Credit: Iron Dames
The #85 Iron Dames Porsche 911 RSR GTE-Am crew are “still hungry” for their maiden World Endurance Championship victory, after finishing fourth at the 6 Hours of Fuji.
The female-driven team secured their fifth successive top-five finish at the penultimate round of the 2023 calendar, at Fuji Speedway.
Qualifying featured a close battle between Iron Dame Sarah Bovy, and Corvette Racing’s Ben Keating.
Eventually, it was the General Motors outfit who qualified on pole with a final flying lap of 1:33.338, narrowly beating Bovy’s pace of 1:33.373 which put them second on the grid.
After fighting with them during the opening stages of the race, and although the #33 Corvette C8.R served a drive-through penalty, the Iron Dames’ Porsche could not match the 30 extra minutes of fuel saving Keating had accomplished.
“We can be happy today with P4 and with everything we have done together,” said Bovy.
“Of course, the podium was very close, and we were hoping for it at some point.
“At the end we showed that the pink car was fighting at the front of the race, all race, like through all of the WEC season.
“For sure we will once more try to chase for that first victory in Bahrain which is a track that we like a lot.
“We will leave Fuji with a taste for a bit of redemption.”
(L to R) Sarah Bovy, Michelle Gatting, Rahel Frey – Credit: Iron Dames
With two pole positions this season – at Sebring and Monza – in addition to three second-placed qualifying performances, the team have yet to finish on the top step of a WEC GTE podium, but they did achieve the feat last year in the European Le Mans Series.
Rahel Frey added: “We can be quite happy with P4 in the end and with good points for the championship as we made the gap to P3 bigger.
“For sure we are still hungry for a win. We will try one more time in Bahrain.”
Michelle Gatting said: “We knew from last year that the Fuji race wouldn’t be the strongest one for the Porsche.
“Finishing P4 is a solid performance, and it means important points for the championship.
“We look forward to going to Bahrain and to end our season on a high.”
Their P4 finish moved the three drivers up to second place in the GTE-Am championship, with Corvette having already sealed the Teams’ championship at Monza, and will do so with the Drivers’ championship in Bahrain.
The 8 Hours of Bahrain will conclude the 2023 season – an endurance challenge with heat, humidity, and the desert dust pushing cars to the limit.
Reliability has been one of the strong points for the Iron Dames, and so Bahrain will require even more patience than the Fuji race.
It will mark their final chance this year to claim their first-ever WEC race victory, but will they be able to overcome the might of Corvette Racing, who do not seem to let their guard down as on-track rivals?
Keyword: Iron Dames ‘still hungry’ for maiden WEC win