5-time Le Mans podium finisher Richard Westbrook has referred to as time on a profession through which he was a manufacturing unit 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 choice 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 total 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 yr left to run on his contract with the JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche GTP staff with which he has raced in IMSA this season.
“You may’t do it ceaselessly and sooner or later you need to be trustworthy with your self, say you’ve had a superb run and move on the baton,” Westbrook advised 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 automotive as I had been prior to now, and if that’s the case, you need to query whether or not try 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
Picture by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Photographs
“I’m proud of my profession and the way in which it has ended: I in all probability wasn’t going to realize much more and it has been my choice 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 Method 3 in 1996.
“I’ve to pinch myself generally what has occurred over the previous 20-odd years,” he defined. “All the pieces 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 top-of-the-line 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 at all times went right down to the wire – that’s one remorse I’ll at all times have.
“Once 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 may at all times rankle.”
Westbrook shaped a profitable partnership at Ford with Briscoe, however the title eluded them
Picture by: Richard Dole / Motorsport Photographs
He singled out his second-place total 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 Specific 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 total 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 every thing we may,” 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 Method 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 via for 1996.
He then stopped racing after a handful F3 races in Germany and Austria that yr and didn’t resume till coming again for a brief self-funded partial programme within the Supercup in 2002.