Despite that and the race being the first time within the Championship and the LMGT3 variant of the AMR Vantage for McIntosh, that still permitted the #10 car to steal a late class podium finish by the end of what was the fifth round of the season nearly two months ago.

DeBoer rejoins his counterparts for this weekend’s six-hour race for what is listed as being his swansong appearance within the Championship this year before McIntosh again deputises for his countryman and sees out the remainder of the season.

The team also secured their first class win of the season within the parallel European Le Mans Series race from Spa Francorchamps two weeks ago where Hasse-Clot, Clement Mateu and Erwan Bastard did similar at the end of that four-hour affair so confidence within the team and crew should be running high

Amongst the eighteen strong LMGT3 entry also sees the #27 Heart of Racing AMR Vantage LMGT3 of Ian James, Zacharie Robichon and Mattia Drudi, a team who didn’t have a great showing last time out in Brazil where there usual steady progress saw them bring home a disappointing P14 in class finish for a second non points scoring finish to the year after James crashed out in Italy.

With three races of the season still to complete, both teams still find themselves significantly behind the present LMGT3 class leaders with a forty-two points deficit to the #27 crew – increasing to fifty-eight points for both Barrichello and Hasse-Clot within the #10 car.

Like the Hypercar class before it, the LMGT3 class will also see sweeping balance of performance changes across its nine strong manufacturer entry with the Vantage seeing changes within its power, energy and base weight parameters with the #10 car also getting additional success weight ballast thanks to their P3 finish last time out.

First track action for the event will be Free Practice 1 on Friday morning.

Photo credits - Teams

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)

WEC rookie McIntosh, who finished second in the Silver Am class of the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa last month, started the race and led initially before holding his own in second place until the first pitstops. Emerging sixth for the second part of his double stint, he stayed in contention near the front of the pack until a small mistake dropped the car out of the top ten before the American handed the car over to Barrichello.

The 23-year-old then put on an outstanding double-stint, racing the car back into the fight for the podium. Another strong double-stint from Hasse Clot followed, meaning that Barrichello found himself in fifth in the final hour of the race. Once again, he went on the attack, passing two cars in the final 15 minutes and claiming third position with just three laps to go.

“It was crazy,” said Barrichello. “I had to put all my faith in the engineers who were telling me how hard to push the tyres at the end of the race because I couldn’t drive them too hard or I would have gone to zero very quickly. But we were able to manage it and thankfully everything worked out and we had enough in the car to take third position at the end.

“It’s an amazing feeling to have finished on the podium in my home race, and it was so incredible to experience that special reception from the fans. I’m not sure I deserved it, but I enjoyed it anyway! It is an honour to race an Aston Martin here at Interlagos, and it has been such an incredible weekend – one of the best of my life.”

The podium marked the first for all three drivers, as well as the best result for RSL in only its fifth WEC start. In the five occasions that Interlagos has appeared on the WEC schedule since 2012, Vantage has now taken three class wins and five further podiums. This was the second time the latest iteration of the Vantage GT3, which was introduced in 2024, has finished on the podium. The Heart of Racing (THOR) finished second in last year’s event. RSL’s pole position was also the second consecutive one for Vantage in WEC, with THOR having claimed the accolade in June’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Aston Martin Head of Endurance Motorsport Adam Carter said: “We congratulate Racing Spirit of Léman on an outstanding performance throughout the weekend. The team maximised the potential of Vantage in qualifying at Interlagos and then delivered with an exceptional podium in the race. Eduardo Barrichello’s performance was highly encouraging in only his fifth WEC start, while Ian McIntosh enjoyed an excellent debut and Valentin Hasse Clot, just like the team, thoroughly enjoyed this podium. The result once again emphasises the versality and competitiveness of Vantage GT3, key components to success in customer racing. The Heart of Racing ran strongly once again in IMSA at CTMP, and, once again is in contention for the title as we move into the final third of the season.”

WEC now takes a summer break before reconvening at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) for 6-hour Lone Star Le Mans on 5-7 September. 

Source material - AMR

Whilst we (like many) may have thought that full season entries, three Heart of Racing and one Racing Spirit of Leman entries and all was tickety-boo – that is apparently not quite the case within the #59 Racing Spirit of Leman Aston Martin Racing Vantage LMGT3.

