks’ time.
We also have the Heart of Racing #27 AMR Vantage GTD of Tom Gamble, Casper Stevenson and Zacharie Robichon back for good measure as the team continue to maintain Stevenson’s GTD Drivers Championship chances after a couple of bullish previous rounds at both Road America and most recently from VIR where the #27 finished P9 and P3 in class respectively.
Stevenson remains fifth within the driver’s championship, just over one hundred points behind the present leaders with two rounds still remaining.
Being another endurance round to the championship, we also see the return of the #19 Van Der Steur AMR Vantage GTD, but with a slight change to their usual driver line up after it became clear last weekend at Silverstone’s Le Mans Cup race that all was not well with the young Rory Van Der Stuer.
Officially listing an injury sustained from a mountain bike accident sees the team’s namesake again skip a race with his AMR powered machinery leaving team regulars Valentin Hasse-Clot and Anthony McIntosh to lead the way alongside a deputising Eduardo Barrichello.
Obviously, a very accomplished trio of drivers having seen them scoop a LMGT3 class P3 podium finish at the World Endurance Championship’s visit to Brazil a couple of months ago.
Track action begins on Friday with Free Practice One before rotating through Free Practice Two and Qualifying on Saturday before the green flag to the race at 11:40hrs local on Sunday.
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