| Fitting News for International Women’s Day Team Adds Second Car for Co-Owners Ferriol, Bamber March 8, 2021 By Mark Robinson IMSA Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – In an announcement appropriate for International Women’s Day, Katherine Legge and Christina Nielsen were named Monday to complete the 2021 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season together in the No. 88 Team Hardpoint EBM Porsche 911 GT3R. Coinciding with that news is that the team is expanding to a two-car effort for the remainder of the season. Team co-owners Earl Bamber and Rob Ferriol, who co-drove the No. 88 Porsche in the Rolex 24 At Daytona in January, will drive in the remaining GT Daytona (GTD) class races in the No. 99 Porsche. Both Team Hardpoint EBM entries will compete in the 69th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts on March 20. For Legge and Nielsen, the announcement provides a homecoming to the WeatherTech Championship, where each has enjoyed success and teamed together in the past. Nielsen, the 29-year-old from Denmark, drove to the GTD championship in 2016 and ’17 as a member of the Scuderia Corsa team. She has four career IMSA wins. Legge, the 41-year-old Brit, also has four career victories and was runner-up for the 2018 GTD title while driving for Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian. The two women paired for the 2019 season driving for Heinricher Racing with Meyer Shank Racing. With support from sponsor Richard Mille, they’re together again at Team Hardpoint EBM. “I’m really excited to be joining Team Hardpoint EBM again, especially with Richard Mille as a partner,” Legge said. “I’m really proud to represent both Richard Mille and Team Hardpoint EBM and team with my friend Christina. I think we’ll be a force to be reckoned with. I’m very grateful to be given that opportunity and have to thank VB Enviro Care for helping us to get the program started at Daytona.” Nielsen became the first woman to win a major full-season professional sports car championship in North America with the 2016 GTD title. She’s eager to accomplish more in 2021. “I’m looking forward to what will be a different setup with Katherine and I joining forces in our own car and being teammates to Rob and Earl,” Nielsen said. “I’m grateful to the partners we have on board, especially Richard Mille, and to Team Hardpoint EBM and Porsche. I know we’ll have everyone working as a united effort to hopefully achieve some good results.” Ferriol and Bamber will co-drive the No. 99 Porsche with sponsorship from GridRival. After merging the resources of Team Hardpoint and Earl Bamber Motorsport in the offseason to form the alignment, they’re ready to take on the challenge of a two-car effort. “We couldn’t be happier to have Katherine and Christina back under the Team Hardpoint EBM banner,” Ferriol said. “The team really gelled at Daytona and they both fit in right away with our crew. We’re looking forward to the challenge of running two cars and representing Porsche and all of our partners throughout the 2021 season, beginning at Sebring.” WeatherTech Championship practice for the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts begins Thursday, March 18, with qualifying to set the grid Friday (streaming live on IMSA.com at 11:10 a.m. ET). The live race telecast begins at 10 a.m. Saturday, March 20 on NBCSN, switches to the NBC Sports App at noon and returns to NBCSN at 7 p.m. through the race conclusion. The entire telecast is available from start to finish on TrackPass on NBC Sports Gold. Tickets for the race weekend are available at sebringraceway.com. |
