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Aston Martin will be back on the track through the Mobile 1 Sebring 12-hour race, which will be held on March 21. This is the second round match of the 2026 IMSA Weathertech Sports Car Championship season. Aston Martin will play as Valkyrie Hypercar for the THOR team, making his sebring return a year and a half after making his series debut at the same tournament in 2025. The Valkyrie, co-developed by Aston Martin and THOR, is a pure race car created based on a mass-produced hypercar and is currently in its second season. The race car features a carbon fiber chassis and a 6.5-liter V12 engine that rotates up to 11,000 rpm, with a 500 kW output limit (about 680 horsepower) subject to race regulations.
The Valkyrie is the only V12 engine-equipped vehicle in the competition and the only participating vehicle based on a mass-produced hypercar throughout the IMSA and FIA World Endurance Championships (WEC).The competition's Valkyrie drivers lineup consists of IMSA full-season works drivers Roman de Angelis and Ross Gunn, and WEC Valkyrie Works drivers Alex Riveras. They ranked 10th in the GTP class for the opening round of the Rolex Daytona 24-hour race in January. In his first IMSA season, Valkyrie finished in the top 10 on seven occasions out of a total of eight appearances, finishing second in the season's final round and ninth in his sebring debut last year. Alex Riveras found some solutions to the problems he experienced at Daytona, citing the fact that he can prepare based on the data he already has. Ross Gunn said he had put in a lot of effort for a tough sebring competition, and Roman de Angelis said it would be a chance for a rebound.
THOR team representative Ian James said Sebring is an opportunity to start the season in earnest, expecting a strong performance based on his 12-hour driving experience last year. Adam Carter, general manager of Aston Martin Endurance Motorsports, said Valkyrie will be able to apply learning more quickly by revisiting the circuits he has already experienced. The race will start at 00:10 on March 22 in Korean time.Meanwhile, two Aston Martin Vantage GT3s will also compete for the GTD class in this competition. Vantage finished second and third through Magnus Racing and THOR teams in the last Daytona 24-hour race, respectively. The THOR team will form a driver lineup of Tom Gamble, Dudu Barricello and Zakari Robichon to seek their first class win at Sebring.
The VDSR team, which will compete in the full season of IMSA in 2026, will be joined by Rory Van der Stour, Valentin Haseclo and Sebastien Bo. The Vantage GT3 shares a mechanical architecture with the ultra-luxury Vantage road car, with a Bond aluminum chassis structure and a twin turbo 4.0-liter V8 engine. Starting with DBR9's sebring debut in 2005, Aston Martin scored a total of nine podiums in the GT class. The Mobile 1 Sebring 12-hour race will be broadcast live on IMSA TV and official YouTube channels.Aston Martin is a luxury global brand founded in 1913. It currently has a lineup of Vantage, DB12, DBS, DBX and Valkyrie, and designs and produces vehicles at its headquarters in Gaiden, England, and exports them to 56 countries around the world. Also, "Racing". Through the 'Green.' strategy, it is seeking to convert electricity from 2025 to 2030 and aims to realize carbon neutral manufacturing facilities in 2030.
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