Heart of Racing Set for Two-Car Valkyrie Hypercar Effort

Image: Aston Martin

Heart of Racing Team has confirmed a two-car Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR LMH effort for next year’s FIA World Endurance Championship, falling in line with the FIA and ACO’s newly ratified two-car minimum works entry mandate in the top class beginning in 2025.

The two factory entries, which are subject to approval by the WEC selection committee, will be run alongside an expected single-car effort by the team in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

Aston Martin and Heart of Racing previously committed to running “at least one” Valkyrie in the WEC next year, although with the new rule, have been effectively forced to ramp up to a two-car program in its first season.

A statement from the British manufacturer read: “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.

“Aston Martin will continue to work closely with both organizations moving forward and through the duration of the Valkyrie AMR-LMH program.”

Drivers for the effort with the V12-powered LMH car have not yet been announced.

“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 race-optimized carbon-fiber chassis 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 enhanced further to incorporate Balance of Performance requirements of the Hypercar class, which will lead to a significant power reduction.

As with the Valkyrie AMR Pro track car, the battery-electric hybrid system that features on the road-specification Valkyrie is absent from the race car.

Development of the Valkyrie AMR-LMH is already well advanced, with recent on-track evaluation of integral systems having taken place on a ‘mule’ car at Aston Martin’s Silverstone testing facility and at Portimao.

Heart of Racing, meanwhile, recently established a UK outpost for its WEC program, which will be largely crewed from staff from Multimatic Motorsports.

The American team’s WeatherTech Championship program, meanwhile, will be run out of its shop in Phoenix.

“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 sports car manufacturers, and we are doing all we can to ensure that we can fight at the front of that space,” said Aston Martin Head of endurance motorsport Adam Carter.

“The Valkyrie AMR-LMH program 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.”

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John