Original reporting by Sportscar365
18-year-old son of longtime DragonSpeed driver Henrik lined up for GT America debut by season’s end
DragonSpeed is set to make its return to the SRO America paddock later this year with upstart driver William Hedman, the son of longtime team driver Henrik.
The 18-year-old has been taking part in Ferrari Club Competizioni GT events around the world in his father’s Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo.
Hedman has now been earmarked to make his pro racing debut in the Ferrari at either the GT America powered by AWS event at Barber Motorsports Park or season finale at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in October according to team principal Elton Julian.
“He’s turning out to be a lot better than his time might allow,” Julian told Sportscar365. “At Portimao, he was with Giacomo [Altoe] two weeks ago and he killed it again.
“He keeps progressing. He hasn’t had that much time yet but he’s been outperforming our expectations.
“After his last performance at Portimao, which is not an easy track, he dropped in, didn’t do any sim, he’s really impressed us.
“Hopefully he’ll do a couple of GT America races at the end this year, and depending on how much time allows next year, it’s his first year of college, he’ll some racing.
“We already have one foot in SRO. We’re looking at either doing Barber or Indy.”
Hedman, who recently started college at Penn State University, could then make the move to GT World Challenge America powered by AWS in 2027, likely as a Pro-Am effort with a co-driver along the likes of Giacomo Altoe.
“For sure the Ferrari [chassis] is going to be in GT World Challenge,” he said. “Once William proves his worth in GT America, and the series allows him to move up to the main race, then we’ll do that.”
DragonSpeed’s only previous experience in the series came in 2015, when it was then called Pirelli World Challenge, which saw the team field multiple GT3 entries, including a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 for Frankie Montecalvo, who won the season-long GTA title that year.