WEC wraps 2013 season in Bahrain, crowns champions

By Dec 2, 2013, 11:00 AM EST
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The FIA World Endurance Championship concluded its second full season this weekend in Bahrain, with some of the championships available decided.

The race first: Toyota dominated and was able to get its second overall win of the year, albeit this was the first under normal circumstances. An absolute deluge of rain at the scheduled Fuji race in October meant the race’s 16 total laps were run almost entirely behind the safety car, and only half points were awarded. Qualifying there made the entire difference as to who was classified as race winners.

Alas, on this Saturday in Bahrain, the No. 8 TS030 Hybrid (shown at Le Mans) took its first win of the year with drivers Anthony Davidson, Stephane Sarrazin and Sebastien Buemi. Retirements by both the sister Toyota, the No. 2 Audi of Tom Kristensen, Allan McNish and Loic Duval and the Rebellion Racing Lola Toyota promoted an LMP2 class car to the overall podium in the form of that class’ winners, G-Drive Racing. The No. 26 Oreca 03 Nissan scored its fourth win in the last five races with drivers Mike Conway, John Martin and Roman Rusinov.

AF Corse took the GTE Pro class win with Gianmaria Bruni and Toni Vilander in the No. 51 Ferrari F458 Italia, and Aston Martin Racing capped off a challenging year for its Danish No. 95 Vantage with a GTE Am class win for the trio of countrymen Christoffer Nygaard, Kristian Poulsen and Nicki Thiim.

Although they retired, the Kristensen/McNish/Duval trio had banked enough points throughout the rest of the eight-race season to win the World Driver’s Championship overall. After racing alongside fellow ex-Formula One shoe Giancarlo Fisichella the other seven races, Bruni was split from his Italian countryman for Bahrain in an effort to ensure one of them won the World Cup for GT Drivers. Bruni took home that honor while a retirement for the No. 97 Aston Martin pairing of Darren Turner and Stefan Mucke cost them a shot.

The trio of Bertrand Baguette, Martin Plowman and Ricardo Gonzalez secured the Trophy for LMP2 Drivers for OAK Racing after a solid, consistent season in their No. 35 OAK Racing Morgan Nissan that included the class win at Le Mans. Lastly Jamie Campbell-Walter and Stuart Hall wrapped up the Trophy for GTE Am Drivers in their No. 96 Aston Martin.

Audi (LMP) and Ferrari (GTE) took home the Manufacturer World Championships, while OAK No. 35 (LMP2), AF Corse No. 51 (GTE Pro) and 8Star Motorsports No. 81 (GTE Am) won FIA Endurance Trophies for teams.

And to answer your next question, no, not everyone who competed in the WEC this year took home a trophy. But there were many pieces of hardware to dole out.

Ford Mustang GT3 test has Austin Cindric dreaming of Daytona: ‘I want to drive that car’

By Mar 22, 2023, 2:30 PM EDT
Cindric Ford GT3 test
Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images
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Austin Cindric wasn’t the “mystery” test driver behind the wheel of the new Ford Mustang GT3 at Sebring International Raceway, but the Team Penske driver desperately wanted to be.

Ford CEO Jim Farley, an amateur sports car driver himself, made the big reveal via a Tuesday tweet that provided the first video evidence of the GT3 Mustang on track.

“I’ve watched the video in question about a million times,” Cindric said Wednesday during a Ford Performance Zoom news conference to promote NASCAR’s first road course weekend of the season at Circuit of the Americas. “Definitely exciting times for sure. I want to drive that car. It suits my experience level and also the relationships that I have.”

Ford will enter the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship next season with its GT3 Mustang, entering a two-car factory effort (that will be managed by Multimatic) in GTD Pro and making customer cars available in the GT Daytona category.

That increases the likelihood of seeing more NASCAR drivers crossing over to IMSA. Cindric has been the only full-time Cup driver in the Rolex 24 at Daytona the past two years, but Ford Performance global director Mark Rushbrook has said the GT3 Mustang will provide more opportunities.

Ford has used its GT4 Mustang as a NASCAR driver development tool in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge with Harrison Burton and Zane Smith combining to win the season opener at Daytona International Speedway in January.

“We’re excited about the Next Gen car and the new architecture there and the similarities between that car and GT3 and even GT4 cars,” Rushbrook said at the announcement of the Ford GT3 program in January 2022 at Daytona. “We think it’s a great opportunity and to do be able to do that in a 24-hour race and get NASCAR drivers even more time is something we need to consider taking advantage of that opportunity.”

Given his sports car background, Cindric probably still would be in the Rolex 24 regardless. He has eight IMSA starts since the 2017 season opener at Daytona, racing a Lexus RCF GT3 and Mercedes-AMG GT3 in the GT category. The 2022 Daytona 500 winner made his second LMP2 start this year with Rick Ware Racing.

But Cindric’s preference naturally would be in a Ford, particularly with sports car racing enjoying convergence and crossovers in both GT and prototype racing.

“It’s an exciting time in GT racing, just as it is now for prototype racing with a lot of new regulations and manufacturers building new GT3 cars,” he said. “And also the opportunity with WEC (the World Endurance Championship) and Le Mans and how that all lines up for that category of car. It’s definitely an exciting time. I want to be as much of a part of that as possible.”

Though those odds seemingly will increase with multiple Ford entries in the Rolex 24 field next year, Cindric said NASCAR drivers still have to put in the networking to land rides as he has in recent years.

“Now how (the GT3 Mustang) relates to specifically NASCAR drivers and how often they want to be in the Rolex, could it be an influence? Absolutely, as far as the tie-in with the manufacturer,” Cindric said. “But the challenge and the drive and the logistics of getting an opportunity for a race like the Rolex 24 will be just as challenging as it always is to find your one-off ride for the race. At least from my experience, that’s what I still anticipate.”

It turned out the “mystery” test driver wasn’t from NASCAR (Farley revealed the driver to be 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Joey Hand after a fan asked whether it was Joey Logano).

But Cindric believes there could be more Cup drivers — and perhaps himself — behind the wheel of Mustang GT3s in the future.

“There’s definitely more of a pathway than I think there would be before as far as Ford drivers are concerned,” he said. “Hopefully, I’ll get the opportunity to drive that thing. It’s obviously a great looking car. That’s the first box you’ve got to check. And it’s cool (to have) a guy like Jim Farley, no doubt he’s a racer just as much as he is steering the ship for Ford. It’s cool to see he’s just as excited as the rest of us about it.”