Katherine Legge will join the all-female line up of #85 Iron Lynx LM GTE Am car in the FIA World Endurance Championship, replacing Michelle Gatting.
The 40-year-old British racer will share the Ferrari 488 GTE with previously confirmed Manuela Gostner and Rahel Frey for the full 2021 WEC season including the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
The change in driver line-up for the Iron Lynx team has come after a shuffle around with drivers in other series and two new additions to the Iron Dames program: Esmee Hawkey, who will be racing with Gatting and Frey in the European Le Mans Series, and Doriane Pin, one of the four finalists of the Girls on Track Rising Stars competition, who will race in the Michelin Le Mans Cup alongside Goster.
“We are extremely happy that Doriane and Esmee are joining us.” said Deborah Mayer, project leader of the Iron Dames. “In Iron Lynx, they will be surrounded by a group of amazing and very experienced drivers which are sure to help them integrate and develop further within the GT environment. We are convinced that they can do a great job and I wish all of our drivers good luck for the season.”
Legge returns to racing this year after recovering from breaking both legs and an arm sustained during an ELMS test last season. The Brit was due to share the #50 Richard Mille Racing LMP2 car with Sophia Floersch and Tatiana Calderon, but was replaced by Beitske Visser when she could not continue to race. Visser also raced in place of Legge for the 2020 24 Hours of Le Mans which was supposed to be Legge’s maiden voyage at the Circuit de la Sarthe for the blue-ribband event.
Having sat out of 2020, Legge was back on track earlier this year for the Rolex 24 at Daytona with Hardpoint EBM Porsche. The team finished P10 in the GTD class. Along with her new WEC commitments, Legge will continue to race with Chrisina Nielson for Hardpoint EBM in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
Iron Lynx has two LM GTE Am cars entered into WEC this season, but despite the changes made to the #85, the sister car retains the line up of Claudio Schiavoni, Matteo Cressoni and Andrea Piccini in the #60. WEC returns at the start of May for the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, two weeks after ELMS’ first race of 2021 in Barcelona on 18 April.
