Ben Keating expected to be a spectator this weekend for the FIA World Endurance Championship race at his home track. Living only an hour and a half from Circuit of The Americas and having a free weekend, the reigning WEC GTE champ and IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship LMP2 racer wouldn’t miss a chance to hang out with friends that he doesn’t get to see much of now that he’s not racing in the series full time. But then Proton Competition’s Christian Ried gave the Texan an offer he couldn’t refuse.
“I was expecting to come as a spectator to harass all of my friends from the World Endurance Championship,” Keating said. “I was delighted that it happened to be on a weekend that I did not have anything else going on, so I was planning to be here anyway. Christian Ried, who I competed against for the last four years, is also a good friend. He called me and asked if I wanted to compete in the race, and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. It’s it’s fun to be back in the series with these people. It’s fun to be back at this particular track. I haven’t raced here since 2019, but I’ve had a lot of a lot of success here.”
So, Keating is racing the No. 88 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3 at the Lone Star Le Mans weekend with Mikkel Pedersen and Dennis Olsen. Which is probably just as well, because racers don’t make very good spectators anyway. And the Ford is a good fit for Keating.
“When Christian called and said, ‘Hey, do you want to drive the Mustang?’ It was exciting. It’s awesome. I have four Ford dealerships in Texas. I’m a third generation Ford dealer. Because of my experience in the Ford GT at Le Mans in 2019 I have a lot of relationships, people who are still around in Ford Performance racing,” he said.
“And, it’s fun to to be able to come back and compete again. It’s one level just to come back and see everybody and be a part of the family; it’s another thing to really be back in the seat and and compete.”
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When Keating talks about being part of the family, he means it. Having competed in WEC and IMSA with several different teams, he’s made a lot of friends over the years. And while he competed in LMP2 at Le Mans, Le Mans is a a different atmosphere than a normal WEC race.
“I really love the people of this series. I love the family that this series is,” he said. “I was super excited to come back. Whether it’s whether it’s TF Sport that I raced with for two years, or United [Autosports] that I’m teamed with this year in IMSA, Proton… there are so many different relationships. I have really good, solid relationships that I have in this paddock through the years so I’m hugging all the pit officials and stewards and all of that stuff. It’s just awesome.”
For his first outing in the Mustang GT3, the first time in a GT3 car in a while, and it being a year since he raced any kind of GT car, Keating says that he has pretty low expectations of himself this weekend. That’s despite his past success in the series, and he recognizes that others may have more confidence in him. But he’s at COTA, and he’s going racing, which is enough.
“I’m just happy to be here,” he said. “Even if I’m running in the middle of the pack, there’ll be people to race with, and I’ll have a good time.”