Метка: Ben Keating

Keating returns to WEC with Proton Ford squad for Austin

Опубликовано от ASPPA IMAGES ANO


Two-time World Endurance Championship title winner Ben Keating will make a return to the series for his home race in Austin next month.

Keating will join up with the Proton Competition Ford squad in LMGT3 at the Circuit of the Americas on 1 September for his first appearance in a regular WEC race since leaving the series, in the wake of winning his second GTE Am title last year.

The 52-year-old American will race the #88 Ford Mustang GT3 together with factory driver Dennis Olsen and Mikkel Pedersen.

He takes the seat for the mandatory bronze-rated driver in a LMGT3 line-up filled for the first four races by Giorgio Roda and then team boss Christian Ried last time out at Interlagos in July.

The winner of the GTE Am title with the Corvette Racing and the TF Sport Aston Martin squads in 2022 and ’23 respectively opted not to chase a hat-trick of GT titles in WEC this year in the first season of LMGT3.

He told Motorsport.com last September that he wanted to scale down his racing activities in 2024 and focus on a single programme in the IMSA SportsCar Championship in North America.

#33 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C8.R: Ben Keating

#33 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C8.R: Ben Keating

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Keating explained that time constraints when the WEC calendar was expanding by one race were behind his decision.

But he is coming back to the WEC, a series in which he competed from the 2019-20 campaign, for his local race in what is expected to be a one-off.

Keating’s dealership group is based in Texas and includes multiple Ford outlets around the state.

An appearance at the Le Mans 24 Hours WEC round in June was part of his programme with United Autosports in LMP2 in IMSA, in which he is seeking a third title after his 2021 and ’22 triumphs with the PR1/Mathiasen squad.

The only other change to the WEC entry for Austin, released on Wednesday, is the return of Harry Tincknell to Proton’s Hypercar class Porsche 963 LMDh.

The Briton missed Interlagos because as a Ford factory driver his IMSA GT Daytona Pro campaign with the Multimatic Motorsports squad took precedence and he contested the Canadian round of the North American series at Mosport instead.

#64 Ford Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang GT3: Harry Tincknell, Mike Rockenfeller

#64 Ford Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang GT3: Harry Tincknell, Mike Rockenfeller

Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images

Neel Jani and Julien Andlauer raced the car as a duo in Brazil.

Track action for the Lone Star Le Mans WEC round in Austin kicks off at 12:40 local time on 30 August.

Read Also:



Source link

Bronze-rated Keating not interested in racing ‘scary’ LMDh cars again

Опубликовано от ASPPA IMAGES ANO


Gentleman driver Ben Keating says he is not interested in racing an LMDh car again after being left “scared” by his first experience at the Daytona 24 Hours this year.

Keating joined JDC-Miller in the flagship GTP class for the opening round of the IMSA SportsCar Championship, piloting a customer Porsche 963 LMDh alongside Richard Westbrook, Phil Hanson and Tijmen van der Helm to sixth overall.

The 963 was the latest car that Keating has driven in an illustrious racing career that has seen him try out a wide variety of machinery on both sides of the Atlantic. He is known for trying nine different cars in the last 10 years at the Le Mans 24 Hours, a race where he has two class victories to his name.

But the 52-year-old has ruled out another appearance in the top prototype category in either IMSA or the World Endurance Championship, with his Daytona appearance showing him why LMDh vehicles are best left for professional racers.

“I did it in January at Daytona, I drove the Porsche LMDh. I’m glad I checked that box, but I really did not enjoy the experience,” he told Motorsport.com at Le Mans where he raced United Autosport’s ORECA-Gibson 07 in LMP2.

“I enjoy pushing my limits, I enjoy feeling like okay the car is capable of much more than I am and I can really push the limits of myself in a race car.

“And the LMDh car, pff! I felt like I’m scared. Every corner, every brake zone.

“Because the cars are heavier than LMP2, because the tyre does not have as much grip as LMP2, it’s brake-by-wire so I don’t have a good feeling for what is going on with the brakes.

“My only job as a bronze driver driving the LMDh is to not wreck. No one is expecting me to be as fast as all the other people, so I feel like my only job is to not wreck.

#23 United Autosports Oreca 07 Gibson: Ben Keating

#23 United Autosports Oreca 07 Gibson: Ben Keating

Photo by: Nikolaz Godet

“And I would say that in an LMDh car that is a hard job, it’s hard not to wreck that car.

“I watch all the Hypercar drivers spinning in qualifying [at Le Mans]. I know what that’s like. Those are really good drivers, but that car is really hard to drive.

“I checked that box, I don’t need to do that again.”

Keating is now a veteran of 14 Daytona 24 appearances, and on eight of those occasions he was entered in two different categories simultaneously.

This year, for instance, he drove an ORECA in the LMP2 class for United Autosports alongside his JDC-Miller duties with the Porsche 963.

But while he is not interested in returning to the GTP class again, he has not ruled out taking part in two classes simultaneously again.

“I may double duty but probably not in a hypercar,” he said.

This would likely involve combining his LMP2 programme with an appearance in the GTD class reserved for Pro/Am crews. Keating last raced a GT3 car at Daytona in 2021, when he joined TF Sport in an Aston Martin Vantage as an extension of his full-season programme in WEC with the British outfit.

“I did that several years ago, in 2021,” he said. “The problem is it requires about 10 hours of driving which is a lot.”

Read Also:



Source link