An impressive AMR powered 2-3 finish in GTD at the end of last nights Rolex 24

Monday, January 26, 2026

Two Aston Martin Racing powered teams narrowly missed out on providing the marque with a mighty double-double after the racing results if the IMSA opening rounds from Daytona were finalised last night.

Earlier on Friday, both the Rebel Rock Racing and the Circle H Racing teams delivered an impressive 1-2 overall race result at the end of the four hour Michelin Pilot Challenge opener before last night’s thrilling closing sequence of laps saw the Magnus Racing narrowly miss out upon a class win of their own with the Heart of Racing also securing a P3 podium finish at the end.

For the top-flight #23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Valkyrie GTP, the sixty fourth running of the Rolex 24 proved itself to be something of a frustrating affair after the car was forced repeatedly behind the wall for works upon ongoing technical issues, but their efforts were still worthy of a classified result at the end – P10 in class but forty-four laps down to their nearest rival. A first time showing for the car at this event will still have had its plus sides in data acquisition in terms of fault diagnosis and rectification even though its permitted performance envelope was never going to allow the car to threaten the establishment up front.

Their sister #27 AMR Vantage GTD had started upon pole within the GTD class but they and the #19 Van Der Steur AMR Vantage GTD effort lost early track position during the chaotic opening laps sequence that saw too many Full Course Yellow sequences than the grid could be proud of to make any early capital from that. This time, none of the Aston Martin and Aston Martin Racing runners were directly affected which eventually allowed all to settle into the race programme.

A race car on a track

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As the afternoon progressed into darkness, the earlier threat of fog was eventually realised just before the halfway stage with race events being hauled back behind the control of the Safety Car leaving little over four hours of the race left as a serious sprint to the flag. At the two hours to go mark, we had both the #44 Magnus AMR and the #27 Heart of Racing jockeying for position at the head of the class as well as the #19 VDSR car not too far behind in tenth.

What happened next was an enthralling watch as the remaining pit stop strategy was played out on pit lane, allowing both Nicki Thiim, Zacharie Robichon and Valentin Hasse-Clot the best available tools (considering) to lay claim to that overall class win. Whilst the #27 eventually dropped back a bit (still retaining third in class), the #44 Magnus car was in the mix until the end, narrowly missing out upon that win by only the slightest of margins.

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Whilst that was always going to be difficult pill to swallow for those directly concerned, all still gained a healthy bunch of Endurance championship points to their names as the series moves onto Sebring for its next twelve-hour long race.

Photo credits – Teams / social media