Aston Martin Valkyrie Scores Eighth in Detroit IMSA Street Race
Aston Martin’s revolutionary Valkyrie hypercar secured another top-ten result by finishing eighth in the Detroit Sports Car Classic, Round 5 of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. The British contender maintained its flawless points streak in 2025 and equalled its best race finish on the tight 1.7-mile downtown street circuit, underscoring its growing competitiveness against established GTP rivals.
Across every IMSA start this season, the Valkyrie has landed inside the top ten, delivering the first hypercar-regulation points in North America’s premier endurance series. The ultra-luxury manufacturer’s latest creation again impressed in Detroit, where the Aston Martin THOR Team crew and drivers Ross Gunn and Roman De Angelis translated an eleventh-place grid slot—just two-tenths outside the top ten—into another strong result.
Gunn and De Angelis executed a faultless, strategically astute 100-minute sprint—the shortest event on the IMSA calendar—to climb three positions. Their performance matched the outcome on the Long Beach street circuit in April and provides fresh momentum ahead of Watkins Glen later this month.
As the first Le Mans Hypercar produced by Aston Martin and the only road-legal-derived entry in IMSA’s headline GTP category, the Valkyrie continues to blaze a trail. It also remains the sole LMH machine contesting both IMSA and the FIA World Endurance Championship after debuting at February’s Qatar 1812 km.
Engineers developed the competition Valkyrie from the production model, marrying a race-optimised carbon-fibre chassis to a re-engineered 6.5-litre V12 that revs to 11,000 rpm. Although the power unit delivers more than 1,000 bhp in road trim, the racer complies with the 500 kW (680 bhp) ceiling demanded by hypercar regulations, ensuring fair competition while showcasing distinctive Aston Martin performance.
“Finishing eighth on another tricky circuit like Detroit is another big tick in the box for us and Valkyrie,” said Ross Gunn. “The team worked very hard to unlock the car’s potential through the weekend, and I felt like eighth place was a good reward for us, and a solid result to build on at Watkins Glen later in the month. This was a good way to keep the confidence high as Roman and I travel back to Europe to join the WEC team for Valkyrie’s 24 Hours of Le Mans debut.”
Roman De Angelis added: “This was a difficult track for us in some ways. It’s nothing like anything we’ve ever driven on with Valkyrie, and so we knew it wasn’t going to be an easy weekend. That said, we made the most of it. Another eighth-place finish, having started in 11th position, is good progress. We stayed clean on this track, which is not easy to do, and the team just executed to the maximum all weekend long. Looking forward to Watkins Glen and Road America, which are next on the schedule.”
Team Principal Ian James praised the effort: “This was another strong performance by the team and the Aston Martin Valkyrie. Ross and Roman drove with deft precision, and the car ran faultlessly. We tried to play a few strategies to take advantage of any Full Course Yellows. Ross raced hard in the end, and the combination of these two factors gave us another real positive to bring with us into the 24 Hours of Le Mans; the next big focus for Aston Martin THOR Team in June.”
Adam Carter, Aston Martin Head of Endurance Motorsport, concluded: “Detroit’s downtown circuit is very different to anything else we compete on with Valkyrie, and therefore it provided interesting challenges in terms of gathering and harnessing data. It also allowed the team to fine-tune and improve systems and processes in another temporary racing environment. The
Aston Martin THOR Team managed this well and achieved the best result for the programme so far. We are satisfied with the progress we are making with each new race.”
