Van der Steur Racing is no stranger to the IMSA paddock, with a presence of around twenty years.
Most recently, the team, founded by former racer Gunnar van der Steur, competed in the Grand Sport (GS) class of the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge. For 2025, VDSR moves to the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship side of the paddock, where it will campaign the No. 19 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo in the Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) class.
They will compete in all five IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup events, and possibly also select sprint races, with drivers Rory van der Steur and Valentin Hasse-Clot.
Van der Steur Racing makes maximum use of the resources that Aston Martin Racing and partner Prodrive have to offer in the field of technical and engineering support. Hasse-Clot is an Aston Martin factory driver who, together with Rory van der Steur, finished fourth or better in four of the five Michelin Pilot Challenge races they ran together in 2024 in Van der Steur’s Aston Martin Vantage GT4.
His best result of the season came in the sprint race at the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, where he finished in second place with Scott Andrews.
The No. 19 Aston Martin missed the Saturday morning session of the three-day IMSA-sanctioned test but quickly got up to speed, with Hasse-Clot setting the third-fastest GTD time in the Saturday evening session.
Maxime Robin, van der Steur, Eric Filgueiras and Brady Behrman also drove laps in the car over the course of the weekend, with Robin driving in P3 in the first Sunday session. The team’s full driver line-up for 2025 has not yet been finalized.
“It’s clearly a huge step for the team, and for my teammate Rory, who is discovering everything about GT3,” Hasse-Clot said during the test. “They have made the right decision by hiring people from the Aston Martin Racing (AMR) factory, so it will be a smooth transition I think. We are all here to support them in this step.
“I feel good,” he continued. “I’m very familiar with the car and the mechanics and engineers and everyone within the team. Saturday was our first rollout with the car and with the IMSA systems on board the car, and we got everything sorted out. All positive!”
Fast start for Iron Dames Porsche
While there were other highlights, a sixth-place finish in the GTD class in the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona remained the best result of the 2024 season for the all-female Iron Dames program in the No. 83 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2.
For 2025, the pink Iron Dames livery and number 83 remain the same, but the driver line-up is evolving and the team has opted to swap the Lamborghini for a Porsche 911 GT3 R (992). It’s a homecoming of sorts as Rahel Frey, Michelle Gatting and Sarah Bovy drove a similar Porsche to a historic first all-female victory at the 2023 FIA World Endurance Championship final in Bahrain.
“It is clear that we had a difficult year in 2024, so we chose to look for more reliability, for more consistency, and we found a partner within Porsche,” said Frey. “We already had some experience with that brand in Europe and we thought it would be a nice idea to also make the switch to Porsche for IMSA in 2025. We are really looking forward to that.”
The 2025 Iron Dames WeatherTech Championship lineup has yet to be announced, but Frey was in the car for the test along with Karen Gaillard and co-owner Claudio Schiavoni. Matteo Cressoni, driver and technical advisor for the related Iron Lynx organization, also drove the No. 83 Porsche at Daytona, setting the second fastest GTD time of the week on Sunday afternoon.
Frey was happy to get off her track time at Daytona.
“Every time we jump in the car we get a smile, so we love the car very much,” she said. “The test was very positive for us, so I can’t wait to start in January.”
New horizons for DXDT
DXDT Racing has extensive experience with the Corvette Z06 GT3.R. The North Carolina team was the first to achieve a major victory with the new-for-2024 GT3 version of the iconic American sports car.
This year, DXDT takes on a new challenge by competing full-time in the GTD class of the WeatherTech Championship. With the 2025 lineup not yet announced, the participants in the shared-seat test in the No. 36 Corvette were Alec Udell – who competed with the team in last season’s GT World Challenge America – Salih Yoluc, Corvette- factory driver Charlie Eastwood and two-time IMSA champion and GM driver Pipo Derani.
Udell is looking forward to his first full season in the WeatherTech Championship.
“IMSA has the highest level of competition in the U.S. for any form of sports car racing,” he said. “The level of operations, the team strategy and the whole execution… you have to be perfect. There is no room to move with the overcrowded fields. The events attract many fans and are truly a show. It’s a fantastic place to race.
“We had the goal of making everything fit together and building momentum to grow this program,” he added. “The focus has always been on building up to the IMSA championship.”
The DXDT Corvette completed 343 laps over the course of two days at Daytona.
“Everything is coming together smoothly,” Udell reported. “We’re bringing together a lot of talented minds and I think that’s what it takes to have a successful program.”
The 2025 WeatherTech Championship season kicks off with the annual Roar Before the Rolex 24, January 17-19, leading into the Rolex 24 At Daytona, January 23-26.
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