Aston Martin Valkyrie Targets Watkins Glen IMSA Glory
Fresh from its spectacular debut at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Aston Martin Valkyrie hypercar heads to Watkins Glen International on Sunday to extend a striking first season in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
The Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen counts towards both the regular IMSA campaign and the Michelin Endurance Cup, the five-race contest for events lasting six hours or more. Valkyrie opened its Endurance Cup account with a top-ten finish at the Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring in March and now tackles its second long-distance challenge.
Guided by the Aston Martin THOR works team, the British ultra-luxury brand’s road-based Le Mans Hypercar has demonstrated unwavering reliability, scoring top-ten results in all four outings, including an eighth-place finish on the demanding street circuits of Long Beach and Detroit. Drivers Roman De Angelis and Ross Gunn both relish Watkins Glen.
Gunn owns two GTD Pro victories and two further podiums from five starts, while De Angelis triumphed during his 2022 GTD title run and has twice more reached the rostrum. Valkyrie stands alone in IMSA’s premier GTP class as the only racer derived from a road-legal hypercar and the first LMH entry to compete across both IMSA and the FIA World Endurance Championship, having opened its global season in February’s Qatar 1812 km.
Aston Martin and THOR refined the racing machine from the production Valkyrie, combining a race-optimised carbon-fibre chassis with a revised 6.5-litre V12 that revs to 11,000 rpm. At the same time, the engine exceeds 1,000 bhp in its standard guise; however, hypercar regulations cap output at 500 kW (680 bhp). Valkyrie returns Aston Martin to the top tier of North American sports car racing for the first time since 2011, a year that yielded five overall victories and seven podiums in the American Le Mans Series.
“I’m super-excited to get to Watkins Glen,” says Ross Gunn. “We tested successfully and aim to climb further up the order. Weather can throw a spanner in the works, so we must seize every opportunity.”
Roman De Angelis adds: “Watkins Glen is always a highlight, and the Valkyrie showed promise in testing. We’re pushing to move forward on the grid.”
Team Principal Ian James notes: “The Valkyrie has scored points in every IMSA start. Each lap teaches us more, and the car looked strong here in testing, so we expect to be more competitive than in Detroit.”
Adam Carter, Aston Martin’s Head of Endurance Motorsport, concludes: “Watkins Glen marks the season’s halfway point. The circuit resembles most tracks still to come, so the data we gather will directly influence performance. The US response to Valkyrie has been fantastic, and I’m eager to see what the team achieves this weekend.”