Whilst Valentin Hasse-Clot and local hero Eduardo Barrichello remain constant within the car, Derek DeBoer steps aside to allow fellow American Anthony McIntosh his first WEC encounter with the pairing then apparently splitting the remaining races of the season between them.

In the other Vantage LMGT3 from the Heart of Racing team, we will again see the familiar faces of Ian James, Zacharie Robichon and Mattia Drudi behind the wheel of the #27 car.

As the race is also down to its more familiar six-hour time distance, we are also back down to two drivers apiece within each of the #007 and #009 Aston Martin Valkyrie Hypercars from the Heart of Racing team as Tom Gamble and Harry Tincknell pair up again within the #007 and with Marco Sorenson and Alex Riberas doing likewise within the #009.

Despite early promises of speed and their first elevation into Hyperpole for the #009 Valkyrie of Sorensen, the longevity of the new platform during the race failed to materialise in comparison to their peers BUT both cars did manage to complete the gruelling 24 hours at the first time of asking which was a tremendous achievement. Then within the LMGT3 class, it was a class pole position for the #27 car, but they just missed out on a class podium finish as they finished fourth in class. The #59 Racing Spirit of Leman meanwhile, saw their race hopes disappear early on with technical issues where necessary repairs saw them return many laps down.

With that disappointment behind them, the #59 car will be one to watch with both Hasse-Clot and McIntosh race ready after other recent racing commitments both in Europe and the USA keeping them sharp.

It’s a similar case for the Heart of Racing contingent after many of them participated within the recent Spa 24 and 25-Hour Fun Cup races around Spa Francorchamps.

Off track, there have also been plenty of adjustments within each of the Aston Martin powered classes with the Vantage LMGT3 getting power/energy/base weight adjustments and with the Valkyrie getting the biggest positive adjustment in class which should see it run faster for longer per stint but only time will tell on that one!

Track action begins on Friday with the first of three Free Practice sessions before Qualifying and Hyperpole on Saturday before the six hours of Sao Paulo being waved off at 11:30 hrs local.

Photo credits – Kelvin Pope (Red Firecracker)

Two, three-hour sessions were again available to all the Hypercar/LMP2 and LMGT3 crews – split either side of an hour lunch break but as usual, there was little to no time to do anything other than prepare both the car and the crews for the start of the officially timed sessions which begin on Wednesday.

For the rookie drivers, that included attaining their minimum ten laps to advance into night qualifying and from what we can make out from the timing results is that both Derek DeBoer and Eduardo Barrichello aboard their #10 Racing Spirit of Leman Vantage LMGT3 as well as Zacharie Robichon and Mattia Drudi did as well aboard their #23 Heart of Racing Vantage LMGT3 across the two sessions.

Track activity didn’t exactly get off to the best of starts, however, as the #007 Valkyrie of Tom Gamble was pinged for speeding within the pit lane at the start of the session 1 which saw him and the team get a fine as well as the loss of all his lap times up until that point. Fortunately, that was the only transgression (other than track limits) that any of the four crews suffered within the test although the #009 car of Marco Sorensen did have an off at Indianapolis which did reduce its overall lap count in session 2.

Between the four cars, we calculated that they covered just over two thousand miles between them with two hundred and forty-two laps of the 8.467-mile circuit being ticked off with their early setups and systems checks and preparatory works.

Like usual to any FIA World Endurance Championship round, pushing the envelope of performance is never on the agenda for Aston Martin powered teams but all cars sat comfortably within the time spread between all cars in each class – 4.8 seconds in hypercar and 4.3 seconds for LMGT3 in session one and 3.1 seconds and 4.9 seconds respectively in session 2.

Whilst this was the first time that anyone could see the new Valkyrie perform at Le Mans within its LM24 specific Balance of Performance, the old tradition with all classes with ‘sandbagging’ is a usual point of caution. Only with the start of Free Practice 1 will we start to see and understand the true situation with performance across all classes.

Tomorrow sees no track or paddock activity before rolling into the autograph/pit walk and pit stop challenge sessions on Tuesday before the cars get back on the track later on Wednesday.

