After Austin, Sarah Bovy hopes for more rhythm for the Iron Dames in Fuji

The Iron Dames are not having their best period since the beginning of the summer. Between Sarah Bovy's accident at Watkins Glen in IMSA, the forfeit for the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps which followed, a water pump problem during the 6 Hours of São Paulo or even a series of clashes at the 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps in European Le Mans Series, the bad adventures continue for the trio formed by Sarah Bovy, Rahel Frey and Michelle Gatting, who nevertheless won the 4 Hours of Imola as a ray of summer sunshine (ELMS) early July.

Second on the starting grid of the Circuit of the Americas on September 1st for Lone Star Le Mans (WEC), the #3 Lamborghini Huracán GT85 was in contention for a podium finish in Austin before Rahel Frey and Rui Andrade crashed just over 3:30 to go. The driver of the #81 TF Sport Corvette was found guilty by race stewards of closing the door on the Swiss driver and was given a ten-second penalty during the race. Forced to return to her garage for repairs, Rahel Frey emerged in 17th position, four laps down. At the finish line, the Iron Dames had to settle for 13th place.

« This is not how we wanted to end this race, Sarah Bovy told us after the race. It's a shame because we maybe didn't have the pure pace to fight at the front during the whole race, but we had a good race overall. The collision with the Corvette was a bit weird, at the beginning we didn't really know what happened. The race direction analyzed it and they concluded that it was ultimately the Corvette's responsibility. It's a race that got away from us because of something that is not necessarily in our control, it's a shame. We'll try again at Fuji! »

« We must nevertheless acknowledge the fact that we have done a good job, adds the Belgian. Michelle did a double stint where she was very consistent and as fast as she could be with the car. Rahel also did a good job, on my side I managed to keep second position for the whole stint. Overall the drivers and the team did a good job. That's racing, sometimes you have to live with it. We're lucky to have a lot of races this season. Hopefully we'll get a bit more pace at Fuji. If we can start at the front and get a bit more pace that would be nice. »

See you on Sunday, September 15 for the 6 Hours of Fuji, the seventh and penultimate round of the 2024 FIA WEC season.

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