IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship returns to the challenge of Laguna Seca, home of the world famous ‘Corkscrew’
Ross Gunn and Roman De Angelis lead Valkyrie charge in California
Valkyrie the only road-derived hypercar to contest world’s two premier sportscar series, the FIA World Endurance Championship and IMSA
The Aston Martin Valkyrie hypercar returns to competitive action this weekend in Round 4 of North America’s premier endurance racing series – the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship [IMSA] – at the challenging Laguna Seca circuit, in Monterey, California.
Less than two weeks after achieving its tenth top ten IMSA finish (from 11 starts), around the streets of Long Beach, the Aston Martin THOR Team and drivers Roman De Angelis (CAN) and Ross Gunn (GBR) scream back into action on the undulating, dusty and hugely demanding 2.238-mile venue, which features the famous ‘Corkscrew’ left-right downhill section with its 55-metre elevation change.
This weekend mark’s the second occasion Valkyrie will have contested the top GTP class of this famous two hours and forty-minute race, and the team returns with a plethora of performance data and a season’s worth of valuable knowledge to build upon.
De Angelis and Gunn have not finished outside the top ten so far in 2026, but the duo might have achieved much more if not for a sequence of misfortune that stretches back to the season opener; the Rolex 24 at Daytona, in January. Indeed, Valkyrie was running a competitive fourth on merit last time out at Long Beach when a rival collided with it with less than an hour of the race to run.
Considering Laguna Seca’s fast and rhythmic layout, and its smooth, two-year-old asphalt surface that play more to the strengths of Valkyrie than the bumpy streets of Long Beach – where it still qualified 1.4s faster than in 2025 and just 0.371s off the pole position lap time – there is every reason to believe that IMSA fans have yet to see the full potential of the British-made hypercar in 2026.
The competition variant of Valkyrie – the pure racing expression of the world’s ultimate roadgoing hypercar – is developed from its production sibling by Aston Martin and The Heart of Racing [THOR] and 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 IMSA’s GTP regulations.
The solitary V12-powered car entered in IMSA, Valkyrie is also the only entry derived from a road-going hypercar competing in either North America’s premier endurance series or the WEC.
Ross Gunn, driver #23 Aston Martin Valkyrie (IMSA): “I believe Laguna Seca is one of the best race circuits in the world and I have been racing there for the past five seasons in IMSA. Long Beach ultimately did not provide us with the result we deserved, but it did show that we have moved forwards considerably in terms of performance. We are working as hard as we can to carry that competitive momentum into this weekend.”
Roman De Angelis, driver #23 Aston Martin Valkyrie (IMSA): “I’m really looking forward to Laguna Seca. It’s a track that responded well to Valkyrie last season and it was nice to drive there. After a year of experience and development, I’m really hoping that we can deliver the first strong result of 2026 and turn our season around heading into the summer months. The team did a great job in Long Beach in all departments regarding execution so I’m confident this event will be a good one for us.”
Ian James, Team Principal, Aston Martin THOR Team: “The result at Long Beach did not reflect the potential of the drivers, the team or the car; and yet we still finished in the top ten. Both drivers were able to comfortably run on the pace of the leading pack, and we were building a good foundation for a strong finish before the race was taken away from us. What this tells us is that with every IMSA race that we contest, we edge a little closer to the consistent pace, performance and results that we know Aston Martin THOR and Valkyrie is capable of. If we execute, control our controllables and manage the strategy as we know we can, there is no reason to think we cannot fight for a strong result at Laguna Seca.”
Adam Carter, Aston Martin Head of Endurance Motorsport: “Some of the performance deltas Valkyrie displayed in Long Beach were very encouraging. The team extracted impressive performance from the car in qualifying, on a circuit we know does not perhaps play to Valkyrie’s strengths as well as others. Now we head to a circuit that should suit it better, and where last year we saw the first glimpses of what the car was capable of. It’s quite an exciting prospect to see what Aston Martin THOR might be able to achieve on its return to Laguna Seca, while at the same time never underestimating the high level of competition we must face.”
Vantage heads back to California chasing Aston Martin’s first GT victory at Laguna Seca
The Heart of Racing Team aims to build on IMSA GTD championship lead
Tom Gamble returns alongside Dudu Barrichello in front-running #27 THOR Aston Martin Vantage GT3 at Laguna Seca
Van Der Steur Racing brings in Scott Andrews to replace absent works driver Valentin Hasse Clot
Aston Martin’s Vantage returns to California this weekend as AMR’s partner teams the Heart of Racing Team [THOR] and Van Der Steur Racing [VDSR] aim to give the British ultra-luxury performance brand’s most successful racing car its first win of the 2026 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season at Laguna Seca.
Series debutant Dudu Barrichello (BRA) leads the GTD class points standings by 54 points (with a maximum of 385 available per race weekend) after an outstanding start to the season for THOR that has included two podiums at the Rolex 24 at Daytona and the Sebring 12 Hours.
Having been supported last time out at Long Beach by Spencer Pumpelly (USA), regular THOR teammate Tom Gamble (GBR) returns to Vantage after scoring his first ever FIA World Endurance Championship [WEC] Hypercar class points with Valkyrie at Imola less than a fortnight ago; WEC’s opening round having clashed with IMSA’s first street race of the season.
Joining THOR at Laguna Seca with another Aston Martin Vantage GT3 will be VDSR, which enjoyed a strong run at Long Beach where its regular drivers Rory van der Steur (USA) and works driver Valentin Hasse-Clot (FRA) raced as high as second before finishing a season-best eighth place in a fiercely contested midfield.
This weekend Hasse Clot is on European Le Mans Series duty with the Racing Spirit of Léman team and will be replaced in the car by Australian driver Scott Andrews.
Sharing the mechanical architecture of the ultra-luxury Vantage road car, the Vantage GT3, which triumphed at last year’s 24 Hours of Spa – the world’s most prestigious GT3-only event, is built around Aston Martin’s proven bonded aluminium chassis and powered by its fearsome twin-turbo 4.0-litre V8 engine.
How to follow
The StubHub Monterey SportsCar Championship will begin at 1310 local time (-8 Hour BST) on Sunday, 3 May 2026. It will be broadcast live globally on IMSA TV and on the IMSA YouTube channel and via selected broadcasters at a national level.