Photo credits – Kelvin Pope (Red Firecracker)

Inter-round Balance of Performance changes within the Hypercar class saw the #007 and #009 cars benefit from a low-end power increase and weight decrease all at the expense of a reduction within their maximum available power stint parameters which the team had hoped would put them in good stead at this speed circuit and in full dress rehearsal for next month’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Free Practice had kind of realised those expectations with both cars not featuring at the wrong end of the timing screens although a late off for the #007 at the end of the protracted FP2 session last night saw their preparations take on some emergency repairs after Tom Gamble backed the car into the tyre wall at turn ten.

Going into this morning’s final Free Practice session, there were no obvious ill-effects from that incident last night with both cars completing the full hour-long session.

Qualifying this afternoon was, however, another matter as despite progressive improvements from both Harry Tincknell in the #007 (with Tom Gamble) and Alex Riberas in the #009 (with Marco Sorensen), the teams progressive steps so far with their new chassis saw both cars again feature at the tail end of the class come the end of the session.

With a best lap time of 2:02:282 for the #007 and 2:02:403 for the #009, tomorrows race will start again from P17 and P18 respectively, but with both cars running to within one second of nearly half their class over a one lap stint – tomorrows race could still be very interesting for them.

Then in LMGT3, it was a role reversal for the two AMR Vantage LMGT3 teams as the #10 Racing Spirit of Leman car of Derek DeBoer finally made good on his earlier ambition to getting through to both stages of qualifying as the American dug deep within his final qualifying lap to produce a lap time of 2:19:736 to take his car into Hyperpole for the first time with a P8 finish.

The #27 Heart of Racing AMR of Ian James had been looking comfortable within his new for Spa Vantage LMGT3 after his previous car was written off in that Imola crash last time out as he then handed the car over to their silver grade driver Zacharie Robichon.

Taking charge of the #10 car for Hyperpole was Eduardo Barichello who too left matters to the last minute before posting his fastest lap to go second, just a quarter of a second off the pole position pace from the #78 Lexus. That final lap trumped the efforts of the #27 as Zacharie had to make do with a P6 starting position tomorrow.

Valentin Hasse-Clot and Mattia Drudi complete the two Vantage LMGT3 crews for Racing Spirit of Leman and Heart of Racing respectively.

The weather for race day appears like that of the last two days with the possibility of it being slightly warmer again which will certainly help those initial laps of cold new tyres. This time around, the start of the six-hour race will not be until 14:00hrs local, making for something of a late finish on site – but it’s Spa, and who cares about that!!

Having skipped the Daytona 24 in favour of additional test and development time ahead of the cars debut in Qatar, that round saw the #009 car of Marco Sorensen, Alex Riberas and Roman De Angelis take eventually take the chequered flag whilst their #007 car of Harry Tincknell, Tom Gamble and Ross Gunn was blighted by the inevitable first round technical issues.

With Qatar being an extended ten-hour affair, this six-hour round from Imola will take both the #007 and #009 cars down to just two drivers as the two IMSA based GTP drivers of De Angelis and Gunn step aside this time having raced their IMSA equivalent together last weekend in the first IMSA sprint race around the street circuit of Long Beach, California to gain the cars best finish to date. 

Since Qatar, the Valkyrie has raced at both the 12Hours of Sebring and at Long Beach in addition to a twenty-four-hour test in Florida after the Sebring event with the car now also benefitting from improved Balance of Performance parameters ahead of this weekend’s event.

Joining them on track will also be the two Aston Martin Racing Vantage LMGT3’s from both the Heart of Racing and Spirit of Leman Partner team stables as both the #27 and #10 crews look to quickly improve upon their mid class finishes from Qatar.

The entry list shows no changes within either car as Ian James returns to his #27 car alongside Zacharie Robichon and Mattia Drudi who both enjoyed a positive WEC racing debut togther to bring the familiar blue liveried Vantage LMGT3 home P6 in class.

That is the same for the #10 Racing Spirit of Leman entry for both Derek DeBoer and Eduardo Barrichello who also debuted within the championship alongside AMR factory driver Valentin Hasse-Clot from their step up from the GT3 based European Le Mans Series for a P9 result from Losail.

Excluding success handicaps, the Vantage LMGT3 platform also benefits from an enhanced BoP with power benefits available below 200kph plus reduced base weight and additional energy being available to the drivers.

Free Practice around the 4.9km circuit will begin on Friday before the final Free Practice and Qualifying later on Saturday with a green flag wave off to the race at 13:00hrs local on Sunday.

Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media