Aston Martin Valkyrie arrives in the Lone Star state for the FIA World Endurance Championship

admin

5 hours ago

Aston Martin Valkyrie set to make Circuit of the Americas debut
Aston Martin THOR Team building competitiveness with spectacular and unique V12-powered British hypercar
Valkyrie targets first top ten finish in FIA World Endurance Championship
All-British line-up, Harry Tincknell and Tom Gamble to race Valkyrie #007
Three-time FIA WEC GT champion Marco Sørensen and Alex Riberas return to Valkyrie #009 for COTA
Valkyrie the only ‘Hypercar’ to contest the world’s two premier sportscar series, IMSA and the FIA World Endurance Championship
Aston Martin THOR Team returns to scene of maiden WEC GT class win

2 September, 2025, Austin (TX), USA: The spectacular new Aston Martin Valkyrie hypercar makes its debut at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) this weekend, as the ultra-luxury performance brand celebrates its 75th anniversary in the Americas in 2025.

The FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) arrives in Texas, for the six-hour Lone Star Le Mans, as momentum continues to build through the trail-blazing debut season of the unique 6.5-litre, V12-powered British hypercar. Valkyrie is the first ‘Le Mans Hypercar’ (LMH) to be produced by Aston Martin. Raced by the works Aston Martin THOR Team, Valkyrie is also the only car in WEC’s premier category derived from a road-legal hypercar.

Many US-based motorsport fans are familiar with Valkyrie, which is the only LMH to compete in both the FIA WEC and in North America’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship (IMSA) and has scored top-10 finishes in every race it has contested in the USA – including Road America most recently, where the US-based version of the Aston Martin THOR Team finished in an encouraging sixth place.

In WEC, where Aston Martin competes against seven of the world’s most prominent endurance sportscar manufacturers, Valkyrie is also growing in competitiveness. This was evidenced by its combined best qualifying performance (11^th and 12^th) in the most recent Rolex 6 Hours of Sao Paulo, in July. The car also raced deep into the top ten in the early hours of the event. This follows an encouraging 24 Hours of Le Mans (in June) where both Valkyrie hypercars completed their maiden twice-around-the-clock event without issue, finishing 12^th and 14^th, and the UK-based ‘WEC’ arm of the Aston Martin THOR Team registered the cars’, and Aston Martin’s first Manufacturer’s World Championship points in the Hypercar Class.

Valkyrie made its global debut in the Qatar 1812km in February. The British machine has subsequently demonstrated outstanding reliability, having finished 14 times from 15 starts in all competitions.

The Aston Martin THOR Team will keep to its two regular WEC Valkyrie line-ups for the Lone Star Le Mans, with the #007 driven by Tom Gamble (GBR) and Harry Tincknell (GBR) and the #009 by Alex Riberas (ESP) and Marco Sørensen (DEN).

Developed from the Valkyrie production car by Aston Martin and THOR, the competition version 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 500kw (680bhp) power limit as per hypercar regulations.

Tom Gamble, driver #007 Aston Martin Valkyrie: “This will be my first time racing at COTA, so I’m really looking forward to going there and discovering the circuit. We’ve improved every time we have raced with Valkyrie and I’m very excited to see how we get on in Austin. Hopefully we can get ourselves into the top 10 this weekend which would represent a great result for the programme.”

Harry Tincknell, driver #007 Aston Martin Valkyrie: “I’m looking forward to COTA. It’s hopefully a track that suits us more than Sao Paulo. They’ve got some big, long straights in Austin and we were very quick in Sector 1 and Sector 3 in Brazil. That race was another step forward for us where we were just 0.05s off Hyperpole, and that is a good target for us to achieve this weekend. We are still learning about our tyre strategies, and this is also a good focus for us. Coming off the summer break the team is feeling fresh and positive. It will be super-hot, so we need to do our best to keep our tyres cool, keep our heads cool and ourselves cool because it will be a tough event.”

Alex Riberas, driver #009 Aston Martin Valkyrie: “I’m extremely excited to go back to Austin, which used to be my home town for a couple of years, so for me personally it feels like going back home. Regarding COTA, it is probably my favourite track in the entire world so I’m also very excited about that. We have had plenty of success there in the past, and of course last year we won our first WEC race with the Heart of Racing in LMGT3. So, with it being a home race for us, and with the success we’ve had there before and with how much we improved the car in Brazil, I think everybody is just very enthusiastic and pumped about Austin. It cannot come soon enough.”

