The Valkyrie returns to where it all began
Aston Martin Racing and The Heart of Racing are celebrating the one-year anniversary of the Valkyrie’s global race debut at Sebring.
Daytona back in January didn’t go to plan, with the car finishing 44 laps down in tenth in GTP after losing time behind the wall during the race, but the team believes it can bounce back this weekend and recapture some of the momentum it found at the end of the 2025 season.
“Sebring offers a chance to really kickstart our season after Daytona didn’t bring us the result we’d hoped for,” team principal Ian James said.
“Going back to a circuit the team and the drivers already know with this car, allows us to hit the ground running and I’m pretty confident the Aston Martin Valkyrie will perform strongly if we do our homework and execute our objectives. It’s a tough circuit that challenges the car to the maximum, but Valkyrie ran smoothly for 12 hours this time last year so we know it can cope with the bumps. I’m excited to see what this week can offer us!”
Adam Carter, Aston Martin’s head of endurance motorsport, sees this weekend as the start of the next phase for the programme, in which the team will begin running the Valkyrie on circuits for a second time.
“When we look back over the progress Valkyrie has made over the past 12 months, since making its IMSA debut at Sebring last year, it’s quite impressive,” he added. “As I’ve said previously, it takes time to allow a programme to develop culturally and to bring to bear the understanding and learnings from the data we’ve captured along the pathway.
“We move into a new and absorbing phase of the programme now as we begin to race at circuits we’ve previously visited with Valkyrie. This will allow us to accelerate and validate some of these learnings and help us as Valkyrie’s performance continues to develop. Fifty-three weeks ago, Valkyrie finished ninth on its debut at perhaps endurance racing’s toughest track, so it will be interesting to see how much progress we’ve made in that time, always taking into account the exceptional quality of the opposition we face in IMSA.”
IMSA reveals new timeline for 2027 entries
IMSA has revealed an updated timeline for prospective entries into the 2027 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
Applications for full-season, Michelin Endurance Cup, and Rolex 24 At Daytona drivers and entries will open on 4 August following the Motul SportsCar Endurance Grand Prix at Road America, and entrant applicants will be accepted through 10 November, one month later than the deadline for entries for this year’s Rolex 24 and preceding Roar Before The Rolex 24 test (which was 7 October 2025).
Confirmation of entries into the Rolex 24/Roar will be secured on 1 December, and the 65th Rolex 24 entry list will be released on 9 December.
In addition, the December IMSA Sanctioned Test at Daytona is scheduled for 11–13 December.
Retirement ceremony held for departing Sebring President Estes
At Sebring’s Green Park, a retirement ceremony was held by the fans to honour the retiring Sebring International Raceway President, Wayne Estes, and transfer the presidency to his successor Matt Muha.
During today’s IMSA calendar reveal, President John Doonan said of Estes: “Wayne has done an outstanding job, getting this place where it is today. He’s turning it over to a very able Matt in transition, Matt’s run the facility for many years on the operation side.”
Organized strictly by the fans, they pooled their money to commission an original painting by Toronto Motorsports’ Roger Warrick to present to Estes – who is voluntarily moving into an administrative role at the circuit.
In addition, Sebring commissioned an original painting to celebrate next year’s 75th Anniversary of the race. As DSC photographer – and 1987 IMSA Lights class-winning team manager – Jack Webster puts it: “No place besides Sebring would such a thing happen.”
Mobil 1 extends title sponsorship of Twelve Hours of Sebring
This week, ExxonMobil and Sebring International Raceway confirmed an extension of the long-term title sponsorship of the Twelve Hours of Sebring, ahead of the milestone 75th running in 2027. ExxonMobil has been a title sponsor of the race since 1995, and Mobil 1 has been the brand to sponsor the race since 2000.
“Having a association with an event for parts of four decades is not only a testament to the dedication and faith the Mobil 1 brand has on this event, but it is also an honour for the raceway to have one of the world’s most well-known brands align itself with the Twelve Hours of Sebring,” said the aforementioned Sebring President Muha. “The Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring is the longest-running endurance race in North American, and one of the most significant sports car races in the world, so it is fitting that the Mobil 1 brand and Sebring continue this historic collaboration.”
Today, as part of the reveal of the 2027 IMSA calendar, Sebring revealed the logo of the 75th Twelve Hours of Sebring to be held on 20 March. The parallel blue stripes harken back to the race’s early days, in a time when American race cars were often painted white with stripes running lengthwise over the top of the car. Briggs Cunningham helped popularize white cars with blue stripes as his cars won at Sebring from 1953 to 1955.
Planned events for the 75th running, announced today, include the reveal of the “Class of 75” – a list of the 75 greatest drivers in the event’s history, revealed in portions as the weeks and months until next year’s race progress.
As well as the showcase of some of the most famous cars to race at Sebring, including the Frazer-Nash LMR which won the inaugural race in 1952, plus a display of “at least one winning car from every decade of the race.”
