Aston Martin Announces Le Mans Return With Factory Hypercar
Image: Aston Martin
Aston Martin has announced that it will finally be bringing the Valkyrie to the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The British manufacturer will be reviving the shelved project to enter the legendary French endurance race. The Le Mans Hypercar regulations were crafted three years ago to attract automakers with the opportunity to race cars similar to their highest-performance road-going models in the top class, but no one opted to go that route.
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Aston Martin will be partnering with Heart of Racing, the team founded by video game magnate Gabe Newell, to race the LMH Valkyrie in the FIA World Endurance Championship and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship starting in 2025. Heart of Racing has been associated with the British automaker for the last few seasons. The team won IMSA’s GTD class championship last year with a Vantage GT3 and expanded its operations to WEC this year.
Image: Aston Martin
Lawrence Stroll, Aston Martin’s executive chairman, said in a statement:
“We have been present at Le Mans since the earliest days, and through those glorious endeavours we succeeded in winning Le Mans in 1959 and our class 19 times over the past 95 years. Now we return to the scene of those first triumphs aiming to write new history with a racing prototype inspired by the fastest production car Aston Martin has ever built.”
Image: Aston Martin
Despite Heart of Racing moving up to the top class, Aston Martin also announced that it would build a new Vantage-based racer compliant with the new LMGT3 regulations. In 2020, the automaker announced that it was suspending its LMH program to focus on its fledgling F1 team. Now, expansion is on the cards with its massive newly-opening racing headquarters.
