Aston Martin’s multiple championship-winning Vantage race car continued its strong start to the 2026 season, recording a third IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship podium finish in just two races, as the Heart of Racing Team took a superb second in the 74th Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring.

The result, which follows Vantage’s second and third places in January’s season-opening Rolex 24 at Daytona, ensured that the British ultra-luxury brand’s most successful ever racing car recorded its fourth rostrum finish in six years at the notoriously punishing Florida venue.

THOR’s Aston Martin was a victory contender all weekend, with Dudu Barrichello recording an emphatic class pole position on his 12 Hours of Sebring debut. The achievement echoed fellow THOR racer Mattia Drudi’s own pole lap at Daytona, meaning Vantage, and the Seattle-based team, have yet to be outpaced in qualifying in 2026. Barrichello’s lap also ensured Vantage is the current pole position-holder at three of sportscar racing’s most prestigious events; the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Rolex 24 and the 12 Hours of Sebring.

And, just as in Daytona, Aston Martin was in the victory fight right until the end of a gruelling, caution-filled race that required THOR to fightback from adversity twice through an event full of complexity. Barrichello, and his teammates Zach Robichon and Tom Gamble all led the GTD class comfortably at various points of a race featuring no less than six lengthy caution periods behind the Safety Car.

Barrichello led initially and delivered a flawless opening stint. But during his second run in the car, the Brazilian had to forsake a strong position with an unscheduled pitstop for a false alarm in the fifth hour. Having fought back into the top ten, the #27 Vantage then fell off the lead lap serving a penalty for a pitlane incursion in Hour 7. Undeterred, the team set out to use the pace of the Vantage and take strategic advantage of the frequent Full Course Yellows.

Inch-perfect stints by all three drivers allowed Robichon to recover the lead, handing the Aston Martin over to Gamble in a strong position for the final charge. The Briton’s path to victory looked to have opened up when his chief rival was penalised for colliding with another car, and then the class leader (on an alternate strategy) pitted, moving the Aston Martin to the front. But Gamble’s, and the team’s hopes were dashed by yet another Full Course Yellow in the final 30 minutes which neutralised the field, extinguishing Gamble’s hard-earned advantage. Ultimately, he was forced to settle for second.

“I am disappointed for us to have come so close…. Again,” said Gamble. “But second place at Sebring is something we should all feel proud of, and it underlines the strong start to the season we’re having. My teammates were outstanding all weekend, and the team put together an amazing car, and the strategy was exceptional to get us back into contention through the race. It’s been an exciting start to the year, and these points will set us well on our way, but it’s tough to lose the win at such a late moment and it will be a while before this one doesn’t hurt!”

THOR team principal Ian James said: “You have got to be happy with a podium, even if it was tough to lose the win right at the end. But Tom and his teammates did an amazing job to get us in a position to fight for the win, and in the end, we didn’t quite have the pace. There were lots of positives to take away, and we leave Sebring with the GTD Class championship lead.”

It was the second time in as many years that THOR has finished on the podium at Sebring, and the fourth time in six attempts with Vantage since 2020. The runner-up spot this weekend also marked the 14th occasion an Aston Martin crew has stepped on the podium, including three victories.

Adam Carter, Aston Martin Head of Endurance Motorsport, said: “The close, stop-start nature of the racing in IMSA means that you need a car that can be competitive in any condition, and a team that has the strategic flexibility to maximise these properties. At Sebring we saw once again how the Heart of Racing and Vantage embody those traits with another outstanding performance. The race didn’t go our way, ultimately, but the success was in the consistency of pace and the ability to be in the fight every time it mattered. Sebring is very hard on racing cars, because it is bumpy, so to be in contention through the entire weekend showcased all of Vantages wide array of attributes. Long Beach can’t come soon enough.”

Source material – Aston Martin Racing

 

The Heart of Racing will be supporting both their #23 GTP and #27 GTD entries as the Valkyrie races the Rolex 24 for the first time (having skipped last season’s event in favour of some last-minute test and development) whilst their #27 crew will be starting from Pole Position in GTD.

 

The Van Der Steur Racing and Magnus Racing teams complete the trilogy of Vantage GT3 based cars competing within the class with the #19 VDSR car starting from the third row in class after their P5 qualifying run on Thursday whilst the #44 Magnus crew will be starting in the midfield of the twenty-one strong class with their P15 position.

