Ben Keating, a two time FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) title champion, will return to the endurance racing division for a one-off race at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Texas on September 1st, 2024. He’ll drive the No. 88 Ford Mustang GT3 alongside factory racer Dennis Olsen and Mikkel Pedersen.
COTA is Keating’s home track, according to a report from Motorsport. Keating owns a dealership group based in Austin, Texas, and operates a handful of Ford stores around the state. His No. 88 Mustang will be fielded by Proton Competition, which will compete as part of the LMGT3 division in Keating’s first outing in a regular-season WEC race since he left the series last year. Keating will take the wheel as the team’s bronze-rated driver, replacing Proton regular Giorgio Roda for the event.
Most recently, Keating raced under the Corvette Racing banner, where he drove for TF Sport. He explained that his decision to step away from fulltime competition was fueled by a desire to ratchet back his racing activities in 2024, allowing him to focus on the IMSA SportsCar Championship in North America.
Keating was unable to compete at Interlagos because his duties as a factory Ford driver pulled him to the IMSA GTD Pro race with Multimatic Motorsports at Mosport instead. Neel Jani and Julien Andlauer tag-teamed the No. 88 Ford Mustang GT3 in Brazil in his absence.
Proton recently ditched Porsche for Ford in the WEC, taking on a stable of Ford Mustang GT3 race cars for competition in the newly formed LMGT3 division. In fact, the Dark Horse-based race car has turned heads on the endurance racing scene, as several Ford-allied teams are ramping up their Mustang programs ahead of the 2025 racing season, making the vehicle a hot commodity.
We’ll have more on the Mustang GT3 soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for more Ford Mustang news and non-stop Ford news coverage.
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