The maple-leaf liveried 13 Autosport Corvette crew returns for more Le Mans action this year after winning its second Bob Akin Award in two consecutive IMSA seasons. The Canadian crew is looking to use what they learned in their first attempt to come back stronger this year.
While the team underwent an ownership change last October, when Orey Fidani took over from AWA (Andrew Wojteczko Autosport) and rebranded the team as 13 Autosport, their driver lineup and crew have remained the same.
“Nothing has changed, other than the ownership of the team, which I took over, but everything else is identically the same,” commented Fidani at scrutineering earlier this week.
“I think it’s very important. It makes it a lot easier. We all know each other very well, we all know what we have to do very well, and it just makes everything smoother.”
This team knows firsthand what it takes to win a 24-hour race from their win at the 2025 Rolex 24 At Daytona in GTD. Now that they are returning with a successful tenth-place class finish at La Sarthe under their belts, the #13 car’s goals have shifted accordingly.
“Obviously, every time you come back and do something for the second time, you’re always trying to move forward and do better than the last.
“We learned a lot last year, which I think we can put forward into this year, and hope for a better position. I mean, always going for the win, but hopefully better than top-ten, for sure.”
In the lead-up to Le Mans, the Canadian team tested for two days at Motorland Aragon in Spain, logging laps with the Goodyear tyres fitted to their Corvette. They once again came to terms with the tyre brand, which is wholly different from the Michelin tyres that GT cars run in IMSA.
“We ticked a lot of boxes, just understanding the tyre more,” said driver Lars Kern. “Le Mans is so unique and so special, so it’s really difficult for the engineering team to understand what really makes the car go faster out here. But we have full trust in our guys; they did a great job here last year.”
“[The engineers] always give us a race-winning car.”
In the LMGT3 category, each driver lineup must include a Bronze driver, unlike in their native IMSA GTD class, where it is optional. This difference in rules favours Fidani, who is accustomed to driving alongside all-professional lineups during his stints in the car.
Speaking to DSC at scrutineering, Kern was generally happy with the Goodyear and complimentary about Fidani’s performance in particular during the test.
“We’ve all been impressed by Orey’s performance last year around here. I think the Goodyear tyre suits him more than the usual tyre. The same applies to me, to be honest. I really like the Goodyear tyre, it works well for us.
“So if everything goes well, if we don’t make any mistakes, we could be right up there.”
Driving alongside Fidani and Kern is, as always, Matt Bell, three-time Le Mans entrant and podium finisher in LMP2 Pro/Am in 2022 with Nielsen Racing. Bell has more experience than his fellow drivers in this race and adds a lot of value once again in their sophomore effort.
“I think we’re going to really focus on Matt dialling in the car at the beginning [of the week],” said Kern.
“He has the most experience around here; he has the most experience with the Corvette in general. He always does a good job putting the car where it’s best.”
Bell placed the 13 Autosport Corvette in the top ten in both test sessions on Sunday, finishing Test Day’s Free Practice 2 fourth fastest in LMGT3, putting the team on the front foot coming into race week.
With four Chevrolet Corvette Z06 LMGT3.Rs in the fight at La Sarthe, the Corvette presence at Le Mans is felt in a big way this season. Being part of the GM family as a customer team comes with the significant benefit of data exchange between cars, which is especially helpful for the Canadian squad. With support from TF on the equipment side as well, 13 Autosport is in a very good position to find even further success this year.
“It’s an awesome customer racing setup. I mean, they’ve been better than anyone I’ve ever dealt with in terms of the cars I’ve driven throughout my career, and I’m just happy to be a part of that as well,” Fidani told DSC.
“We share a lot of data and information, which helps everybody out.”
As one of the few IMSA representatives on the entry list, the 13 Autosport squad is hoping to show well again this year for the North American series. Through the Bob Akin award, Fidani and the entire crew earned their spot on the grid thanks to their pace, especially their consistency during the 2025 IMSA season.
“It’s awesome to be out here representing the series. Pretty cool for me, and yeah, hopefully we can keep this train going, and I can keep coming out here for many years to do so,” said Fidani.
They sit just 10 points away from Brendan Iribe and the Inception Racing crew for the ticket to Le Mans as it stands after a DNF in Laguna Seca. Being at Le Mans this week and experiencing the payoff of last year’s accomplishment has reinforced their ambition to return for a third year in a row.
“I’m going to try my hardest. I mean, it’s pretty close now between us and the Inception car; we’ll see what we can do. I think we have a good shot at being back next year.”
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