A few changes to the teams' line ups for the upcoming WEC double header in Bahrain will see Katherine Legge returning to Iron Dames after the season opener, as well as Sophia Floersch and Beitske Visser sharing driving duties at Richard Mille Racing following Calderon's Japanese commitments.
Earlier this February, top GT team Iron Lynx announced that Katherine Legge had joined their Iron Dames squad - the all-female program founded by Deborah Mayer and supported by the FIA Women In Motorsport commission. Iron Dames made their official on-track debut in 2019 and turned heads with an outstanding ELMS campaign with Manuela Gostner, Rahel Frey and Michelle Gatting behind the wheel.
The team continued its progress in 2020 and claimed its second top-10 at the 24 hours of Le Mans with the same line-up. Iron Lynx extended its presence in several GT championships around the globe and quickly became one of the benchmark teams in the sport, with growing support from Ferrari.
In 2021, Iron Dames moved up to the World Endurance Championship, announcing its line-ups for WEC, ELMS, Michelin Le Mans Cup, Ferrari Challenge. During the season, they also made appearances in GT World Challenge Europe - becoming the first all-female team to enter the series - and Italian GT. Iron Dames' presence included for the first time a car in Italian F4, with FDA member Maya Weug.
A series of line-up shuffles throughout the season initially brought back the original team of Gatting-Frey-Gostner to both WEC and ELMS, before the impressive new-entry Sarah Bovy was moved to the main team.
In her only appearance in the championship so far, Katherine Legge shared the Ferrari 488 GTE Evo with Gostner and Frey at Spa Francorchamps. In her second outing with Iron Dames, she partnered Sarah Bovy and Doriane Pin at the 1000km of Paul Ricard, third round of the GT World Challenge Europe season. They finished in sixth place in the ProAm class.
Legge, then, returned Stateside and was announced as part of Team Hardpoint in IMSA. A former Vice-Champion in the series, Legge had shared the Porsche 911 GT3 R with Christina Nielsen and drivers and co-owners Earl Bamber and Rob Ferriol at the 24H of Daytona. At Sebring, the team doubled up with an all female-team, which saw Legge and Nielsen being joined by former Indycar racer Bia Figueiredo.
Unfortunately the project was scaled down to one car for the rest of the season and Legge continued to partner Rob Ferriol - claiming eight Top-10 finishes in GTD.
With one round remaining - the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta scheduled for November 13, Legge will now be able to return behind the wheel of the black and pink Ferrari 488 GTE for the Bahrain double header that will round out the World Endurance Championship's season.
On 30th October and 6th November, the British driver will partner Rahel Frey and Sarah Bovy, while Michelle Gatting will race the European Le Mans Series finale this weekend (24th October) at Portimao, before heading to Mugello for the Ferrari Challenge World Finals (16-22 November) where she currently leads the standings.
In Bahrain, Iron Dames will not be the only team with changes in its line up: the other all female crew Richard Mille Racing will feature a 2-driver crew with Sophia Floersch and Beitske Visser alternating behind the wheel of the LMP2 prototype. Tatiana Calderon, in fact, is currently in Japan for the final round of the Super Formula championship - which clashes with the 6H of Bahrain.
Two Richard Mille Racing's drivers had previously shared driving duties at Monza, where Beitske Visser was unavailable due to her W Series commitments.