Aston Martin Valkyrie Targets Strong Finish at Road America
Aston Martin's spectacular new Valkyrie storms into the closing phase of its debut IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season at this weekend's Motul Sportscar Grand Prix of Road America in Wisconsin. With only three rounds left for the GTP class in 2025, the British hypercar intends to extend the momentum built since its ninth-place debut at March's Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring and end the campaign on a high.
The #23 Valkyrie highlighted its rapid progress at Watkins Glen in June, sprinting to fifth before a late caution reshuffled the field, yet still sealed a fifth successive points haul. A consistent run of top-ten finishes underlines the machine's rock-solid reliability; eighth places on the demanding street tracks of Long Beach and Detroit complement its results in traditional road-course contests.
Drivers Ross Gunn and Roman De Angelis relish the challenge at Elkhart Lake. Gunn dominated GTD Pro from pole in an Aston Martin Vantage GT3 here in 2023, while 2022 IMSA GTD champion De Angelis returns to the Valkyrie after deputising in the team's Vantage at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.
Valkyrie, the first Le Mans Hypercar produced by Aston Martin, stands alone in IMSA's premier category as the sole entry derived from a road-legal hypercar. It also remains the only LMH car to contest both IMSA and the FIA World Endurance Championship, having debuted with February's Qatar 1812km. Aston Martin and the THOR Team engineered the race car by combining a purpose-built carbon-fibre chassis with a revised 6.5-litre V12 that revs to 11,000 rpm. However, the production unit delivers well over 1,000 bhp; hypercar regulations cap race output at 500 kW (680 bhp).
The programme marks Aston Martin's first appearance in America's top sports-car division since 2011, a benchmark season that yielded five victories and seven podiums in the American Le Mans Series.
Ross Gunn observes, “I’m excited to get back on board Valkyrie after the small break since Watkins Glen. We recently conducted a test at Road America, which gave us a feel for the car's capabilities on one of the US's all-time great circuits. The racing at Elkhart Lake is usually won on strategy, and being in the right place at the right time is key. That means we need to be prepared and on top of things as much as possible. I’m proud of the progress we have made so far, and now that we are into the business end of the season, the aim is to keep moving forward on the positive trajectory that we’re on.”
Roman De Angelis adds, “I look forward to going to Road America every year as it’s another one of these iconic tracks on the IMSA calendar. I’m even more excited this year as it’s a track that I feel suits the GTP class with its high-speed nature. We had a successful test a few weeks back, and this has given us a lot of encouragement ahead of the weekend. After fighting in the top ten at Watkins Glen, I know I speak for the whole team when I say we are motivated to get the results we feel we deserve, finally.”
Team Principal Ian James states, “We say this every race, but it’s clear that Valkyrie is progressing forward incrementally with every start it undertakes, both in IMSA and the FIA World Endurance Championship. At Watkins Glen, we maximised the performance of the car, and collectively as a team, we raced extremely well to bring Valkyrie into the top five on merit before the late-race cautions. We’ve subsequently had a successful test at Road America, where Valkyrie ran well, and so of course we’re interested to see how the knowledge we’ve gained translates in race conditions.”
Head of Endurance Motorsport Adam Carter concludes, “With more than half the IMSA season complete, and top-ten finishes in every race, it’s clear how much progress Valkyrie and the Aston Martin THOR Team have made so far in 2025. Naturally, we want to continue to build Valkyrie’s competitiveness across the final three events of the IMSA season. The data we’ve gathered and the lessons learned at Watkins Glen can be applied to all of the remaining events as the circuits are all of the traditional North American road course type, and we look forward to seeing how Valkyrie and the Aston Martin THOR Team will use this to keep building momentum.”
