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Le Mans / ALMS
LE MANS: Vickers Ready For Spa Debut
NASCAR star enjoying foray into sports car racing...
NASCAR star Brian Vickers makes his sports car racing debut this weekend in Spa-Francorchamps. (Photo: John Dagys)
While it may be half a world away from his usual day job, Brian Vickers has become the latest NASCAR star to take up sports car racing. The 2003 Nationwide Series champion makes his FIA World Endurance Championship debut in today’s Six Hours of Spa-Francorchamps as part of an initial two-race program leading up to an attack on next month’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Vickers, who fills in for MWR boss Michael Waltrip as the two-time Daytona 500 champion focuses on his NASCAR on FOX television commitments, joins co-owner Rob Kauffman and Portuguese veteran Rui Aguas in AF Waltrip’s GTE-Am class Ferrari F458 Italia.
“If you asked me five or 10 years ago, if you want to run sports cars, where your first race would be, I just would have assumed it to be Daytona,” Vickers told SPEED.com. “I never would have guessed my first one would be Spa, Belgium.”
In fact, the 28-year-old North Carolina native came close to competing in the Rolex 24 at Daytona on two occasions. The most recent opportunity came in 2011 but Vickers was still recovering from blood clots, which sidelined the two-time Sprint Cup winner for much of the 2010 season.
While he returned for a full season with Red Bull Racing last year, Vickers was left without a Cup ride for 2012 when the team closed its doors, until managing to pick up an eight-race deal with Michael Waltrip Racing.
That in turn led Vickers to the opportunity with AF Waltrip for his foray into sports car racing, which he feels has come at an opportune time in his career.
“You spend a lot of your career focused on one thing and it's NASCAR,” he said. “Then by the time you're out of the car, you're at a point in your life where you really don't want to mess with [anything else]. Having this opportunity at a young age to come over here, get in these cars and really push, is great.”
And with Le Mans less than six weeks away, Vickers’ crash course in endurance racing begins this weekend, where he hopes to learn as much as possible before next month’s twice-around-the-clock French classic.
“I'm so glad and happy that I'm here first and not jumping in head first at Le Mans,” Vickers said. “That's going to be the biggest thing for me, after doing it one time, 'How can I set the fastest time possible without getting hit by somebody else and sorting out traffic?' As a team, we want to do to the best we can.”
As for future FIA WEC races post-Le Mans, it all remains up in the air for now. While Waltrip hopes of returning to the wheel of the Prancing Horse for the Six Hours of Silverstone in August, the team’s third driver for the four remaining rounds in Brazil, Bahrain, Japan and China has not been decided.
“At this point, I wouldn't mind anything,” he said. “I love racing and I have some time on my hands and I want to race. If an opportunity pops up that seems to make sense, then the answer is probably going to be yes. It's up to the boss here [and Michael].”
After rebounding from a practice accident on Friday, Vickers, Kauffman and Aguas will roll off sixth on the GTE-Am grid today.
John Dagys is SPEED.com’s Sportscar Racing Reporter, focusing on all major domestic and international championships. You can follow him on Twitter @johndagys or email him at
Vickers, who fills in for MWR boss Michael Waltrip as the two-time Daytona 500 champion focuses on his NASCAR on FOX television commitments, joins co-owner Rob Kauffman and Portuguese veteran Rui Aguas in AF Waltrip’s GTE-Am class Ferrari F458 Italia.
“If you asked me five or 10 years ago, if you want to run sports cars, where your first race would be, I just would have assumed it to be Daytona,” Vickers told SPEED.com. “I never would have guessed my first one would be Spa, Belgium.”
In fact, the 28-year-old North Carolina native came close to competing in the Rolex 24 at Daytona on two occasions. The most recent opportunity came in 2011 but Vickers was still recovering from blood clots, which sidelined the two-time Sprint Cup winner for much of the 2010 season.
While he returned for a full season with Red Bull Racing last year, Vickers was left without a Cup ride for 2012 when the team closed its doors, until managing to pick up an eight-race deal with Michael Waltrip Racing.
That in turn led Vickers to the opportunity with AF Waltrip for his foray into sports car racing, which he feels has come at an opportune time in his career.
“You spend a lot of your career focused on one thing and it's NASCAR,” he said. “Then by the time you're out of the car, you're at a point in your life where you really don't want to mess with [anything else]. Having this opportunity at a young age to come over here, get in these cars and really push, is great.”
And with Le Mans less than six weeks away, Vickers’ crash course in endurance racing begins this weekend, where he hopes to learn as much as possible before next month’s twice-around-the-clock French classic.
“I'm so glad and happy that I'm here first and not jumping in head first at Le Mans,” Vickers said. “That's going to be the biggest thing for me, after doing it one time, 'How can I set the fastest time possible without getting hit by somebody else and sorting out traffic?' As a team, we want to do to the best we can.”
As for future FIA WEC races post-Le Mans, it all remains up in the air for now. While Waltrip hopes of returning to the wheel of the Prancing Horse for the Six Hours of Silverstone in August, the team’s third driver for the four remaining rounds in Brazil, Bahrain, Japan and China has not been decided.
“At this point, I wouldn't mind anything,” he said. “I love racing and I have some time on my hands and I want to race. If an opportunity pops up that seems to make sense, then the answer is probably going to be yes. It's up to the boss here [and Michael].”
After rebounding from a practice accident on Friday, Vickers, Kauffman and Aguas will roll off sixth on the GTE-Am grid today.
John Dagys is SPEED.com’s Sportscar Racing Reporter, focusing on all major domestic and international championships. You can follow him on Twitter @johndagys or email him at
FIA WEC Six Hours of Spa
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