Michelle Gatting, Sarah Bovy and Doriane Pin will join the GT World Challenge field for the Iron Dames' second participation in the series at the next Barcelona Festival de la Velocidad - in a weekend dedicated to Maria de Villota.
Iron Dames' busy season is set to continue with the all-female team founded by Deborah Mayer and run by GT powerhouse Iron Lynx returning to the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS for the final round of the 2021 season.
The Italian team, which is currently leading both the Teams and Drivers Endurance Cup standings with the #51 Ferrari - having won the latest 24 Hours of Spa - will again line up the #83 Ferrari 488 GT3 for the all-female squad, 5 months after their debut in the series at the 1000km of Paul Ricard. In the South of France, Sarah Bovy, Doriane Pin and Katherine Legge claimed sixth place in the ProAm Cup.
Bovy and Pin were initially paired in the team's Michelin Le Mans Cup line up, before Bovy was moved to both the WEC and ELMS teams. They will now race alongside Danish ace Michelle Gatting, who is part of the Iron Dames early line up and has been racing in ELMS, WEC and Ferrari Challenge in 2021, as well as part of the trio that brought home the third top-10 in a row at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
"Barcelona is the final round of the championship, and we are quietly confident since our wins there in April in both the European Le Mans Series and Michelin Le Mans Cup." - said Team Principal Giacomo Piccini.
"We have a superb line-up of drivers in our Pro Cup cars chasing the championship, and a new mix of female drivers in the Iron Dames Pro-Am car too. We are looking forward to the challenge and making it count in the three-hour race on Sunday”.
The three hour race will take place at Circuit Montmelo, Barcelona, on 9-10th October and will be the second time an all-female team has entered a round in GT World Challenge Europe.
The championship has previously seen female entries: the first was Claudia Hürtgen, who entered the 2011 24H of Spa. Michela Cerruti has the most starts (11), while Rahel Frey - now also part of the Iron Dames project - contested a full season in 2013. Simona De Silvestro also had a one-off appearance last year at Nürburgring, with Christina Nielsen, Angelique Detavernier, Stéphane Kox, Abbie Eaton and Caitlin Wood all taking the start of at least one round.
Sarah Bovy, 32 year old from Belgium, joined the Iron Dames project in April but quickly impressed in both her ELMS and WEC rookie appearances; at 17, Doriane Pin is the youngest of the trio but the Frenchwoman already has several podiums to her name in her first le Mans Cup season, while the Barcelona round will be Michelle Gatting's debut in GT World Challenge.
The race will be part of the Festival de la Velocidad de Barcelona, a car show and public event dedicated to Maria de Villota.
The late Spanish driver was arguably one of the most inspiring and influential women in motorsport in the last decade and her legacy continues with the charity foundation in her name.
The Iron Dames participation is thus a fitting addition to the grid, as they will push to the limit also to honor Maria's memory.