Having finished in the top ten in each of the IMSA events in which it has started in 2025 – amassing the first points finishes for any car built to hypercar regulations in the history of North America’s premier endurance competition – the British ultra-luxury high performance brand’s all-new Valkyrie stayed on trend, finishing eighth after a competitive showing on the tight confines of the 1.7-mile downtown Detroit street circuit.

Aston Martin THOR Team and its drivers Ross Gunn (GBR) and 2022 IMSA GTD champion Roman De Angelis (CDN) – who were GTD class winners in 2021 on the event’s old Belle Isle course – also equalled Valkyrie’s best qualifying performance with 11th.

The duo were just two tenths of a second shy of the top 10, on what was only Valkyrie’s tenth start in all competitions, and its fourth in IMSA’s GTP division. But a faultless and strategically sound run through the 100-minute race – the shortest format on the IMSA calendar – was rewarded with an eighth-place finish on the second of the series’ two visits to street circuits in 2025. The result equalled De Angelis and Gunn’s run at Long Beach (the other street track) in April.

The first ‘Le Mans Hypercar’ (LMH) to be produced by Aston Martin, Valkyrie is the only car in IMSA’s premier GTP category derived from a road-legal hypercar. The British contender is also the first LMH car of any kind to compete in IMSA, and the only one contesting both IMSA and the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) simultaneously, having made its debut in the Qatar 1812km in February.

Developed from the Valkyrie production car by Aston Martin and THOR, the competition version 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 hypercar regulations.

Ross Gunn, driver #23 Aston Martin Valkyrie: Finishing eighth on another tricky circuit like Detroit is another big tick in the box for us and Valkyrie. The team worked very hard to unlock the car’s potential through the weekend and I felt like eighth place was a good reward for us, and a solid result to build on at Watkins Glen later in the month. This was a good way to keep the confidence high as Roman and I travel back to Europe to join the WEC team for Valkyrie’s 24 Hours of Le Mans debut.

Roman De Angelis, driver #23 Aston Martin Valkyrie: This was a difficult track for us in some ways. It’s nothing like anything we’ve ever driven on with Valkyrie and so we knew it wasn’t going to be an easy weekend. That said, we made the most of it. Another eighth-place finish, having started 11th, is good progress. We stayed clean, on this track that’s not easy to do, and the team just executed to the maximum all weekend long. Really looking forward to Watkins Glen and Road America, which are next on the schedule.

Ian James, Team Principal, Aston Martin THOR Team: This was another strong performance by the team and the Aston Martin Valkyrie. Ross and Roman drove with deft precision and the car ran faultlessly. We tried to play a few strategies to take advantage of any Full Course Yellows, and Ross raced hard in the end, and the combination of these two factors gave us another real positive to bring with us into the 24 Hours of Le Mans; the next big focus for Aston Martin THOR Team in June.

Adam Carter, Aston Martin Head of Endurance Motorsport: Detroit’s downtown circuit is very different to anything else we compete on with Valkyrie, and therefore it provided interesting challenges in terms of gathering and harnessing data. It also gave the team an opportunity to fine-tune and improve systems and processes in another temporary racing environment. Aston Martin THOR Team managed this well and achieved an equal best result for the programme so far. We are satisfied with the progress we are making with each new race.