RAFA Racing Toyota wins pole for Sebring Pilot Challenge
The #12 RAFA Racing Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2 of Varun Choksey and Kiko Porto won the pole for Friday’s Alan Jay Automotive Network 120, the second round of the IMSA Pilot Challenge.
After Porto led Practice 2 with the best time earlier this morning, Choksey won the pole with a lap time of 2:09.089. He was three-tenths clear of Moisey Uretsky in the #44 Ibiza Farm Motorsport McLaren Artura GT4, who qualified second. Danny Dyszelski put the #7 VPX Porsche 718 GT4 RS Clubsport third on the grid for the two-hour sprint race.
Daytona winners Frank DePew, Robin Liddell, and the #71 Rebel Rock Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT4 Evo will start 24th, while the #39 CarBahn with Peregrine Racing BMW (Sean McAlister/Jeff Westphal) suffered a broken left-front suspension and did not complete a flying lap, pushing it down to 33rd on the grid.
TCR class pole position went to the #5 KMW Motorsports with TMR Engineering Honda Civic FL5 TCR of Tim Lewis and Rocco Pasquarella, but not by much: Pasquarella set a 2:11.720 to grab the pole by just 0.030s over Franco Girolami in the #99 Victor Gonzalez Racing Cupra León VZ TCR. Mason Filippi will line up third in class aboard the #33 Bryan Herta Autosport Hyundai Elantra N TCR.
IMSA PILOT CHALLENGE QUALIFYING RESULTS >>>
Maxson takes first win for new Porsche Carrera Cup car, tyres
Tyler Maxson took the first win of the season in Race 1 after putting his #77 Topp Racing car on pole earlier today in the Pro class. The overall win did not come without some resistance, though: Jared Thomas kept Maxson on his toes and then some in the first half of the 40-minute race, putting his Maxda MX-5 nose-to-tail skills to full use in the #96 JTR Motorsports Engineering car.
Maxson ultimately pulled out a comfortable gap on Thomas after Aaron Jeansonne and Callum Hedge closed in on the fraught battle for the lead. Thomas, in the #96, ended up 7.6 seconds back in second position, besting Aaron Jeansonne by a 0.146-second margin in the #24 Kellymoss car.
Reigning class champion Patrick Mulcahy went uncontested for the win in Pro-Am, finishing eighth overall in the #54 ACI Motorsports Porsche after qualifying first in class. The #14 James Sofronas GMG Racing car finished second in class after starting in second, followed by Brady Behrman in the #28 van Der Steur Racing car, who originally qualified fourth.
The top three in Masters were separated by less than two seconds, with Marco Cirone coming out on top in the #88 ACI Motorsports car, followed closely by teammate Richard Edge in the #18. 2025 Porsche single-make juggernaut Scott Blind finished in third position after an uncharacteristic fifth-position qualifying result earlier in the day.
PORSCHE CARRERA CUP RACE 1 RESULTS >>>
Bamber, De La Torre win Lamborghini Super Trofeo opener from pole
The first qualifying session to set the grid for Race 1 was interrupted by a red flag, just five minutes into the 15-minute session, due to the #63 TR3 Racing going off track. The green flag returned with three minutes remaining, to which stewards added five minutes to give the drivers a chance to have the chance to put in two competitive laps.
Will Bamber took pole in the #29 TR3 Racing car with a 2:00.093, 0.071 seconds ahead of Danny Formal in the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Pro-Am entry. The #1 Wayne Taylor Racing car, piloted by Hampus Eriksson in the Pro class, finished with the third-fastest time.
The #89 89x Motorsports car driven by Johan Schwartz was fastest in the Am class, and the #99 Topp Racing car was fastest in the LB Cup class with Rocky T. Bolduc at the wheel.
In the first race of the weekend for the Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America series, the #29 converted pole position into overall victory, with both Bamber and Elias De La Torre flawless through the 50-minute race. Nick Persing brought the #1 Wayne Taylor Racing car home to second place in Pro, followed by the #28 Alliance Racing car of Ernie Francis Jnr.
Graham Doyle and Danny Formal (doing double Wayne Taylor duty in GTD this weekend as well) won in Pro-Am in the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing by over thirty seconds to the #77 Forty7 Motorsports car (Keawn Tandon/Lindsay Brewer) in second position. The #10 and #1 Wayne Taylor cars looked untouchable in the race after qualifying second and third overall, respectively.
A close battle in the Am class throughout the race ended with reigning LB Cup Champion Nick Groat in the #57 XONINE Racing taking the victory, edging out the 2025 Am runner-up David Staab in the #48 Precision Performance Motorsports car in second, and the #44 Kaizen Autosport car (Wyatt Foster/Seth Henry) in third.
Ray Shahi in the #65 Taurino Racing car took home victory in the LB Cup class after starting in third position, finishing ahead of the #11 TB Autosports car (Philippe Touchette) in second. Clay Wilson finished out the podium in his #37 TR3 Racing car.
