Iron Dames in the WEC
Already in 2022 they managed to be the third best team in the LMGTE category, in addition to Porsche being the brand champion with its 911 GTE, so finishing among the best three was the goal of the pink team this year. And in fact they started strong, not only with good feelings in the tests but with pole position in the 1,000 Miles of Sebring against their rivals from Chevrolet, Ferrari and Aston Martin as well as the other Porsche teams. Unfortunately, a mistake during the 1,000 Miles of Sebring caused them to fall off the podium, finishing in eighth position in the category. Still, the pace shown during the race already showed that Bovy, Gatting and Frey could do great things against top-level drivers in LMGTE.
The expected first podium of the year came in the second race of the year, the 6 Hours of Portimao behind the official Corvette (the one that would end the year as champion) and the Ferrari AF Corse #83. In addition to the Iron Dames girls, in that Ferrari was another young female promise, Lilou Wadoux, who has been aiming high for several seasons both in GT and in other endurance categories.
The next test of the year was the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, traditionally the test that serves as a warm-up before Le Mans, being the event before the great French race. On the Belgian track Iron Dames finished in fifth position, a race where the AF Corse Ferrari won with the young Wadoux at the controls, being the first victory for a woman in the World Endurance Championship. The official Corvette would be second followed by the ORT by TF Aston Martin. At Le Mans the story was similar, with Iron Dames fighting for victory throughout the race but with Corvette emerging victorious ahead of TF’s Aston Martin and GR Racing’s Porsche, leaving Iron Dames’ Porsche in fourth position – so Steady Iron Dames became the ‘main’ team, achieving better results than the yellow Porsche Iron Lynx.
In the 6 Hours of Monza the girls once again scored the second pole position of the year in a weekend where the 911s had many joys in LMGTE. In the race, the Proton Racing Porsche #77, the Iron Lynx car and the other GR Racing achieved a hat trick for the German brand while the Iron Dames girls were fighting until the last lap against the Corvette, which managed to finish. the title with two races ahead – even then it was known that it would be the last season for LMGTE, with the GT3s replacing them for 2024. In Fuji they achieved a fourth place behind the Ferraris of AF Corse and Kessel as well as the Corvette, the only official car in the entire category – the rest are private teams, with more or less support from their respective manufacturers, as will be LMGT3 in 2024.
Sakhir would mark the end of the season with the Bahrain 8 Hours, in which the Iron Dames would give their all. They scored pole position and spent the entire race fighting against the Aston Martins and the Ferraris. A very tight race, especially against the D’Station Racing Aston, so tight that, after 8 hours, Frey, Gatting and Bovy achieved victory by just five and a half seconds over the #777. The girls achieved the last victory in GTE and the first 100% female victory in the World Endurance Championship. Furthermore, this victory made them runners-up in the LMGTE of the WEC, only behind Corvette.
With enough talent, women have been able to show that they can also fight for titles without the need for segregation. The sensational Michèle Mouton already demonstrated it in the World Rally Championship in the eighties, in the era of the brutal Group B in which she was on the verge of being world champion-if it weren’t for another giant of the discipline, the German Walter Röhrl. Iron Dames have set a path that has proven to be correct: running head-to-head. Wadoux has also done it within AF Corse, as well as other women in motorsport who are making their way.
