GT racing around the world in 2023 remained a picture of health, with the final year for GTE in the ELMS and FIA WEC featuring strong fields, and the various GT3 and GT4 championships around the world continuing to attract huge grids.
Choosing a standout is so difficult, but one team did put together a season so strong it deserved this badge of honour. But we will get to that later on.
We start with the honourable mentions.
In Europe, AKKODIS ASP and Frikadelli Racing deserve real praise.
For Jerome Policand’s team, an overall GT World Challenge Europe title and a Endurance Cup title was hard fought.
Timur Boguslavskiy and Raffaele Marciello were superb all season long in the #88 Mercedes and along with Jules Gounon for the Endurance races secured wins at Brands Hatch, Paul Ricard, Misano, the Nürburgring, Hockenheim and Valencia.
ASP also finished second at the Spa 24 Hours, under 12 seconds off the race-winning ROWE BMW.
Next year the team will head for pastures new, competing with Lexus in the FIA WEC’s LMGT3 class, where the expectation is that it will compete for wins on the world stage rapidly after getting to grips with the RC F GT3.
Frikadelli Racing meanwhile, produced a historic performance at the Nürburgring 24 Hours. The fan-favourite German team, which made the bold switch to Ferrari from Porsche ahead of the 2023 NLS season, found out very quickly that it was the right call.
Despite the team’s programme being very limited in 2023 on the Nordschleife, with a single 296 GT3 it took on a slew of top GT teams from other manufacturers and stormed to victory in the Nürburgring 24 Hours.
The win will be remembered for decades to come. It delivered Ferrari the first victory in the event for a non-German brand in the GT3 era and added another significant result to its standout 2023 season, which of course featured an overall win at the Le Mans 24 Hours.
In the final GTE season, while Proton Competition won in the ELMS, and the Iron Dames claimed the final ever race win for the platform, one team clearly stood head and shoulders above the rest, and that was Corvette Racing.
The run that the Pratt Miller team went on to start the season, which saw it secure the FIA WEC GTE title with two races to spare, was truly remarkable. With the C8.R GTE on its final ride, wins at Sebring, Portimao and Le Mans all made for a fairytale story.
However, the form for Corvette’s IMSA GTD Pro programme prevented it from claiming the Team Of The Year title in DSC’s eyes, just two wins all season en route to third in the standings.
That’s in part because in Pro Vasser Sullivan produced such a stellar title-winning campaign with Jack Hawksworth and Ben Barnicoat. With two wins, seven podiums and only one finish outside the top four all season, the team proved there’s still life in the ageing RC F GT3.
On another year, that may have been enough to take this crown. But Paul Miller Racing‘s effort in the extraordinarily deep GTD field, DSC feels, deserves the most recognition.
En route to the class Drivers and Teams title, its full-season pairing of Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow won five races (including the Sebring 12 Hours), secured two further podium finishes and secured BMW the Manufacturers title too.
Quite an achievement for the Georgia-based outfit, DSC’s GT Team Of The Year in 2023.
AKKODIS ASP, Paul Miller Racing and Vasser Sullivan images courtesy of SRO and IMSA respectively
