Aston Martin on Wednesday announced plans to take its V-12-powered Valkyrie hypercar racing in both the FIA World Endurance Championship and IMSA SportsCar Championship.
Aston Martin will build a Valkyrie that meets LMH regulations, which will make the car eligible for both the Hypercar class of the World Endurance Championship and GTP class of the SportsCar Championship. Those are the top classes of their respective series.
The plan is to start racing in 2025 with a single car in each series. Aston Martin will compete with its current partner in endurance racing, Heart of Racing. The U.S.-based team will help raise money for the Seattle Children’s Cardiology Research Fund.
The news fulfils a promise Aston Martin first made in 2019, and means the Valkyrie will race for outright victory at prestigious events such as the 24 Hours of Daytona and 24 Hours of Le Mans. Aston Martin won outright at Le Mans in 1959, with Roy Salvadori and Carroll Shelby in an Aston Martin DBR1.
Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR Pro dynamic debut during 2022 Formula One Bahrain Grand Prix
Aston Martin has already completed much of the development work for the Valkyrie LMH as the Valkyrie AMR Pro track car launched in 2021 was originally intended to be the LMH race car. Work is now underway to hone the aerodynamics and performance window to give the car parity with rival LMH cars, as well as the fleet of LMDh cars that are also eligible for the Hypercar and GTP classes.
Ferrari, Glickenhaus, Peugeot, and Toyota also compete with LMH cars, though Aston Martin’s contender will be the only one that started out as a road car. The Valkyrie LMH will be a very different beast than the road car, though. It will feature a unique chassis that’s both longer and wider than the chassis in the road car. It will retain the road car’s 6.5-liter V-12, but feature modifications to limit power and ensure the engine can last the length of a 24-hour race.
Starting in 2025, Aston Martin will be the only automaker competing in Formula 1 as well as at the top level in the World Endurance Championship and SportsCar Championship. Aston Martin also plans to retain its current GT racing program. The automaker on Wednesday also confirmed it is developing new GT3 and GT4 race cars based on the redesigned Vantage sports car due later this year.
