Aston Martin's Newest IMSA Team Takes a Petit Le Mans Class Win in Its Sixth Start

Car Blanche needed only six IMSA starts to win a race, and it chose the biggest one left on the calendar. The YRB Racing-run #68 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo took GTD Pro class honors at the Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta on Saturday, in just the team's third outing in the all-professional class.

The win was the high point of a mixed season finale for Aston Martin. Its Valkyrie hypercar ran at the front late in the race but finished fifth after a penalty, and the Heart of Racing Team's GTD title hopes were gone before the green flag. That left Winward Racing's Mercedes-AMG to close out its bid for a third straight GTD title without a challenge from Aston.

One move for two places

Mattia Drudi had qualified the #68 second in class, the team's best IMSA grid slot so far. He was running third with about 40 minutes left. Ten minutes later, he cleared both cars ahead in a single move and then defended the lead to the checkered flag. He shared the car with fellow Aston Martin works drivers Valentin Hasse Clot and Marco Sørensen.

Aston Martin says the result is the Vantage GT3's first IMSA win of 2026, its sixth in GTD Pro, and the brand's 15th GT class victory in the series. It's also only Aston's third class win in the race's 29-year history. The earlier two were a GT1 win for the V12 DBR9 in 2006 and a GTD victory for the Heart of Racing Team in 2021.

The New Jersey team has moved quickly. It made its IMSA debut at Watkins Glen in June with a third place in GTD, then switched to GTD Pro for selected rounds. At Indianapolis last month, the race where BMW's new GTP team scored its first win, Car Blanche became the first confirmed entry for 2027, when it plans a full GTD Pro season. The class title still went elsewhere: according to Dailysportscar, a third-place finish was enough for Paul Miller Racing's BMW M4 GT3 Evo to clinch the GTD Pro championship.

Valkyrie: in front, then fifth

Ross Gunn, Roman De Angelis, and WEC regular Alex Riberas had the #23 Valkyrie in the lead at several points in the final three hours. Aston Martin says a series of badly timed full-course yellows erased the gap its strategy had built. With about 20 minutes left, De Angelis made contact with the #31 Whelen Cadillac of the newly crowned GTP champions, Dailysportscar reported. The resulting drive-through penalty dropped the car from as high as third to fifth. Porsche Penske's #6 963 won overall by 1.2 seconds.

Fifth equals the Valkyrie's best IMSA finish of 2026, first set at Road America, but it falls short of last year's second place at this track. The race car uses a modified version of the road car's 6.5-liter V12, which the company says makes more than 1,000 hp in standard form; hypercar rules cap it at about 670 hp (500 kW). Aston Martin says the Valkyrie is the only GTP car derived from a road-legal hypercar and the only Le Mans Hypercar contesting both IMSA and the World Endurance Championship this year. It led the WEC race at Fuji last month, where Toyota won on a fuel-only gamble.

Barrichello's title bid ends on the grid

The #27 THOR Vantage of Dudu Barrichello, Tom Gamble, and Zach Robichon arrived third in GTD, 116 points behind with 385 available. An electrical problem before the start ended that chance. The team got the car back on track for enough laps to keep Barrichello third in the drivers' standings in his first full IMSA season, and THOR also finished third among teams. At the halfway point of the season, Barrichello and THOR had led both standings.

Aston Martin ends 2026 second in the GTD manufacturers' standings and second in the Michelin Endurance Cup manufacturers' table. Magnus Racing, back for the finale, finished fifth in GTD with John Potter, Spencer Pumpelly, and Mario Farnbacher.

The Valkyrie program now turns to the remaining WEC rounds. Car Blanche's next IMSA start will come in 2027, as a full-time GTD Pro entry. Full results and team statements are on Aston Martin's media site.