Aston Martin has confirmed that Heart of Racing will field two Valkyrie AMR Hypercars in next year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans and the WEC.
Heart of Racing Team has announced a two-car Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR LMH project for the FIA World Endurance Championship the next year in line with the recently introduced two-car minimum works entry regulation in the Hypercar class starting in 2025.
Before introduction of the new rule, Aston Martin and Heart of Racing had committed to field “at least one” Valkyrie in the WEC next year. However, they will now have to ramp up to a two-car program for their debut season.
“Aston Martin and its works partner Heart of Racing are delighted to support this change in the regulations, in the interests of working together to improve the sporting environment for the benefit of all,” a statement from the British manufacturer reads.
“Aston Martin will continue to work closely with both organizations moving forward and through the duration of the Valkyrie AMR-LMH program.”
Crucially, this new rule will not affect Heart of Racing and Aston Martin’s plans to compete with the Valkyrie in IMSA GTP. Instead, the second Valkyrie for WEC will be HOR’s third for the 2025 racing season.
“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 Valkyrie AMR-LMH will use a modified version of the Cosworth-built 6.5-tire naturally aspirated V12 engine originally produced for the Valkyrie road car, which in standard form revs to 11,000 rpm and develops more than 1000 hp.
The power unit is being further developed in order to meet the Hypercar class’ Balance of Performance requirements which will result in a significant power reduction. However, the Valkyrie AMR Pro track car lacks the battery-electric hybrid technology featured on the road-spec Valkyrie.
The Valkyrie AMR-LMH is now at an advanced stage of development with integral systems having recently undergone on-track evaluation on a “mule” car at Aston Martin’s Silverstone testing facility and in Portimao.
Heart of Racing has opened a UK base for its WEC program, primarily hiring Multimatic Motorsports staff as crew. Meanwhile, the American team’s WeatherTech Championship program will be run out of its shop in Phoenix.
Aston Martin’s head of endurance motorsport, Adam Carter, says the brand enjoys a heritage at the Le Mans 24 Hours like none of its future competitors.
“We first raced at Le Mans more than 95 years ago – something no other road-going hypercar manufacturer can say,” said Carter.
“We are very proud of our association with this wonderful event, and with that in mind, it’s very clear that we are committed to WEC’s hypercar concept and bringing our famous wings back to the very forefront of international sportscar racing, including at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
“In 2025, with our works team the Heart of Racing, we intend to put two Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR-LMH hypercars on the grid, to compete alongside a fantastic array of the world’s best sportscar manufacturers, and we are doing all we can to ensure that we can fight at the front of that space.
“The Valkyrie AMR-LMH programme is on schedule with a significant amount of development taking place behind the scenes and ahead of the car’s track debut later this summer.
“We then anticipate an intensive period of testing to put miles on the car and learn all we can ahead of its planned homologation in the autumn.”
Drivers for the effort with the V12-powered LMH car are yet to be announced.
