Iron Dames make endurance racing history in Bahrain
The Iron Dames squad of Michelle Gatting, Sarah Bovy and Rahel Frey took an emotional and tense first WEC win in the final ever LMGTE Am race.
Gatting brought the No.85 Porsche 911 RSR-19 home just ahead of the D'Station Aston Martin after resisting late race pressure. Gatting and teammates Sarah Bovy and Rahel Frey made history by becoming the first all-female squad to win an FIA World Endurance Championship race. The victory ensured that they also took second position in the final LMGTE Am standings behind champions Corvette Racing.
The battle for the win came down to a dramatic final stint as the D'Station Aston closed to within 1.2 seconds of the Iron Dames Porsche at one stage. However, Gatting dug deep and was able to first stabilize the gap and extend it to take the checkered flag and trigger wild scenes of celebration.
"Today finally we got what we've been fighting for the whole year!" 🩷
— FIA World Endurance Championship (@FIAWEC) November 4, 2023
Yes you did @IronDames_ and we love to see it! #WEC #8HBahrain pic.twitter.com/nl03alPIKH
D'Station's crew of Tomonobu Fuji, Casper Stevenson and Satoshi Hoshino stand-in Liam Talbot cemented their best result of the season as they finished ahead of the Northwest AMR Aston Martin driven by Alex Riberas, Ian James and Daniel Mancinelli.
ORT by TF Sort were set to make it three Aston Martin Vantages in the top four but a problem with less than 30 minutes remaining promoted the No.77 Dempsey Proton Porsche to fourth position. That meant Christian Ried bowed out of his 11 year career as an ever-present WEC driver with a strong points finish.
In the overall LMGTE Am standings, it's Corvette Racing which ended the season with a total of 173 points, 55 points ahead of the Iron Dames. The No, 54 AF Corse Ferrari crew ends the year third overall with 91 points.
The 2024 FIA WEC season will resume in February next year for the season-opening Prologue and round one in Doha, Qatar.