Marco Sørensen, driver #009 Aston Martin Valkyrie: “After strong results in Sao Paulo and Le Mans, coming into the Lone Star Le Mans we’re determined to keep that momentum rolling. It’s a track with its own unique challenges – fast-flowing sections, big braking zones, and relentless heat. The team has been operating at a high level all season, and if we stay sharp and execute, there’s no reason we can’t be fighting for a result there.”

Ian James, Team Principal, Aston Martin THOR Team: “We arrive at our home race in WEC with a lot of optimism. I say this a lot, but the focus within the programme is about incremental progress and using what we learn to build a more competitive package. We’ve been testing since the last race, and the understanding we gain from each new outing with the car gives us more reason to believe we are heading in the right direction. Last year’s event marked the first victory for THOR in WEC, and it would be nice to get a top ten finish in the Hypercar Class there this year. To achieve that we need to execute and perform to the maximum and that is the target this weekend.”

Adam Carter, Aston Martin Head of Endurance Motorsport: “Valkyrie is beginning to show the world glimpses of the potential we believe it is capable of, but we are still in the early days of this programme. Our understanding of the car has exponentially increased since its debut in Qatar and there were occasions during the most race in Brazil where the car was able to demonstrate its capability to compete for points positions on track. WEC is a tough environment to conquer, and that is precisely why we are competing in it, and at COTA this weekend we aim to take another step towards that goal.”

Vantage returns to scene of some of its greatest FIA World Endurance Championship glories

Aston Martin Vantage returns to Austin – scene of the latest generation GT3’s maiden victory in the FIA World Endurance Championship
Vantage chasing first win of WEC season at Circuit of the Americas
Ian James returns to track where he recorded his maiden WEC pole and win, alongside 2025 THOR teammates Zach Robichon and Mattia Drudi
Racing Spirit of Léman brings Derek DeBoer back into Vantage GT3 line-up for the Lone Star Le Mans

There are few circuits on Earth more suited to showcasing the breathtaking prowess of Aston Martin’s Vantage GT3 than the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) – the venue for Round 6 of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) and the scene of unprecedented glory for the British brand’s most successful racing car.

In its various iterations, Vantage has claimed no less than 10 class victories derived from 13 podium appearances – four of which were double-class wins – as well as seven class pole positions. Its credentials were cemented further in 2024, when the latest iteration – Vantage GT3 – underpinned The Heart of Racing’s (THOR) and team principal Ian James (GBR) maiden victory in the LMGT3 Class, along with his co-drivers Alex Riberas (ESP) who now forms part of the Valkyrie works line-up, and Daniel Mancinelli (ITA).

James returns this year as a regular class frontrunner, alongside Zach Robichon (CDN) and Mattia Drudi (ITA) looking to repeat the team’s home race heroics of 2024 with of the #27 Vantage.

Racing Spirit of Léman (RSL), returns to its original 2025 driver line-up of Derek DeBoer (USA), Eduardo Barrichello (BRA) and Aston Martin works driver Valentin Hasse-Clot (FRA) in the #10 Aston Martin Vantage GT3. The team arrives in Austin still on a high from its first WEC podium finish in LMGT3, after Barrichello raced to a dramatic third place in the closing stages of the 6 Hours of Sao Paulo in July. RSL will be looking to maintain that momentum in Texas this weekend.

“It seems as though we have been competitive all season long in WEC,” said Aston Martin Head of Endurance Motorsport Adam Carter. “And yet for one reason or another, it’s taken until the second half of the season for Vantage to achieve its podium potential. A winner last year in COTA, we see no reason why both cars are not capable of competing for similar results this year in the Lone Star Le Mans. We wish both our partner teams (The Heart of Racing and Racing Spirit of Léman) well in pursuit of this goal.”

Sharing the mechanical architecture of the ultra-luxury performance brand’s most focused sportscar, the Vantage GT3, is built around Aston Martin’s proven bonded aluminium chassis and powered by its fearsome twin-turbo 4.0-litre V8 engine. As well as victory in IMSA at Watkins Glen, the car recorded class victory in the 2025 CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa as well as a class podium in the ADAC Ravenol 24h Nürburgring, in June.

How to follow
The Lone Star Le Mans will begin at 1300 local time (-6 Hours BST) on Sunday, 7 September. Final practice, qualifying and the race will be broadcast live on FIA WEC TV online with a choice of English or French-language commentary and via selected broadcasters at a national level.