Van der Steur Racing isn’t any stranger to the IMSA paddock, with a presence courting some twenty years.
Most just lately, the workforce based by former racer Gunnar van der Steur has competed within the Grand Sport (GS) class of the IMSA Michelin Pilot Problem. For 2025, VDSR will transfer to the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship facet of the paddock because it steps as much as marketing campaign the No. 19 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo within the Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) class.
They’ll compete in all 5 IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup occasions, and presumably choose dash races as properly, with drivers Rory van der Steur and Valentin Hasse-Clot.
Van der Steur Racing is making most use of the sources that Aston Martin Racing and its associate Prodrive have to supply by way of technical and engineering assist. Hasse-Clot is an Aston Martin manufacturing facility driver who teamed with Rory van der Steur to complete fourth or higher in 4 of the 5 Michelin Pilot Problem races they ran collectively in 2024 in van der Steur’s Aston Martin Vantage GT4.
His greatest results of the season was achieved within the dash race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, the place he teamed with Scott Andrews for a second-place end.
The No. 19 Aston Martin missed the Saturday morning session of the three-day IMSA-sanctioned check, however bought in control rapidly, with Hasse-Clot setting the third quickest GTD time within the Saturday evening session.
Maxime Robin, van der Steur, Eric Filgueiras and Brady Behrman additionally ran laps within the automobile over the course of the weekend, with Robin operating P3 within the first Sunday session. The workforce’s full 2025 driver lineup has not been finalized.
“It’s clearly an enormous transfer for the workforce, and for my teammate Rory, who’s discovering all the things about GT3,” commented Hasse-Clot in the course of the check. “They made the correct determination by hiring individuals from the Aston Martin Racing (AMR) manufacturing facility, so it’s going to be a clean transition, I feel. We’re all right here to assist them on this transfer.
“I’m feeling good,” he continued. “I’m very accustomed to the automobile and the mechanics and engineers and everybody across the workforce. Saturday was our first roll-out with the automobile and with the IMSA programs on board the automobile, and we’ve sorted all the things. All constructive!”
Brandon Badraoui/Lumen
Quick begin for Iron Dames Porsche
Whereas there have been different highlights, a sixth-place GTD class end within the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona remained the very best results of the 2024 season for the all-female Iron Dames program within the No. 83 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2.
For 2025, the pink Iron Dames livery and the No. 83 keep the identical, however the driver lineup is evolving and the workforce has opted to commerce the Lamborghini for a Porsche 911 GT3 R (992). It’s a homecoming of kinds, as a result of Rahel Frey, Michelle Gatting and Sarah Bovy drove the same Porsche to a historic first all-female win on the 2023 FIA World Endurance Championship finale in Bahrain.
“Clearly we had a troublesome yr in 2024, so we selected to search for extra reliability, for extra consistency, and we discovered a associate inside Porsche,” mentioned Frey. “We already had some expertise with that model in Europe and thought it could be a pleasant thought to additionally make the transfer to Porsche for IMSA in 2025. We very a lot stay up for that.”
The 2025 Iron Dames WeatherTech Championship lineup is but to be introduced, however Frey was within the automobile for the check together with Karen Gaillard and workforce co-owner Claudio Schiavoni. Matteo Cressoni, a driver and engineering advisor for the associated Iron Lynx group, additionally drove the No. 83 Porsche at Daytona and set the second quickest GTD time of the week on Sunday afternoon.
Frey was happy coming off her monitor time at Daytona.
“Every time we soar within the automobile it offers us a smile, so we love the automobile very a lot,” she mentioned. “The check for us was very constructive, so I can’t wait to get it began in January.”
Michael Levitt/Lumen
New horizons for DXDT
DXDT Racing has loads of expertise with the Corvette Z06 GT3.R. The North Carolina-based workforce was the primary to earn a significant victory with the new-for-2024 GT3 model of the enduring American sports activities automobile.
This yr, DXDT is tackling a brand new problem by competing full-time within the WeatherTech Championship’s GTD class. With the 2025 driver lineup not but introduced, these on the check sharing seat time within the No. 36 Corvette have been Alec Udell – who competed with the workforce this previous season in GT World Problem America – Salih Yoluc, Corvette manufacturing facility driver Charlie Eastwood, and two-time IMSA champion and GM driver Pipo Derani.
Udell is trying ahead to his first full season within the WeatherTech Championship.
“IMSA has the best competitors within the U.S. for any type of sports activities automobile racing,” he mentioned. “The extent of operations, the workforce technique and all of the execution … you need to be good. There’s no wiggle room with the packed fields. The occasions usher in a ton of followers and are actually a present. It’s a unbelievable place to race.
“We’ve had the purpose of getting all the things to gel collectively and constructing momentum to develop this program,” he added. “The main target was all the time to construct as much as the IMSA championship.”
The DXDT Corvette accomplished 343 laps over the course of two days at Daytona.
“All the pieces is coming collectively easily,” Udell reported. “We’re bringing plenty of gifted minds collectively and I feel that’s what it takes to have a profitable program.”
The 2025 WeatherTech Championship season opens with the annual Roar Earlier than the Rolex 24, January 17-19, main into the Rolex 24 At Daytona, January 23-26.
