The Iron Dames have finally done it! At the 8h of Bahrain the all-female crew achieved the long-awaited first victory in the FIA World Endurance Championship, in the final act of the 2023 season and for the LMGTE AM Class.
Already last season, when they were armed with the Ferrari 488, Sarah Bovy, Michelle Gatting and Rahel Frey had reached the podium several times, but the success had vanished on several occasions for nothing and therefore the bitterness remained.
Switching to Porsche, the girls followed by the Iron Lynx team showed their character again, especially in the Qualifying where Bovy often achieved the Pole Position, which also happened to Sakhir with the usual very fast Bovy.
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
#85 Iron Dames Porsche 911 RSR – 19: Sarah Bovy, Michelle Gatting, Rahel Frey
“I really want to dedicate it to Deborah Mayer, for all the confidence and freedom of action she gives us: she is the reason why I am here. I am very happy to have won the last GTE Pole, which was extremely difficult”, he said the Belgian after the timed session on Friday.
“As in all the other categories, we also struggled with the choice of tyres, how to manage them, how to have sufficient performance, but at the same time not suffer an excessive decline. I have to thank our engineers and our team from the bottom of my heart. mechanics, who did an incredible job to give me a car that was really good and fast to get the good lap.”
“This is further proof that qualifying, despite being a personal performance, is a team effort. All the decisions we make together are the ones that will give us the final result.”
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
#85 Iron Dames Porsche 911 RSR – 19: Sarah Bovy, Michelle Gatting, Rahel Frey
In the desert the race began with the 911 #60 of their male companions taking the lead, but with 2h20′ to go the retirement of Matteo Cressoni and Alessio Picariello due to the indisposition of their colleague Claudio Schiavoni gave the leadership back to the Porsche rose.
It wasn’t a simple finish because Gatting had to manage the drop in tire performance on the difficult abrasive asphalt of Sakhir and behind her the Aston Martin #777 of D’Station Racing quickly made up for it, nibbling away 15″ in just a few turns.
The tension was also evident on the faces of the Bovy-Frey duo, in the pits with very tense faces while their partner gritted her teeth in keeping the Vantage behind her until the finish line, achieving after many attempts that success which smacks of liberation and consecration, welcomed among hugs, screams and tears of emotion for the hard work done in recent years.
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
Podium: GTE Class Winners #85 Iron Dames Porsche 911 RSR – 19: Sarah Bovy, Michelle Gatting, Rahel Frey, Second Place #777 D’Station Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR: Liam Talbot, Casper Stevenson, Tomonobu Fujii, Third Place #98 Northwest AMR Aston Martin Vantage AMR: Ian James, Alex Riberas, Daniel Mancinelli
“The race was definitely focused on tire management and I think we did that quite well. We anticipated the race conditions, the fact that we would be going at night and tried to make the most of them for the finale,” adds Bovy.
“In my stint, since I was also at the start, we didn’t know what to expect with those temperatures, but in the end the pace was there. I think the whole crew did a good job and I’m very proud of everyone. We worked hard for this result and it has finally arrived: our first victory in the FIA WEC. The wait has been long, but we are all very happy.”
Frey echoes this: “I think the entire GTE Class put on a show today and that’s what we all want to see, so I thank all our rivals for keeping us busy and keeping the pressure up. I think today we have proved that we don’t crumble easily under pressure.”
“Getting this victory after five years is really exciting and we will use it as a launching pad hoping to be on the starting grid in 2024. Our goal is always to make the team stronger. Seeing that we are capable of winning with the Iron Dames at the highest level of GT racing makes me very proud.”
“I also hope that this experience will be seen by the new generations. We have young girls coming up, it’s a project that I’m very involved in and that I’m proud of. However, I’m still a rider, I love competing and I want to continue doing so fighting for more victories “.
Gatting instead explains the final part, which was certainly not simple: “The last stint was stressful for me inside the car, but in the end the indications I received from our engineer helped me keep calm. At a certain point I saw that the Aston Martin #777 was very close. I pushed a little harder to increase the gap and in the end, with the traffic, I managed to increase it, feeling quite in control.”
“To be honest, I enjoyed the last lap with this car. It was a real pleasure to have the opportunity to drive the Porsche this year. To finally get this victory is something we have wanted for a long time and it is very exciting for everyone us. That’s exactly what we want: to show that we can compete on exactly the same conditions as everyone else and that we are here to win races.”
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
#85 Iron Dames Porsche 911 RSR – 19: Sarah Bovy, Michelle Gatting, Rahel Frey
The program manager, Deborah Mayer, beamed: “What an incredible day for the Iron Dames! It is difficult to express so much joy and emotion in words. This first victory in the FIA WEC is a very special moment for me, because it gives full reason to the project itself and to the passion, dedication, hard work of all the people in the team, both on the track and behind the scenes. I would like to pay tribute to each of them, it’s a historic moment too.”
“It’s a world championship win, but it also runs in the family. The Iron Dames project was founded with the belief that women could excel in a perceived masculine world of motorsport, and we are incredibly proud of Sarah’s achievements , Rahel and Michelle”.
“Since their debut as Iron Dames, they have shown remarkable determination, team spirit and desire to never give up; this victory rewards them. They are proving that dreams have no barriers if you give yourself the means to achieve them. May this day may it inspire other women around the world to never give up what they believe in.”
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