Ben Keating is a man who often doesn’t race the same cars, two years in a row.
The 50-year-old American has decided to continue in the exact same Aston Martin Vantage GTE car, that he has raced with at TF Sport throughout the 2021 season.
His teammates are not quite ready yet, since Dylan Pereira will be updated to Gold-ranked driver in 2022. Since only one Gold or Platinum driver is allowed in the car, plus a Silver driver – other than Bronze ranked driver Keating. Felipe Fraga is the current Gold driver.
Keating first had his first go in a racecar in 2006, when he was gifted a driving course by his wife. He started to race, and had his first start at the Daytona 24 Hours in 2011 onboard a Porsche, and stuck to that model for a couple of years.
He entered an SRT Viper in 2014 – one of the brands that the car dealer has in his dealerships. That was the car for 2015 and 2016. He decided to switch to Mercedes in 2017 – one that he stuck to for the next three seasons in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
Other than the GTD category, he has flirted a little with LMP2, which is his current IMSA car – one where he currently leads the standings with Mikkel Jensen.
Photo: JJ Media
He has participated at the 24 Hours of Le Mans a total of seven times, and that has been with seven different cars. In the first year it was an SRT Viper, then an ORECA 03R LMP2, Riley MK-30 LMP2, Ferrari 488 GTE, Ford GT, Porsche 911 RSR, and Aston Martin Vantage GTE.
He has participated in the full FIA World Endurance Championship since 2019, with the first season being at Team Project 1 Porsche. That didn’t really fulfil his Championship goals championship wise. So he made a switch to TF Sport #33 for this year, and the team is still part of the Championship battle, with AF Corse Ferrari #83 being their competitor for that.
The announcement is the first of probably quite a few regarding Aston Martin and the FIA World Endurance Championship, for the upcoming season – but the other teams, cars and crews are not ready to be announced yet.