 

After last night’s excitement in GT4, we’re obviously hoping for something of the same today and tomorrow in both GTP and GTD but twice around the clock is a long time for anything!!

The race will be waved off at 13:40hrs local.

Photo credits – Teams / social media

 

Aston Martin’s Valkyrie Hypercar embarks on an exciting new chapter in its groundbreaking motorsport story this weekend, when it makes its debut in the world-famous Rolex 24; the opening round of the 2026 IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship.

The Aston Martin THOR Team-run Valkyrie’s participation in the 64th running of the event, which takes place at Daytona International Speedway in Florida is the first running of the car at this event having missed the opening round last season due to ongoing developmental works.

The competition variant of Valkyrie – the pure racing expression of the world’s ultimate road-going hypercar – begins its second season of competition this weekend after an encouraging debut year in 2025. The race car is developed from its production sibling by Aston Martin with The Heart of Racing and blends a race-optimised carbon fibre chassis with a modified 6.5-litre V12 powerplant that revs to 11,000rpm and produces over 1000bhp in standard form, but adheres to a strict (680bhp) power limit as per hypercar and GTP regulations.

Full-season works IMSA drivers and IMSA GT champions Roman De Angelis and Ross Gunn, will be joined in the driver line-up by works FIA World Endurance Championship Valkyrie racers Alex Riberas and Marco Sørensen. All four drivers will make their Rolex 24 at Daytona GTP class debut.

Valkyrie embarks on its second season of international motorsport after a maiden campaign that culminated in a brilliant second place overall in the IMSA finale, the 2025 Motul Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta. This added to strong points finishes in WEC, including fifth place at Fuji and a race-leading performance at the Bahrain finale that ultimately netted seventh position.

Three Aston Martin Vantage GT3s will also fight for victory in North America’s most famous endurance race, the Rolex 24 at Daytona, as the 2026 IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship begins in earnest at the world-famous Florida venue this weekend.

Partner teams The Heart of Racing, Magnus Racing and Van der Steur Racing all bring strong driver line-ups to Aston Martin’s three-car GTD Class assault, as the British performance brand looks to add the Rolex 24 at Daytona victory trophy to the mounting accolades accrued by the latest version of Aston Martin’s most successful ever racing car.

Having fought hard for the IMSA GTD class title throughout 2025, former champion The Heart of Racing returns to North America’s most prestigious endurance series with a line-up of works FIA World Endurance Championship Valkyrie driver Tom Gamble joining both Zacharie Robichon, Mattia Drudi alongside team newcomer, Eduardo Barrichello.

VDSR, which will contest the full IMSA season in 2026, returns to the fray with a refreshed driver line-up. Promising young American Rory Van der Steur will again be partnered by works driver Valentin Hasse Clot in the regular season, while both will be joined by new signings Sébastien Baud and Carl Bennett in their Aston Martin Vantage GT3 in the Rolex 24 at Daytona.

Returning again for the Rolex 24 is Aston Martin partner team Magnus Racing with a new signing in its driver line-up. Joining the squad that has twice finished on the Rolex 24 podium during its Aston Martin era and which comprises team owner John Potter, Spencer Pumpelly and works driver Nicki Thiim, will be twice IMSA GTD class champion Madison Snow.

Source Material – Aston Martin

Photo credits - Aston Martin and Teams

The two Heart of Racing full season IMSA entries have long been confirmed by the team within their #23 GTP Valkyrie and #27 AMR Vantage GTD entries, as has the #44 Magnus Racing but there is still news to come from the #19 Van Der Steur AMR Vantage GTD stable as to who else will be making up their (expected) four driver line up.

There has also been no officially supplied entry list into either of the VP Sportscar Challenge and Michelin Pilot Challenge Series as we do still expect there to be AMR powered participation within both series despite having lost the Team TGM team over the winter months to another OEM.

Over the closed season, the Rebel Rock Racing team announced their step up to the AMR Vantage GT3 platform for an intended participation within both the VP Sportscar Challenge and possible main IMSA series but nothing more has been heard from them since their debut test/race outing in their new car at the Apex One 10hours of Sebring event back in November.

There the team ran just restricted laps/durations for their three familiar driver names where more latterly the team have now listed for sale their previous AMR Vantage GT4 (Marty) that Frank DePew raced within the VPRSCC Series – so something is definitely changing within their programme for 2026.

