The spectacular new Aston Martin Valkyrie achieved its best finish yet in global endurance competition last weekend, when it placed sixth in the latest round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship (IMSA) – the Motul Sportscar Grand Prix of Road America (WI).
The result marked the sixth consecutive top ten finish for the British hypercar in IMSA, extending its remarkable points run and maintaining its 100% finishing record on its debut season in North America’s premier endurance series. Sunday’s result was the best IMSA finish ever recorded by a car built to ‘Le Mans Hypercar’ (LMH) regulations, Valkyrie being the only car in IMSA’s premier GTP category derived from a road-legal hypercar.
The British contender is also the first LMH car of any kind to compete in IMSA, and the only one contesting both IMSA and the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) simultaneously, having made its competition debut in the Qatar 1812km in February.
The Aston Martin THOR Team (THOR) and works drivers Roman De Angelis (CAN) and Ross Gunn (GBR), delivered a solid and competitive performance in an incident-filled two hour and 40-minute race, consistently running close enough to the leaders to pounce on rivals when they hit trouble. And in an event featuring no less than four Full Course Yellow (FCY) periods (where the race was neutralized and run behind the Safety Car), this happened on more than one occasion.
Valkyrie showed promise all weekend, having set the second fastest time in free practice on Friday. Gunn then qualified the #23 Valkyrie 10th for the race, less than 0.7s off the pole position time in a highly competitive 15-minutes GTP-only session on the long and challenging 4.05-mile circuit.
