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As spotted by user Worrissey on the Steam subreddit, Gray Newell, the oldest son of Valve head honcho Gabe Newell, is set to compete at the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race on June 13.
Newell has been part of the Heart of Racing, a team co-founded by racer Ian James, businessman Yahn Bernier, and Gabe Newell, since 2021. This is Newell the Younger's debut season in the FIA World Endurance Championship, the highest level of international competition in endurance racing. Newell previously competed in the GT4 and GT America Series, as well as the GT World Challenge America.
24 Hours of Le Mans is one of the oldest and most famous sportscar races in the world, first occurring in 1923 and, after a 10-year hiatus due to the Great Depression and World War 2, held annually since 1949. Each car is driven by a team of three, with the active driver rotating approximately every two to four hours. Le Mans is a set course, and drivers race to get as far as possible in the time limit. The current record of 3,360 miles (5,410 km) was set in 2010.
Newell is on a team with fellow racers Jonny Adam of the UK and Eduardo Barrichello from Brazil, and they will take the field in an Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 Evo. Heart of Racing is also fielding a second team at Le Mans that includes team co-founder Ian James.
We've previously reported on how Newells Gabe and Gray were big fans of Final Fantasy 14 on Steam Deck. Newell the Younger also pursued a career in games once upon a time—he told us about his project and thoughts on Valve's direction in 2018—but he seems to have firmly pivoted to racing.
Newell the Elder, meanwhile, has been in the news a fair bit recently. He reportedly pushed back hard against an internal suggestion of greater content moderation on Steam, and we now know that the development of Portal 2 was a moment when Newell stepped back from game design in a big way. We also recently saw a fresh trove of photos of the superyacht the gaming billionaire famously lives on these days.
