More Of The Same
The Iron Dames' miserable WEC season didn't get any better at Circuit of the Americas.
Austin, Texas—The Heart of Racing No. 27 Aston Martin's Lone Star Le Mans win--the team's first in the World Endurance Championship (WEC) --offered a new twist in the inaugural LMGT3 season.
But much of the rest of the 6-hour endurance event at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) Sept. 1 felt all too familiar.
Manthey ended the race looking back at most of the field.
The No. 92 Manthey PureRxing Porsche 911 GT3R squad solidified its spot atop the LMGT3 standings with a strong second-place run.
The No. 91 Porsche, meanwhile, rallied from a surprisingly poor 16h place qualifying run to end up third, tightening its grip on second place in the full-season table in the process.
Then there was Iron Dames, which once again found itself on an undesirable path linking a promising start to a disappointing result.
Sarah Bovy, who won two of the season's first five pole positions, did what she often does--set the team up with a strong qualifying run. The No. 85 Lamborghini Huracan started second behind the No. 27 Aston Martin Vantage.
After keeping the car in the top three and pressuring leader Ian James in the No. 27 for the better part of an hour, Bovy handed off to Rahel Frey. Soon, Frey was battling Rui Andrade in the No. 81 TF Sport Corvette for second.
The Lamborghini was no match for the Corvette on COTA's fast sections. But the slow corners were another story.
With a bit more than 3 hours 30 minutes left on the clock, Frey saw an opportunity as she followed the Corvette into turn 15.
“He left the door open and I went in,” Frey told On Motorsport in a brief paddock interview shortly after the incident. “There is a chance, I take it. It didn't work out. He didn't play well.”
The stewards took three hours to render their verdict, and it aligned with Frey's version of events.
Andrade left an opening and Frey took advantage, hugging the curb as she pulled alongside. Andrade, on the other hand, did not hold his outside line.
“The car 81 came back to his left and hit the car 85 on the rear causing a collision,” the official FIA decision read.
The indiscretion cost the Corvette 10 seconds, served on a subsequent pit stop.
For Iron Dames, the ramifications were far worse: a broken right rear suspension and a visit to the garage.
The Iron Dames crew got the Lamborghini back out in just 10 minutes. But even in a 6-hour race, that's enough to turn a podium chance into an extended test session.
“This is motorsport,” Frey said. “We have to take risks sometimes to make a move.”
The net result was a 13th place finish--both disappointing and familiar in what has been a difficult WEC season. After a strong 2023 campaign--second overall in the final year of LMGTE Am and their first ever win in the season finale--the team had high expectations for this season.
Six races in, the No. 85 has dropped out of as many races--two--as it as top fives.
A strong fourth-place finish at Le Mans has been the lone highlight. But even that came with some bitterness after the No. 85 led for long stretches but had to change brakes during a late pit stop, all but eliminating its shot at a podium finish.
“It's true that it's been a pile-up of difficult races in WEC,” Bovy told On Motorsport following the latest setback. “For sure, we are a bit disappointed. But we still believe that we can have pace, that we can [run] good races. We still have [Rounds 7 and 8 in] Fuji and Bahrain to show it.”
Their plan? Change outcomes, not approaches.
“We will keep our heads down, stay focused, work together, analyze what happened and try to do even better,” Bovy said.
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