After a mid-season ownership change that saw van der Steur Racing become YRB Racing, or ‘Car Blanche’, the Aston Martin squad secured its first-ever victory to punctuate the end of their 2026 campaign after the sun set at Petit Le Mans.
Competing in both the GTD and GTD Pro classes this year, with multiple drivers stepping in to co-pilot the all-white Vantage alongside mainstay driver Valentin Hasse-Clot, the Car Blanche squad has coped brilliantly as they found their footing in the second half of the season.
The Car Blanche squad debuted at Watkins Glen, instantly capturing the attention of the IMSA world with a podium result on debut in GTD and countless (still unanswered) questions surrounding the ownership of the team and the arrival of YRB Racing.
Six races later, after an unpredictable, incident-filled 10 hours of racing in Georgia, Valentin Hasse-Clot, Mattia Drudi and Marco Sørensen sprayed the champagne as race winners.
“It’s a lot of emotion for all of us at Car Blanche. For sure it’s been a lot of hard work in the background for the past six months. Not only was it a crazy idea, but then you need to put the work in to make it work, of course,” said driver Hasse-Clot, an integral piece in the creation of the program.
This marks the third podium of the season, the team’s first in GTD, and all three drivers’ first wins at Road Atlanta, and this being a rookie appearance for Drudi, no less.
“It’s amazing. It’s my first start here in Petit Le Mans, Road Atlanta,” said Drudi, factory driver for Aston Martin. “I have to thank firstly the team to give me this chance because it’s not easy to take a rookie driver for such an important race.”
The 28-year-old Italian driver has two other starts in IMSA, both at Daytona, both third-place podium finishes.
“We did an amazing job. The team, we’ve been really consistent since Thursday. Everybody on the team did an amazing job. It’s really important for them. They came close to the podium with a fourth place [at VIR in GTD Pro]. Now getting the first win in such an important one, it’s amazing,” commented Drudi post-race.
Sørensen, current full-time Aston Martin Hypercar driver in the World Endurance Championship, competed in the #68 at VIR and Indianapolis ahead of the season finale. Announced ahead of Petit Le Mans, the Dane is committed to Car Blanche for their full season GTD Pro entry alongside Hasse-Clot.
“Yeah, it’s amazing. Obviously came in for Virginia; that was, let’s say, the start of the whole, not the whole team, but kind of the start of the whole project, let’s say. We already got a little bit close to a few podiums already. To get the job done here was obviously completely a bit unexpected, and it feels good,” said Sørensen.
“I think we did everything that we could today. Obviously you can never make a perfect strategy here in this IMSA championship with all the yellows out there.
“I think with what we did today, we can be happy. We adapted to the different situations out there on the track. Suddenly we found ourselves in a good position in the last two hours.”
Throughout the race, the Aston Martin squad found themselves anywhere from fighting to stay on the lead lap to fighting for a podium, and then the win. With strategy being a true unknown until time wound down, the Car Blanche team put themselves in the right place at the right time to benefit from a key caution with two hours remaining.
By pitting just before the #5 JDC Miller Motorsports Porsche to put Drudi back behind the wheel, the #68 cycled out to second, giving them the lead-pack track position they held until the checkered flag.
“It was for sure was not the strategy to wait being up there for just the last 20 minutes,” remarked Drudi.
“We had been lucky with the yellow that came out right after I jumped in the car. So we jumped many, many cars there. I think we were on second at that time.”
Drudi’s final stint to overtake the leading veteran cars of the #77 AO Racing and the #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus displayed the value of bringing in a true student of the sport. The team gave Drudi the final stint and qualifying duties because the track rookie took to the roller coaster so quickly.
“Yeah, I mean, it was not easy to find [footing] here. I had to learn the track on Thursday. The team gave me more than enough laps to get used to everything.”
As a factory driver, figuring out the car was the least of the driver’s worries, taking wins in Europe at the Paul Ricard, the Nürburgring, and Spa in the Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 Evo.
In the intense dying moments of the race, Drudi used his copious endurance experience to good use to save just enough fuel and bide his time to take the lead over Harry King in the #77 and Ben Barnicoat in the #14.
“Yeah, I mean, it was just a saving-energy game. I was waiting for something to happen at the front because I was behind two Porsches and a Lexus. Something happened because I think Preining went off in the last chicane. I just went through. I found myself leading.
“We knew we were really tight on energy, so the tyre was just saving as much as we could, while trying to keep the lead. It is not super easy.
“The last lap of the race would have also been our last lap on energy. We didn’t have anything more than that.”
As part of the first batch of IMSA teams confirmed for the full 2027 season, Car Blanche looks to carry this strong finish into a productive off-season set to pay off when the series kicks off again next season in Daytona in 119 days.
“I have to thank everyone in the team for this one,” said Hasse-Clot, signing off on the 2026 season. “It brings, again, a lot of energy for next year and a lot of energy in the team.”
