Sports car racer has WEC season championship and future Corvette ride in his sights.
- Bronze-rated, the 51-year-old Ben Keating and his TF Sport co-driver Marco Sorensen, a two-time pro GT champion in the WEC, enter the 8 Hours of Bahrain with a 20-point lead in the LM GTE AM class.
- On Sunday—the day after the WEC finale—Keating will get a first drive behind the wheel of a Corvette C8R GT3 to prepare for next year’s WEC season with Corvette Racing,
- “They’ve seen me perform well and I’ve been given this opportunity to move into position,” said Keating of his bid to become one of Corvette’s privateers in 2024.
At a time when others may be looking at a mid-life crisis, Ben Keating, the globe-trotting potentate among America’s gentleman drivers, is looking at a “car-tharsis” of racing and car-dealing success. His long-sought goals of winning a World Endurance Championship driver’s title and competing in a Corvette are within his grasp.
The wiry Texan’s relatively small size, penchant for fitness and success with car dealerships, which pays for his racing, are preludes to a dream weekend in Bahrain at the upcoming WEC season finale.
In the 8 Hours of Bahrain on Saturday, he aims to become the first American driver to win a title trophy since the WEC was resurrected in 2012, co-driving TF Sport’s Aston Martin. On Sunday—the day after the WEC finale—he’ll get a first drive behind the wheel of a Corvette C8R GT3 to prepare for next year’s WEC season with Corvette Racing, including a return to the Le Mans 24-hour, where he’ll be a defending class winner.
Ben Keating, co-driver Marco Sorensen and silver-rated racer Henrique Chaves will race for a WEC season championship on Saturday.
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“This year, we win the 24 Hours of Le Mans and I get to listen to “God Save the Queen”, the British national anthem, on the podium,” said Keating, one of the largest volume car dealers in the U.S. “I am excited about the idea that if I win a race in a Corvette we’re going to listen to the American national anthem.”
A low-key wheeler dealer, door No. 3 for Keating leads to a return to GT racing in America and IMSA in 2024. After more than two decades of factory-only entries, Corvette Racing will be offering a race version of the Corvette C8 Z06 GT3 to customers and it’s fair to say Keating stands first in line among privateers vying to get one to race in the GTD class of the IMSA WeatherTech Championship. Racing what he sells, Keating hopes to break through with Corvettes as he has done in the past when Keating Auto Group led the U.S. in sales of the Dodge Viper.
But first, the Bahrain race. Bronze-rated, the 51-year-old Keating and his TF Sport co-driver Marco Sorensen, a two-time pro GT champion in the WEC, enter the event with a 20-point lead in the LM GTE AM class. They’ll be joined by silver-rated driver Henrique Chaves and need to finish within two positions of their title rival, NorthWest AMR, to clinch the title.
“I feel pretty good about the race,” said Keating, whose idea of racing simulation is three-hour bike rides deep in the heart of East Texas at a sustained heart rate of 155. “The priority is not winning, just to troll the NorthWest car. If we can shadow them, we’ll be fine.”
Keating raced in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June.
James Moy PhotographyGetty Images
Winning the previous round at Fuji and leading the championship means Keating’s Aston Martin Vantage AMR will carry an additional 20 kilos compared to its championship rival, or just over 44 pounds. “I’m pretty small guy,” said Keating, who figures that his size levels the playing field when it comes to car weight versus NorthWest’s Aston Martin and its bronze driver, the taller and heavier Canadian Paul Dalla Lana.
Beyond Bahrain, Keating’s destiny looks to be a dream relationship with Corvette Racing, transitioning under the WEC rules for next year requiring all GT teams to race in the GTE AM class, which means one bronze-rated driver. Meanwhile, the new production Corvette GT3 will be undergoing a full year of testing before its racing introduction.
“They’ve seen me perform well and I’ve been given this opportunity to move into position,” said Keating of his bid to become one of Corvette’s privateers in 2024. “But they’re not in just in the business of selling race cars. They want the car on the track to perform well. For sure they’re going to sell some GT3 cars and they’re going to have customer racing programs. They want to place those cars with the best performing teams so they can do well.”
Keating tried to persuade Corvette to run a customer program previously. “They’ve always decided that they wanted to manage their racing program and that they didn’t want to compete with their customer,” he said. “Totally understand that, totally makes sense. Running a factory program is very different to a customer program. They didn’t want to allocate their resources to running a customer program.”
Racing a car that’s also on his showroom floors drives sales for Keating. “I do have a history of success of selling what I race,” he said of his experience with the Viper, the brand he initially raced in IMSA. “I wanted to race in the WEC. But the only options were Porsche, Ferrari and Aston Martin. I don’t sell any of those. So, I did one season in Porsche and two seasons in the Aston Martins. I am incredibly exited to get back into racing something I sell. It’s a huge piece of what I’m excited about with Corvette, because Corvette does have an outrageous number of fans, crazy fans.
“I already sell Corvettes to a lot of those fans who know me through racing,” he continued. “But those relationships are going to blossom now because I look forward to being interactive at all the Corvette corrals, the meet-and-greets and the Q-and-A’s. As a dealer, I can talk to those people differently than any other Corvette drivers.”
Keating expects to be in attendance at many of next year’s IMSA races, in addition to the doubleheader with the WEC at Sebring and at Le Mans. He can answer questions from car owners that involve the manufacturing side as well as questions from track test warriors in areas such as rear wings or brake fluid choices. He can also talk to older car owners who pursue high performance track test days about staying in shape and using a heart rate monitor.
An entire room at Keating’s house is dedicated to a SimCraft APEX 6 PRO simulator, but he believes that after three seasons in the WEC he is familiar enough with the tracks that a three-hour race simulation on his bike is more important. It enables him to best replicate the physical demands in a cockpit.
“All the time I’m racing in the car, my heart rate usually averages about 155 heartbeats per minute.
“All the time I’m racing in the car, my heart rate usually averages about 155 heartbeats per minute, which is not much for my younger co-drivers, who can handle that,” he said. “But for a 51-year-old that’s a lot. To me the biggest thing that is difficult for gentlemen drivers like myself is not only do you have to perform in that violent environment inside the car, you need to be able to do it for a long period of time and you need to continually be able to make good decisions and judgements while you’re doing it.”
If all goes according to plan in Bahrain’s eight-hour race, Keating will be able to stay within his heart rate range, not get worn out due to an ill-handling car or tire problem, which drives up his heart rate and trashes his endurance, and help his team hit the championship target. Then it’s on to racing Corvettes.
Keyword: How American Ben Keating Can Make WEC History at 8 Hours of Bahrain