Four Aston Martins bound for next weekends IMSA finale and its annual Petit Le Mans
Wednesday, October 01, 2025
The Weathertech Championship obviously gets all the attention this weekend as this will be its annual ten-hour round which has been traditional bannered as Petit Le Mans for which there will be over fifty entries within its available GTP, LMP2, GTD Pro and GTD classes.
Within that group we will be seeing back the two full season entries from Heart of Racing team as they continue their debut season with their single Aston Martin Valkyrie GTP entry for which this time, Alex Riberas will be joining in with the #23 powered fun alongside season regulars Ross Gunn and Roman De Angelis.
Last time out at Indianapolis, the cars consistent improvement took a sudden back step with a disappointing for them P11 finish having struggled for performance within that circuits tight infield circuit, but the open expanse of this 2.5-mile circuit will hopefully let the full power of the cars V12 normally aspirated engine power its way up the order again before the late-night chequered flag on Saturday.
The team’s #27 GTD crew will, however, be certainly going out looking for at least a podium to help Casper Stevenson to the overall drivers crown after he slipped to second overall within their driver’s championship after an equally frustrating and uncharacteristically low P11 finish in class at Indianapolis. It will be the same driver line up as last time out with Tom Gamble again joining his countryman alongside Canadian Zacharie Robichon within the #27 Aston Martin Racing Vantage GTD
Also back after their own more than disappointing technical enforced retirement last time out at Indy (yes, that race really was a bad one for all Aston Martin powered crews involved) is the #19 Van Der Steur Racing AMR Vantage GTD entry for Rory Van Der Steur (if fit from his apparent recent mountain bike accident), Valentin Hasse-Clot and Anthony McIntosh.
Their race at Indy faltered from the off as Van Der Steur was sidelined with injury, was replaced by Eduardo Barrichello only for their car to fail on them still in the early stages of that six-hour race. We wait to see just who will be driving the car which has been out testing with the crew this week.
Finally, we will get to see the #44 Magnus Racing Aston Martin Racing Vantage GTD again this season as John Potter and Spencer Pumpelly are joined this time around by the extremely capable GT4 racer in Jan Heylen – someone who is presently leading the supporting Michelin Pilot Challenge Series GS title battle going into their own final race this weekend at Road Atlanta.
Track action for the Weathertech crews will begin next Thursday with Free Practice 1 and 2 before qualifying on Friday ahead of the green flag to the season finale just after midday on Saturday 11th October.
Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media
