Aston Martin powered crews all set ahead of tomorrows big IMSA finale
Friday, October 10, 2025
Featuring all four classes from the championship, there were this time three Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 crews racing within the GTD class alongside the sole Aston Martin Valkyrie that would again race within the top-flight GTP class.
With each class given just fifteen minutes around the 2.5mile undulating circuit, it was the nineteen strong GTD class first out with Valentin Hasse-Clot first out within his #19 Van Der Steur AMR Vantage as he competed for real estate space on track with fellow AMR racers Casper Stevenson within the #27 Heart of Racing entry and a returning John Potter and his #44 Magnus Racing entry.
With Stevenson also the sole AMR powered crew member with any championship aspirations, it was the #19 car who lead the way on the timing board as the Frenchman briefly secured the top spot at the halfway mark before eventually dropping back to third for a second row start to tomorrows ten-hour affair.
Stevenson would not be able to replicate his pole position achievement of Indianapolis with a time worthy of a P6 in class start whilst Potter would automatically loose his fastest lap time anyway for causing a red flag in an earlier session to see them start from P18 in class.
That left the #23 Valkyrie of Ross Gunn, Roman De Angelis and Alex Riberas to try to emulate what their FIA World Endurance Championship Valkyrie co-drivers have been doing recently in Qualifying after Gunn has already placed their car at the head of the timing screen after night practice in an earlier session.
Last up were the twelve strong GTP class with the young Brit again behind the wheel to see if he could better the car’s qualifying best of P3 at the last round of the FIA WEC in Japan with the #23 car also benefitting from test results of their WEC counterparts earlier this week.
One siting lap and a quick change of tyres later, the #23 car was soon back out and posting a banker lap time worthy of a mid-table position before sneaking up to a brief P4 (before promptly dropping back) launching himself into a last second final lap dash.
Despite claiming the fastest final sector of the lap, the lap time did not improve so the #23 will start from P5 on the grid tomorrow.
Photo credits – teams / Series / social media
