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The Heart of Racing Announces 2025 Valkyrie Driver Pairings

The Heart of Racing completed the majority of their driver lineups Tuesday (Feb. 4) for their new Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR-LMHs that will be competing in both the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s GTP class and the FIA World Endurance Championship’s Hypercar class. Past teammates Roman De Angelis and Ross Gunn will share the No. 23 Valkyrie for the remainder of the WeatherTech season. Their third driver for Sebring and Road Atlanta is currently unannounced.

In the WEC, the previously announced Harry Tincknell will share the No. 007 Valkyrie with Tom Gamble for the full season. At Le Mans, they will be joined by Gunn. The No. 009 will be driven by previously announced Alex Riberas and Marco Sorensen. DeAngelis will join in for Le Mans.

Since the Valkyrie AMR-LMH was not ready for Daytona, De Angelis and Gunn made a one-off start in the GTD Pro class in a Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo along with Riberas and Sorensen. The quartet ran well, but lost their left rear wheel early in the eighth hour. Damage underneath the car ultimately put them out.

Aston Martin was one of the first manufacturers to sign on to the Hypercar concept back in 2019 when the technical regulations were announced at Le Mans. The original idea for the class was that the Hypercars would be racing versions of supercars for the street. That ultimately didn’t play out the way that the FIA originally hoped.

Aston Martin is the exception to that rule. When they announced intentions to race the Valkyrie, they also planned a street version (Toyota did as well, but it was cancelled without any street cars sold). By 2019, the street prototype had already been unveiled. The actual production Valkyrie was released in late 2021. There are currently 275 street-going Valkyries in various guises (coupes, convertibles and AMR Pro cars).

“The Aston Martin Valkyrie is not just a hypercar; it is a revolution in automotive engineering history representing the pinnacle of performance, design and innovation,” stated Adam Carter, Aston Martin’s head of endurance motorsport. “With an extraordinary fusion of F1 technology and road car mastery, Valkyrie is truly built for racing and its participation in the highest level of world endurance racing will only further cement its technological achievement.”

Aston Martin’s plan was to race the Valkyrie long before now. However, IMSA and the ACO unveiled the LMDh formula at Daytona in 2020, causing Aston Martin to re-evaluate the program. Shortly afterwards, Yew Tree Overseas Limited, led by Lawrence Stroll, bought one-sixth of Aston Martin, resulting in Stroll becoming the chairman.

Stroll already owned Racing Point F1 Team at the time (he had purchased it out of administration in the middle of the 2018 season). Much of the funding that would have gone towards racing the Valkyrie ultimately went to the Formula 1 team, which rebranded as Aston Martin F1 Team in 2021.

The Valkyrie will be in action during the WEC Prologue in Qatar on Feb. 21-22, then make its’ racing debut in the WEC season-opening Qatar 1812km on Feb. 28. The season opener will be split between Motor Trend and Max. The IMSA debut for the Valkyrie AMR-LMH will be in the Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring on March 15. That race will stream flag-to-flag on Peacock.

Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the site's FREE e-mail newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the site's Sports Car racing editor.

Outside of Frontstretch, Phil is the press officer for Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. He covers all the action on the high-banked dirt track from regular DIRTcar Modified racing to occasional visits from touring series such as the Super DIRTcar Series.

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