Freiberg & Rdest become first all-female GS line-up
Freiberg and Rdest's #50 car in Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge qualifying yesterday.
Qualifying is complete at Daytona International Speedway ahead of the BMW Endurance Challenge. In the Grand Sport class of the IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge, 28 cars will compete in the GS-class with one in particular standing out.
Ashley Freiberg (USA) and Gosia Rdest (Poland) will become the first ever Grand Sport-class all-female driver line-up, and only the third in IMSA competition history, driving the all-new Audi R8 LMS GT4 at Daytona.
The pair, competing for RHC-GMG Racing, qualified in 11th, with Freiberg setting a time of 1:56.723, 1.6 seconds behind the Porsche Cayman of pole sitters Dillon Machavern and Spencer Pumpelly.
Both drivers bring experience to the table. Freiberg come into the event with happy memories of Daytona, where she became the first female winner of an overall race at the circuit as well as in the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge. Rdest, a competitor in the Audi Sport TT Cup for three seasons between 2015 and 2017, comes into the event on good form having won the GT4 class at the Dubai 24-hours two weeks ago.
Women in motorsport enjoyed a good end to 2017 on track but a tough one off it, with Carmen Jorda’s appointment to the FIA Women in Motorsport Commission disappointing competitive female drivers, the news of an all female driver line-up is a very positive start to 2018 and a good step towards drawing a younger female audience towards motorsport and inspiring more females to find a way into the sport.
The 4-hour Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge race starts at 6pm UK time today (Friday 26th January), and will be live-streamed on IMSA.TV.