Sportscar365’s Team of the Year

Sportscar365 is recognizing the top competitors and moments from the 2023 season. Next up is the Team of the Year award, as selected by website staff.

Team of the Year – Akkodis ASP

Jerome Policand’s Auto Sport Promotion team earned Sportscar365’s Team of the Year award in 2022 off the back of a stellar campaign that saw the team finally achieve victory in the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa.

For 2023, the team had its work cut out for it to repeat its successes considering its tweaked lineup, which saw Silver-rated Timur Boguslavskiy replace IMSA-bound Daniel Juncadella to team with Jules Gounon and Raffaele Marciello.

Challenging for championship honors in Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS’ fiercely competitive Pro category with a Silver driver was always going to be a very difficult task. But with two Endurance Cup victories at Paul Ricard and the Nürburgring, ASP successfully managed to defend both the drivers’ and teams’ titles.

The only thing missing from an accomplished Endurance Cup campaign was a second consecutive Spa victory as Marciello, Gounon and Boguslavskiy finished second only behind race winners ROWE Racing.

In Sprint Cup, Boguslavskiy and Marciello came close to ending Team WRT’s three-year stranglehold on the championship, only to lose out as the Tresor Orange 1 pairing of Ricardo Feller and Mattia Drudi swept the Zandvoort finale weekend to claim the title.

Outside of GTWC Europe, there was further success as ASP supported SunEnergy1 Racing’s victory bid in this year’s hotly contested edition of the Bathurst 12 Hour, while the team also gave the Mercedes-AMG GT2 its first race wins in the Fanatec GT2 European Series.

Policand’s powerhouse stable has long been rightly regarded as one of the absolute top teams in GT3 racing and it convincingly upheld that reputation in 2023. In 2024, it looks set to open a new chapter as it aligns itself with Lexus to step into the FIA World Endurance Championship’s LMGT3 category.

If the last several years have been anything to go by, ASP will be a difficult team to beat even at world championship level.

Honorable Mentions

***It’s not often a team wins two major championships in a single year, let alone in different disciplines. But that’s exactly what Riley achieved, having claimed the final LMP3 title in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship with Gar Robinson while also coming out top in the Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS Pro-Am ranks under the CrowdStrike by Riley banner with Colin Braun and George Kurtz at the wheel of a Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo. The Bill Riley-led organization also achieved a GTD class win in WeatherTech Championship competition with the Kellymoss with Riley operation.

***Team WRT closed out its LMP2 chapter in style by convincingly claiming the category’s final title in the FIA World Endurance Championship as the championship-winning trio of Rui Andrade, Robert Kubica and Louis Deletraz won three races and only finished off the podium in the Sebring season opener. There was GT3 success too, winning the Kyalami 9 Hour and Indianapolis 8 Hour as part of the Intercontinental GT Challenge. It also finally guided Valentino Rossi to race-winning success, most notably with an emotional home victory in the GTWC Europe Sprint Cup round at Misano.

***For Algarve Pro Racing, the year may have started with the narrowest of defeats in the Rolex 24 at Daytona, but the Stewart Cox-led squad went on to enjoy its most successful season to date with triumphs in with championship success in the European Le Mans Series and several race wins in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. To top it off, James Allen, Colin Braun and George Kurtz took the LMP2 Pro-Am class victory in the centenary edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

***Paul Miller Racing enjoyed a dominant campaign in the WeatherTech Championship GTD class, with Madison Snow and Bryan Sellers sealing a well-earned title with a race to spare. An early highlight saw the team overcome late-race brake issues to take a hard-fought class win at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, while further wins came at Long Beach, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, Road America and VIR. Look out for Snow and Sellers as the team steps up to challenge for the GTD Pro title next year.

***Saitama Toyopet Green Brave celebrated a banner year on the Japanese racing scene, claiming titles in both SUPER GT and Super Taikyu. The team finally conquered SUPER GT’s GT300 division in its fourth attempt with the Toyota GR Supra, Hiroki Yoshida and Kohta Kawaii putting the title beyond real doubt with a narrow victory at Autopolis despite carrying a daunting 75kg handicap. Alongside Naoki Hattori and Manabu Yamazaki, Yoshida and Kawaai were also part of the Super Taikyu lineup that took four ST-Z class wins in their GR Supra GT4 to wrap up the title with a round to spare.