Then we see both the Archangel Motorsport and 89X Motorsport teams putting out across their social media channels about their possible return to the IMSA family of series but again, nothing has been officially released by IMSA.

With track action formally kicking off at Daytona early on Friday 16th January with the first of many test session for the participating Michelin Pilot Challenge runners, it won’t be too long before many of these gaps have been filled.

Photo credits – Teams / series / social media

The #23 Valkyrie did not participate within the Rolex 24 opener as the team sought additional time before homologating their new creation with its global racing debut then coming at the opening round of the World Endurance Championship. This weekend’s drivers (Ross Gunn, Roman De Angelis and Alex Riberas) were all driving the new Valkyrie within the WEC opener and do so again within the IMSA Championship before both Gunn and De Angelis due to take the GTP entry on during the shorter races within the 2025 season.

Within the GDT class, the #27 Heart of Racing again has two drivers from their WEC LMGT3 commitments as Tom Gamble (Valkyrie) and Zacharie Robichon (LMGT3) partner up again with Casper Stevenson after their P3 podium finish together at Daytona. The #19 Van Der Steur GTD entry meanwhile again features the driving skills of the team’s namesake in Rory Van Der Steur, Valentin Hasse-Clot and Anthony McIntosh in a car that is sometimes overshadowed by the adventures of the HoRT team and their Valkyrie entry.

Three practice sessions and Qualifying done across the fifty-six-car total entry for this weekend’s event finally saw the #23 Valkyrie secure a P12 in class start ahead of tomorrow’s race whilst the #27 HoRT Vantage crew secured P6 in their class. The #19 Van Der Steur crew qualified P16 but that was after their fastest time was deleted by Race Control for causing a red flag within one of the earlier Free Practice sessions.

Whilst both AMR Vantage GTD crews will always be competitive within class to some degree, the Valkyrie GTP (and WEC Hypercar) creation is still work in progress as the car is still two seconds off the pace – something similar to what was seen at the Qatar WEC opener but there, the car performed better than expected.

The Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring kicks off at 10:10hrs local on Saturday.

Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media

After weeks of speculation and utilising events even as late as the Rolex 24 as their test bed, Heart of Racing has confirmed that their two car WEC driver line up will be that of Harry Tincknell and Tom Gamble aboard the #007 car whilst Alex Riberas and Marco Sorensen share the #009 car. Then in IMSA, Ross Gunn and Roman De Angelis will be the mainstay drivers in America before Gunn joins the #007 at Le Mans with De Angelis becoming the third driver within the #009.

First mentioned by Aston Martin in 2019 as a primary participant within the WEC’s then planned Hypercar class for the new season, those plans were later dashed mainly because of the state of finances for the parent organisation who were originally funding the project. Only after the intervention of the Gabe Newell financed Heart of Racing team did the project get its deserved resurgence of investment and development required to take the normally aspirated V12 street legal monster into the full homologated state of a modern endurance race car that we have come to recognise more recently.

Originally destined to compete upon the world stage at the recently completed Rolex 24 opener to the IMSA Series, a relatively late call was made by all involved to utilise the subsequent few weeks available from the Roar Before the 24 test at Daytona and the opening round of the WEC at Qatar at the end of February to iron out those little imperfections before that all important homologation process. That means that Qatar will now be the Valkyrie’s global launch event before its IMSA debut at the 12Hours of Sebring in just over a month’s time.

Livery wise – the IMSA based car retains the familiar blue shades of its Aston Martin Racing Vantage GTD that will also compete in that series (although sadly not in that multiple blocked camouflaged test livery) whilst the two WEC based entries will carry the more historically significant green from the Aston Martin stable of old.

With all other Hypercar/GTP entries already competing with at least part of one season already under their belts, the Valkyrie will need to hit both series running but with racing events for both championships fast approaching, it will not be too long before we start hearing the V12 wail of that engine around the world.



Photo credits – AMR / social media

THOR will be represented in both classes by a star-studded line-up of drivers all aiming to add to the team’s 2022 title-winning success and its 2023 Rolex 24 victory. They are joined by multiple IMSA championship-winning team Magnus Racing, and IMSA GTD class debutant van der Steur Racing.

