AWA Racing’s Orey Fidani said a win in this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans would create the “perfect season” in his mind after the team won the Rolex 24 at Daytona in the GTD class in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in January.
Alongside full-season WestherTech Championship GTD co-driver Matt Bell, Michelin Endurance Cup driver Lars Kern, and Marvin Kirchhöfer, who joined AWA in Daytona, Fidani won the 24-hour Florida enduro with the Canadian-based team.
The team received an auto-invite to join the Le Mans grid this year after Fidani received IMSA’s Bob Akin Award for Bronze-rated drivers in 2024.
Next week’s twice-around-the-clock classic will be the team, Fidani and Kern’s Le Mans debuts.
When asked what an LMGT3 class victory in the team’s one-off No. 13 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R would mean for he and the team, Fidani told Sportscar365: “In combination with the Daytona win this year, that would be, for me, a pretty perfect season regarding everything else left go. That would be pretty awesome.”
He added: “It’s our first time here, so we’re just working hard and trying to aim for a good result, but most importantly, just having fun.
“To tell you the honest truth, I approach everything the same. I don’t overthink it, I just get in and go.
“I’m excited for a little bit of everything right now. I’m just soaking in everything that’s going on around me. I think to get out on track and start going is going to get me pretty excited.”
As the first Canadian team to compete in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in recent memory, AWA has wrapped its LMGT3 challenger in a special Canadian-inspired red livery, featuring red and white coloring with large maple leaves on the Corvette’s roof and hood.
“It’s super important,” Fidani said. “That [livery] was really, really big for us. I think as a Canadian team and a fellow Canadian, we want to leave our mark here.
“I am super happy to be able to fly a big Canadian flag out here and let the world see the car. I’m super happy about it.”
Bell: AWA Will Do “Everything They Can” For A Le Mans Win
Bell said he and AWA will do “everything they can” to achieve a positive Le Mans result in what is the team’s first overseas race outing.
Unlike his two teammates, the British driver will be making his third 24 Hours of Le Mans start next week after contesting the 2022 and 2024 editions of the race in the LMP2 class.
“Everybody comes racing to win, don’t they?” Bell told Sportscar365. “It’s the cliché everybody says, but we are here.
“It’s going to be a lot to learn. First time for most of the guys on the team. It’s my third Le Mans, so I’m trying to steer everybody in the right direction.
“There’s a good mix of experience and new people here, and we’re here to win. We’re not here to make up the numbers. We’ll do everything we can to achieve that goal.”
Despite this being the team’s and two of its drivers’ first time at the race, Bell said he remains “cautiously optimistic” about AWA’s chances of success next weekend.
“This is the team’s first trip on foreign soil,” he said. “We are at the pinnacle of our sport and the biggest race in the world.
“We started with the biggest win on home soil with Daytona. We learned a lot from that race. Le Mans is a very different kettle of fish, but we’re coming here cautiously optimistic that we should be competitive.
“I’m passing on as much experience as I can possibly can to both Orey and Lars.
“We’ve come in early, and we were prepared for this for a long time. We crossed the checkered flag in Road Atlanta [last year] and the planning started then.
“I made sure that we came and did a bit of a ‘reccy’ last year, and I got them to do the Road to Le Mans race themselves, so they’ve got a bit of experience on the track too with the Kessel Racing guys. I’ll be imparting as much knowledge as I can to try and help everybody on the team.”
