5-time Le Mans podium finisher Richard Westbrook has known as time on a profession wherein he was a manufacturing facility driver with Porsche, Common Motors, BMW, Aston Martin and Ford.
The 49-year-old Briton has introduced that final weekend’s Petit Le Mans IMSA SportsCar Championship finale at Highway Atlanta was his final race as knowledgeable driver.
Westbrook’s resolution to retire brings the curtain down on a profession that included back-to-back Porsche Supercup titles in 2006-07 and sophistication victories within the Sebring 12 Hours and Daytona 24 Hours enduros in 2013 and 2018 respectively.
In addition to third-place finishes general with Glickenhaus and Cadillac on the Le Mans 24 Hours in 2022 and ’23, he notched up a trio of sophistication podiums on the Circuit de la Sarthe with Porsche, Ford and Aston Martin.
Westbrook defined the time was proper to name time on his profession, regardless of having a 12 months left to run on his contract with the JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche GTP staff with which he has raced in IMSA this season.
“You’ll be able to’t do it without end and in some unspecified time in the future you need to be sincere with your self, say you’ve had a superb run and move on the baton,” Westbrook informed Motorsport.com.
“This was the primary season that I’ve felt like that: my performances have been nonetheless there, however the enjoyment issue had gone a bit. I wasn’t so enthusiastic about getting within the automobile as I had been up to now, and if that’s the case, you need to query whether or not you need to be doing it.
Petit Le Mans was Westbrook’s closing race as a professional as he bowed out within the JDC/Miller MotorSports Porsche 963
Photograph by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Photographs
“I’m pleased with my profession and the best way it has ended: I in all probability wasn’t going to realize much more and it has been my resolution to cease.”
Westbrook stated that his largest achievement was racing for 23 seasons after he began competing once more following six years of inactivity after his single-seater profession stalled in System 3 in 1996.
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“I’ve to pinch myself generally what has occurred over the previous 20-odd years,” he defined. “Every thing occurred so shortly: I went from doing nothing to driving for all these producers.”
Westbrook picked out his 4 seasons racing for Chip Ganassi Racing in IMSA in 2016-19 with the Ford GT within the GT Le Mans class as among the finest durations of his profession.
“That was a particular time for me,” stated Westbrook, whose common driving companion over the 4 years was Ryan Briscoe.
“We had a superb group of individuals and scored a number of wins, however sadly not the championship. We have been second twice and it all the time went right down to the wire – that’s one remorse I’ll all the time have.
“After I look again I believe I ought to have received extra, extra championships. There have been large wins in IMSA, like Daytona and Sebring, however by no means a championship – that can all the time rankle.”
Westbrook shaped a profitable partnership at Ford with Briscoe, however the title eluded them
Photograph by: Richard Dole / Motorsport Photographs
He singled out his second-place general end within the 2015 IMSA factors alongside Michael Valiante with the Spirit of Daytona staff when he was on the books of Chevrolet as one other remorse.
“We have been a small operation racing in opposition to large groups like Motion Categorical Racing and Wayne Taylor Racing and we got here inside three factors of the championship,” he stated.
Westbrook additionally picked the primary of his two Le Mans general podiums, notched up with Glickenhaus Racing, as one other spotlight.
“Jim [Glickenhaus, the marque founder] put his cash the place his mouth was and we achieved all the pieces we might,” stated Westbrook. “To face on the Le Mans podium with him was actually particular.”
The three Le Mans podiums at school got here in 2010 in GT2 with the Scuderia Italia Porsche staff and in 2016 and 2020 respectively with Ford and Aston Martin in GTE Professional.
He was additionally a race winner within the FIA GT1 World Championship with the JRM Nissan staff in 2010 and at school in FIA GTs with the Prospeed Porsche squad in 2008 and ’09.
Westbrook was a frontrunner within the System Opel Lotus Euroseries one-make single-seater championship in 1994-95, however a proposed F3 drive with the KMS-run Benetton Junior Group in Germany fell by way of for 1996.
He then stopped racing after a handful F3 races in Germany and Austria that 12 months and didn’t resume till coming again for a brief self-funded partial programme within the Supercup in 2002.
