Michelle Gatting looking forward to Texas challenge with Iron Dames
The Iron Dames Lamborghini Huracan has been at the sharp end of the LMGT3 grid for the first season of the new class in the FIA World Endurance Championship.
Two pole positions by Sarah Bovy in Belgium and Brazil have shown the speed in qualifying of the brightly liveried Lambo and the pace during the races has been good but technical issues have meant that the results in the first five races have not matched the teams’ expectations on track.
Bapco 8 Hours of Bahrain LMGTE winner Michelle Gatting sums up the season so far. “It's been a tough season; I would say a lot of frustration. I don't think we have to hide that at all.
“It's not really been going our way, to be honest. We knew it would be tough this year, but we saw a little bit of the podium in Sao Paulo. We were like, yeah, maybe we cannot win, but maybe we can go on the podium. Unfortunately, we couldn’t because the car decided to have a technical issue, which we couldn't do anything about. So, I would say this year has been frustrating.”
Looking ahead to the next race in the USA, with a return to the Circuit of The Americas for the WEC for the first time since 2020. So, has the Iron Dames driver visited the Texas circuit before? “We were lucky enough to go there last year to do two days of testing, which I think was very useful because it's a challenging track.”
“I think it's a bit of an old school track and then it's also kind of modern. It's very bumpy, so it's going to be physically exhausting. I think the heat is going to be a huge challenge there for everyone, and then the track itself is very physical. I'm looking forward to race there.”
Does Michelle Gatting have a favourite part of the circuit? “I don't know what they're called… all those esses in the middle. That's quite a challenge but fun, especially on a set of new tyres. It's always nice to go through there.”
The Lone Star Le Mans forms Round six of the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship and will take place at the Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas on Sunday 1 September.
