The other Dutch racing ace enjoying a standout 2023

It’s no exaggeration to state that Nicky Catsburg has had a year any sportscar driver would envy. He’s won his class in three major 24-hour races, including one outright, and achieved the virtually unprecedented feat of securing a world championship title in July. When you also factor in his GT class title in the Asian Le Mans Series aboard a Walkenhorst Motorsport BMW M4, the amiable Dutchman has claimed major successes aboard four different brands of car.

“It feels strange,” concedes Catsburg. “You have some years where you are begging for a win, you do a good job but you just never can get that result. When it started with winning Asian Le Mans this year, I was like, ‘We won now, the rest of the season will probably be difficult’. But it just keeps getting better and better. To win those three 24-hour races, three different cars, is just super cool.

“It just never really happens that every time in one year it actually works out. We’re joking about it: ‘You will never win another one, the odds are so bad.’ But it just keeps happening.”

Catsburg is happy to admit that 2023 has been his best year in racing “in terms of results by far”. And it’s not gone unnoticed by the 35-year-old’s peers.

Earl Bamber knows a thing or two about winning 24-hour races, and added the Nurburgring to his list alongside Catsburg this year when their Frikadelli Racing-run Ferrari ended a stranglehold for German-built cars dating back to 2002.

“He’s on a great streak at the moment,” the two-time Le Mans winner says. “He’s won nearly every race he’s actually entered in this year, which is incredible. He’s doing an amazing job behind the wheel. He’s very confident, he’s quick, but measured. He’s not taking too many risks, it’s impressive.”

Catsburg was part of the driving strength as Ferrari broke the stranglehold of the German manufacturers at the Nurburgring 24 with the Frikadelli team

Photo by: 24h Nürburgring

Catsburg’s second N24 victory, after his 2020 triumph in a Rowe BMW M6, was the first major accolade for the new 296 GT3 also campaigned by David Pittard and Felipe Laser. The car’s pace was not in doubt after the quartet had won the four-hour qualifying race, but reliability was still a question mark in the 24 hours itself which, Bamber recalls, meant “when we got out front, many of the other teams didn’t expect it to last so they just let us go, and then they didn’t chase us”.

Catsburg grins as he reflects on “a unique situation there” but reveals “the one I really badly wanted” was Le Mans, having never conquered it before in four previous attempts with BMW and Corvette.

The C8.R he shares with Ben Keating and Nico Varrone in the World Endurance Championship’s GTE Am class has been in superb form this year, winning the first two rounds at Sebring and Algarve (the first at a canter after the demise of the Iron Dames Porsche, the second after he put in a superb defence to deny Alessio Rovera’s Ferrari) before securing second at Spa despite dropping a lap early on.

"If you’re not there in the end, there’s nothing to race for. That’s something I have really learned over the last years" Nicky Catsburg

That made the Pratt & Miller-run Corvette Racing squad hot favourites for a first Le Mans win since 2015, but their hopes looked dashed by an early damper failure that cost two laps.

“I wasn’t ready to give up,” Catsburg says. “But in my head I was like, ‘This sucks, now I have to do the whole race being laps down, I would rather go home’. You know how drivers get! And then somehow we just managed to work our way back up.”

And still his year kept getting better. The Spa 24 Hours is another race Catsburg has won outright previously, his 2015 triumph aboard a Marc VDS BMW Z4 arguably the race that truly put him on the map. But the circumstances of his 2023 Pro-Am win aboard a Haupt Racing Team-run SunEnergy1 Mercedes were no less notable, given a pre-qualifying crash for patron Kenny Habul forced the team into a late change of chassis and Bronze driver. Together with stand-in Adam Osieka, Chaz Mostert and Martin Konrad, Catsburg completed a unique hat-trick.

“I went into Spa obviously hoping that this would happen, but I was kind of downplaying it – ‘No way, this will not happen, let’s just see it as a normal race’,” he says. “And then nothing really went wrong, after it did, after Kenny’s crash. And it worked out!”

Catsburg took a third 24-hour race victory in as many different cars in 2023 aboard a Pro-Am Mercedes at Spa

Photo by: Mercedes AMG

It was exactly one week later that he was departing Monza having clinched the WEC GTE Am crown for Corvette, where he is a popular team figure. Race engineer Tyler Neff, who notes “there’s always a joke that the brake pedal is too long”, observes: “First time with Nicky in the car, it was pretty easy. Easy feedback, kind of just meshed from there and same thing with the guys. You can see that Nicky jokes around with the guys, the guys joke around with Nicky, it’s light-hearted, it just helps bring us all together.”

It’s also a trait spotted by Bamber: “He’s fun to be around as well, he brings a great vibe to the team, which is actually something really important in sportscar racing. That’s probably one of his really strong suits outside of the car.”

That Catsburg is a team player is evident in the way he quickly points to being “always blessed with amazing team-mates, whichever car”. But it also shows in his approach, which underlines that sportscar racing success can owe just as much to a cool head than standout hero moments. When asked for his secret, his reply is telling.

