MCD’s Partner, Ben Keating Wins 2023's 24 Hours of Le Mans

Our partnership with business owner and race car driver extraordinaire, Ben Keating, is where the rubber hits the road for Max Connect, literally. 

Having helped the Keating Auto Group sell over 50,000 cars and generate over $3 billion in revenue annually, we can’t imagine a better acclamation than for Keating to select us as a primary sponsor–to proudly banner our name on his Corvette C8.R–as he attempted to win 2023’s 24 Hours of Le Mans this past weekend. You can only imagine our thrill when we watched Keating cross the finish line with a first place finish in the Le Mans GTE-am class!

Despite leading the GTE-am class after the first hour of running, Keating’s Corvette required a damper replacement–placing the vehicle in the garage for quick fix before Keating could continue the race. The crew moved fast, but it wasn’t possible to maintain the lead lap. Instead, Keating found himself two laps down, tasked with surviving the heavy rain that caused so many incidents amongst other competitors. 

“It was super tricky in the wet,” Keating said when asked about the racing conditions. “It cost us twenty seconds in an escape road at one point, but I then watched a competitor in the same place hit a wall. So it was a good decision to be cautious!”

Following the damper incident, Keating and his team were faced with 22 hours of racing to regain their positioning. At one point, Keating even admitted to feeling “The emotional rollercoaster of it all.” He recalls, “I told my wife at about midnight that we might be able to get seventh place.” As Keating’s teammates raced through the night, he woke up to realize that their positioning had improved and that they might have a chance. 

“Over half the class retired [due to rainy conditions], which was a big part of our fightback,” Keating explained. During the 19th hour of the race, Keating retook and maintained the lead, allowing him and his team to win the class by a full lap during the 24th hour! The victory also marked a historic first win for Corvette in the Le Mans GTE-am class.

Keating’s teammate, Nicky Catsburg, commented, “The 100th anniversary [of Le Mans] makes it special. That it’s the last year of GTE makes it extra special. That it’s the last year of the C8.R makes it extra special.”

Having won Le Mans last year, we congratulate Keating and his team for back-to-back wins! The legacy Keating has crafted is a remarkable story of resilience; he has proved time and time again that the victors aren’t defined by outlying conditions, but by immovable determination.