Heart of Racing set for two car Aston Martin Valkyrie WEC Campaign in 2025
(14 June 2024) - The Heart of Racing will grow its racing program in partnership with Aston Martin once again to compete with two hypercar entries in the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) in 2025. The decision followed the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO) announcement of the Hypercar manufacturer's two car entry mandate on Friday ahead of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
In October of 2023 the Heart of Racing announced the team would grow to stage a global racing campaign with the Aston Martin Valkyrie, fielding a single entry in the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) along with an entry in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
The Heart of Racing has partnered with Aston Martin since the program’s inception in 2020, with the collaboration generating a consistent yield of impressive results including winning the 2021 IMSA WeatherTech Sprint Cup Championship, taking the 2022 IMSA GTD Class Championship, winning the 2023 Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona in a franchise first for Aston Martin, and most recently scoring the first IMSA and WEC podium in the new Aston Martin Vantage GT3 – all while raising funds for Seattle Children’s Cardiology Research Fund.
“With this new direction of the WEC ruleset we have had to bring forward our plans to run multiple cars in the WEC Hypercar class” said Heart of Racing Team Principal Ian James. “This has obviously condensed our build-up process, but we are very excited about the prospect of having two cars in the field. We will be proud to be a part of this class, which has seen a meteoric rise in the past couple of years, and offers amazing racing and fan interaction. The challenge ahead is immense, and we are looking forward to the journey.”
The Aston Martin Valkyrie has been in production for the past year with a race-optimized carbon fiber chassis with a modified Cosworth-built 6.5 liter naturally aspirated V12 engine that develops over 1,000bhp. Aston Martin and the Heart of Racing Team looks to begin testing in the coming months to prepare for the Valkyrie’s competition debut in the 2025 24 Hours At Daytona in January.