“We all get so excited in the beginning and we all want to be fast all the time – you want to be the guy in the car at the golden hour,” he explains, “but it’s so much more about having a little bit of that extra margin. Other people spin out on an oil spill, we didn’t. Other people get three track-limit infringement penalties and we only got one or something like that.

“It’s so important to hammer on that; to not make mistakes. Because people eliminate themselves and in the end sometimes it’s only between a couple of cars. Then you just need to be there. If you’re not there in the end, there’s nothing to race for. That’s something I have really learned over the last years.”

All that considered, it’s hardly a surprise to hear that Catsburg isn’t at any risk of falling for his own hype and plans “to just keep as relaxed as possible”.

“In BMW I had team-mates that were unbeatable, I had that in Corvette, it’s not like I’m such a standout,” he says modestly. “You just need to be at the right place at the right time and create this environment for yourself where you have the opportunities to win.”

Corvette engineer Neff says Catsburg is easy to work with

Photo by: Richard Prince - GM Racing

Catsburg readily accepts that his rate of success in big-ticket races “at one point will stop, that’s normal, it has to”. And there are many reasons why a repeat of his glittering year will be difficult to achieve. For one, he admits, to win any 24-hour race “you need high doses of luck”. For another, he’s a factory driver for Corvette and, regrettably, his IMSA GTD Pro schedule next year with the new Z06 GT3.R currently clashes with the Nurburgring and Spa 24 hours.

“I am lucky enough that they allow me to do other stuff, but I think this will get more difficult when there’s other GM products racing in Europe,” he says. “I always hope that I can do stuff on the side, but I can’t race other Corvettes in different cars obviously.”

But the versatility that Catsburg has deliberately honed by testing himself in very different environments will only stand him in good stead to add more accolades to his bulging CV. Aside from turning out in different GT3 cars, he’s raced touring cars for many years alongside his GT exploits; winning races in Lada, Volvo and Hyundai machinery since 2016. As recently as last season, he claimed a WTCR podium in a wildcard appearance for Hyundai and says he “would be able to do a race in a front-wheel-drive car again at the end of this year”.

"You learn from doing more, you learn from other people, so I would always push to do that and also I just think it’s fun" Nicky Catsburg

He believes working with different engineers in different series “just broadens your spectrum” and as a result “I’m really becoming a better driver”.

“If you do a lot of sprint racing in touring cars, all you’re doing is looking in your mirrors all the time,” he says. “It makes you just a better driver if you do other stuff. You learn how to overtake, you have to defend and if you just do more of it, you can only get better at it. You learn from doing more, you learn from other people, so I would always push to do that and also I just think it’s fun. If anyone asks me what would you recommend to young guys – do as much as you can! Drive everything.”

Daytona is the only major 24-hour race that Cadillac LMDh driver Bamber is yet to win. No prizes for guessing who he wants as a team-mate there someday…

Corvette Racing has been a cut above the rest in the WEC this year, with Catsburg playing no small part

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Corvette’s other aces

As Nicky Catsburg is at pains to point out, he’s only one cog in the Corvette Racing machine that has proven such a potent force in the 2023 World Endurance Championship. Co-drivers Nico Varrone and Ben Keating have certainly played their part in tying up the GTE Am crown with two rounds to spare.

“I’m always lucky enough that I’m surrounded by really good, talented people and that obviously helps a lot,” says Catsburg, who regards his team-mates as “outstanding in their class”. As he sees it: “Nico is the best Silver, Ben is the best Bronze. That’s what kind of makes it easier when you have a complete package like that.” 

Popular Texan Keating’s reputation as one of sportscar racing’s best Bronze-graded drivers is well-established. A fixture at Le Mans since 2015, he’s managed to drive eight different cars in his nine appearances – all but two (in LMP2, including the only outing for the unloved Riley Mk30 in 2017) in GTE Am.

After a fuel irregularity on his Riley-run Ford GT in post-race scrutineering resulted in disqualification in 2019, he finally kept the Le Mans winner’s trophy in 2022 on his way to the WEC title with Aston squad TF Sport. This year he became the first driver since Patrick Bornhauser and Julien Canal in 2012 to successfully secure back-to-back GTE Am victories at Le Mans, the double points result virtually putting beyond doubt the destiny of the title.

Argentinian Varrone meanwhile has had a meteoric rise since the funds ran out midway through a GB3 programme in 2020. Manager Jose Balbiani’s links with Rinaldi Racing secured him a Le Mans Cup berth in its LMP3 squad for 2021, and Varrone’s impressive performances parlayed into a victorious European Le Mans Series programme aboard its Ferrari 488 GTE last season.

He also won in a one-off Creventic appearance in the Barcelona 24H aboard a WTM Ferrari where, crucially, long-time Keating collaborator Jeroen Bleekemolen was also part of the driver roster. His recommendation led to a successful post-season test with Corvette that Varrone grasped with both hands, before he notched another 24-hour race victory at Daytona this year, this time in LMP3, with the AWA Duqueine team.

Keating and Varrone have also been important cogs in Corvette Racing's WEC GTE Am title-winning campaign

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images