All will campaign the Vantage GT3, which triumphed in its most recent major international 24-hour race, last year’s 24 Hours of Spa (BEL), and recorded class wins in all the key global endurance series in its debut season in 2024. The Vantage GT3 shares the mechanical architecture of the ultra-luxury Vantage road car. Built around Aston Martin’s proven bonded aluminium chassis and powered by its fearsome twin-turbo 4.0-litre V8 engine, the Vantage GT3 is armed with world-beating potential.

Seattle-based partner team THOR, which claimed IMSA GTD title success with Vantage in 2022, returns with one car in GTD Pro and one in GTD as it hunts victory in two different classes. The 2022 IMSA GTD Drivers’ champion Roman De Angelis (CDN) and three-time FIA World Endurance champion Marco Sørensen (DEN), both of whom were part of the team’s 2023 Daytona GTD-winning line-up, will this time drive the GTD Pro class #007 Vantage and will be joined by IMSA race-winning team regulars Ross Gunn (GBR) and Alex Riberas (ESP).

Behind the wheel of THOR’s #27 GTD entry will be Zacharie Robichon (CDN), a champion in both IMSA and the European Le Mans Series, British duo Tom Gamble and Casper Stevenson and AMR works driver Mattia Drudi (ITA), the 2023 GT World Challenge Europe Sprint title winner; the latter pair make their IMSA debuts this weekend.

Once again in 2025, the Rolex 24 GTD class will be buoyed by Aston Martin partner Magnus Racing. The two-time Rolex 24 class-winning team recorded a brilliant second-place finish with Vantage at Daytona in 2023 and added a podium at the Six Hours of the Glen last year. Team regulars John Potter (USA), Andy Lally (USA) and Spencer Pumpelly (USA) are joined by AMR works star and double FIA WEC GT world champion Nicki Thiim (DEN).

Finally, the fourth Vantage to feature in this year’s Rolex 24 will be manned and run by van der Steur Racing. The team, which will contest the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup (encompassing the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship rounds taking place at Daytona, Sebring, Watkins Glen, Indianapolis and Road America) embarks on its first race with the Vantage GT3 following a successful year with the GT4 version in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge [IMPC], in 2024, in which it finished third in the Teams’ Championship. The #19 Vantage will be driven by Aston Martin works driver Valentin Hasse Clot (FRA), the 2023 Michelin Le Mans Cup GT3 champion, fellow Frenchman Maxime Robin, reigning Lamborghini Super Trofeo Pro-Am world champion Andrew McIntosh (CDN) and Rory van der Steur (USA).

Four new Aston Martin Vantage GT4s will also feature in the four-hour IMPC opener at Daytona on Friday at 1345 ET (-5 Hours GMT). The British luxury sportscar brand, which claimed Drivers’, Teams’ and Manufacturers’ title success in 2024, goes into the IMPC kick-starter with three teams entered. Last year’s title-winning outfit, Team TGM, returns with Drivers’ champion Matt Plumb (USA) sharing the #46 entry with Paul Holton (USA) while team owner Ted Giovanis (USA) is joined in #64 by Hugh Plumb (USA) and Kris Hilton (USA). They are accompanied by van der Steur Racing’s Christine and Ben Sloss (both USA) and by Rebel Rock Racing. Drivers Frank DePew (USA) and Robin Liddell (GBR) scored the first global victory for the latest version of the Vantage GT4 at Sebring last March are joined at Rebel Rock Racing by former series champion Andrew Davis (USA) for Daytona.

Adam Carter, Aston Martin Head of Endurance Motorsport, said: “The Rolex 24 at Daytona is the most famous endurance race in North America and one of the most prestigious in the world so it’s extremely fitting that Vantage, a front-runner in leading series globally, is in fantastic shape to once again fight for victory in multiple categories this weekend. The strength of our line-ups – including many championship-winning AMR works drivers – coupled with the depth of the engineering support we provide to our partner teams in North America is a source of immense pride and sends a clear message as to how important adding more successes on this continent is to Aston Martin. Daytona is set to produce a thrilling event and we intend to finish it with something to celebrate as we look forward to the advent of the Valkyrie’s IMSA debut at Sebring in March.”

The 63rd Rolex 24 at Daytona will begin at 1340 ET (-5 Hours GMT), on Saturday, 25 January 2025.