By Canadian Press

Canada’s AWA Racing prepares for 24 Hours of Le Mans after automatic invitation

Nov 5, 2024 | 2:50 PM

Orey Fidani has a simple formula for preparing for an endurance car race.

He just drives.

Fidani is a driver for AWA Racing, an IMSA SportsCar Championship team that has qualified for next year’s edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Fidani has had the famed endurance race on his bucket list for years but his preparation will remain straightforward.

“I just push myself. I push myself and practice and test more, try to be in the car longer,” said Fidani. “Honestly, I just push myself. I don’t really do anything special to prepare myself, to tell you the honest truth.

“I just I love it and enjoy it. I get in the car and I push myself, and I try my hardest, and if it doesn’t go well, I try to take from that and when I come back next time, I try to learn from what I possibly didn’t do right, or what I did right and I go from there.”

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Fidani drove his car, a Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, to a 12th-place class finish in the 10-hour endurance race Motul Petit Le Mans on Oct. 12 at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. That earned Fidani the Bob Akin Award as the top-finishing Bronze driver in the Grand Touring Daytona class and an automatic invitation to the 2025 edition of Le Mans.

Reaching the famed French race, which forms the Triple Crown of Motorsport along with the Monaco Grand Prix and Indianapolis 500, was a goal for Fidani and team principal Andrew Wojteczko since the start of the season.

“At the beginning of the year, I just said, ‘Well, I’m going to go for this because it’s more attainable,'” said Fidani in a phone interview. “Especially our first year in the series in a GT car, with not too much experience in a full GT3 car.

“So I figured, ‘hey, let’s go for that.'”

Canadian drivers have a long history of competing in 24 Hours of Le Mans.

John Duff was the first-ever entrant when the 1923 inaugural race was still in its planning phases, and then won it the next year and remains the only Canadian champion.

Most recently, Toronto’s Antonio Serravalle drove for Italy’s Isotta Fraschini, Roman De Angelis of Windsor, Ont., piloted for Portugal’s Algarve Pro Racing, and Ottawa’s Zacharie Robichon was behind the wheel for Germany’s Proton Competition on June 15 and 16.

However, a team that has a principal, drivers, and mechanics all from Canada is exceedingly rare at Le Mans.

“That’s pretty cool in itself, to have a fully Canadian based team,” said Fidani, noting that the racing community in Canada is fairly small. “You can count on one hand how many real teams there are around, competing.

“It’s pretty damn cool to represent Canada as a whole, not just as a driver, but our whole team.”

Circuit de la Sarthe in Le Mans, France, will host the 24-hour race on June 14 and 15 of next year.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 5, 2024.

John Chidley-Hill, The Canadian Press