Monk Targeting Full-Season With Myers Riley; Le Mans Goal

Photo: Mike Levitt/IMSA

Sheena Monk said she’s aiming to put together a full season IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship program in Myers Riley Motorsports’ Ford Mustang GT3 EVO, with the goal of making a run for the Bob Akin Trophy and auto-invite to the 2027 Le Mans 24 Hours that comes with winning the Bronze Cup.

Monk has so far been confirmed for the Michelin Endurance Cup races in the newly assembled GTD class program that will see Felipe Fraga in for the full season and Ford Racing Junior Team driver Jenson Altzman tabbed for the five long-distance races as well.

Ex-Formula 1 and IndyCar driver Romain Grosjean will complete the team’s lineup for January’s season-opening Rolex 24 at Daytona.

“Right now it’s just the Endurance Cup [for me] but we’re aiming to do the full season,” Monk told Sportscar365 at last weekend’s IMSA-sanctioned test at Daytona International Speedway.

“Bill [Riley] wants to get back to Le Mans.

“For him personally, there’s a family connection there and a lot of pride for Bill to get a Ford to Le Mans and for Mr. Myers as well with the 3 Dog Garage; he’s got an extensive collection with a lot of heritage in racing. He’s also got his sights set on Le Mans too.

“Frankly that’s been my goal for the last few years now too. It’s really refreshing, actually, to have people that are really focused on the same things as me.”

Monk, who was due to contest a full WeatherTech Championship campaign this year in a Triarsi Competizione’s Ferrari 296 GT3, parted ways with the Florida-based team prior to the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen and has been on the sidelines since.

She said the deal to join the Bill Riley-eld operation came together “quite late” and full details are still being worked out.

“We’re seeing how things are coming together,” she said. “[A full season drive] hasn’t even necessarily been much of a discussion to this point.

“Everybody’s on the same page, same goal. I think we’re just taking it one step at a time.

“Things came together quite late and quite unexpected. I think it’s just ‘Let’s get over the first few hurdles and get something down on paper first and then kind of take it from there.'”

The Bronze-rated driver said competing in the French endurance classic has been her ultimate dream and is hopeful that the pieces could fall into place with this effort.

Monk said: “I take the position that if you’re in sports car racing and you don’t have your sights set on Le Mans, what are you even doing?

“Everybody here in this paddock should want to go to Le Mans.

“For me, it’s kind of a no-brainer, right? That’s the pinnacle of what we do here. Obviously we have a lot of marquee races in IMSA as well but I think the pinnacle for all of us is to go race Le Mans.”

Should Monk’s full season presence be confirmed, she would join fellow Bronze-rated drivers including Brendan Iribe (Inception Racing), Henrik Hedman (DragonSpeed) and two-time and reigning winner Orey Fidani (AWA/13 Autosport) as drivers vying for the Akin Trophy next year.

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John