This June, Ben Keating and his squad Keating Motorsports will make history in the LMGTE-Am class by aligning the first Ford GT GTE that will be run by a privateer team after more than three years of the factory effort that is under care of Chip Ganassi Racing.
The Automobile Club de l’Ouest published the initial entry list for the 2019 24 Hours of Le Mans with 42 cars confirmed, and between them was the Keating Motorsports entry, which will put the Ford GT GTE for the first time in the LMGTE-Am class since the start of the program, and also the first since the introduction of the new regulation for the LMGTE spec.
Keating explained to Sportscar365 that the effort will be in fact a mix of staff from various fronts, as people from Riley Motorsports, Ford Performance and Chip Ganassi will be involved in this one-off effort. The driver lineup is the only thing that won’t change from what the team is used to, as Keating will share the cockpit with rising GT star and Stock Car Brasil champion Felipe Fraga and long-time partner and proven all-rounder Jeroen Bleekemolen.
Keating himself is going to the fifth different machine to Le Mans, having used an SRT Viper GTS-R GTE, an Oreca 03R LMP2, a Riley Mk. XXX LMP2 and a Ferrari 488 GTE. Felipe Fraga will be the fifth different driver to join Keating and Bleekemolen in France, with the previous drivers being Marc Miller, Marc Goossens, Ricky Taylor and Luca Stolz.
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