The winner of Le Mans in 1959 has firmed up the plans outlined by Autosport last month to revive the Valkyrie LMH project mothballed early in 2020 for twin assaults on the World Endurance Championship and the IMSA SportsCar Championship.
It announced the race programmes starting in 2025 on Wednesday at the AMR Technology Campus at Silverstone that incorporates the new headquarters of the Aston Martin Formula 1 team.
Heart of Racing, which has been partnered with Aston Martin in IMSA since 2020 and WEC since earlier this year, will run at least one Valkyrie in the respective Hypercar and GTP classes of the two championships.
An expanded campaign with the V12-engined Valkyrie, possibly including two cars entered for Le Mans, hasn’t been ruled out.
Aston has become the first manufacturer with an LMH contender to commit to racing against LMDh machinery in the North American IMSA series.
Its last bid for overall victory at Le Mans by Aston came in 2011 with the AMR-One LMP1 car developed by the Prodrive-run Aston Martin Racing set-up.
Lawrence Stroll, executive Chairman of Aston Martin Lagonda, said: “Performance is the lifeblood of everything that we do at Aston Martin, and motorsport is the ultimate expression of this pursuit of excellence.
“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.”
Source: Autosport