Rising through the field

The #85 Iron Dames Porsche started the penultimate ALMS race of the season from 17th. Célia Martin found a path through the Lap 1 chaos to move into 15th before red flags waved at the end of the first tour. With three hours left on the clock, the race got back underway and Célia made the most of two further Safety Car restarts to claim more positions up to 12th.

A spectacular move around the outside of turns 10, 11 and 12 secured 11th and at the halfway mark, Sarah Bovy began her stint. After the other pitstops had played out, the #85 was up to an excellent fifth. For the duration of Sarah’s stint, she battled with the ultra-competitive GT contingent on the fringes of the top five. With just under an hour to go, Michelle Gatting got behind the wheel and managed to snatch seventh in the closing stages.

Célia also got the season finale underway on Sunday starting from 22nd, jumping up to 19th before another early red flag. With the race restarted, she held her nerve and the position for the duration of a long second stint.

When Sarah took over, she reemerged in 20th but made steady progress through her stint while others pitted. Michelle completed the final stint and had risen to 13th by the time the final chequered flag of the ALMS season waved.

RESULTS

ROUND 5

Michelle, Sarah & Célia: 7th (GT)

ROUND 6

Michelle, Sarah & Célia: 13th (GT)

MICHELLE GATTING

“So, that’s ALMS done with the last two races here in Abu Dhabi. We got seventh yesterday and 13th today so a difficult weekend - we were working hard to find a good setup for the races which we felt we did. In the end I think we were lacking some pace compared to the other cars which was tough, but I think we’ve all taken a lot of learnings away from this. Célia is gaining more and more experience. This is one of the toughest GT championships so we’re learning the hard way, but hopefully when we race in Qatar in two weeks the result will be better.”