teamzr1
Supporting vendor
Note also do not forget this Saturday’s IMSA Chevrolet Sports Car Classic Detroit Grand Prix
The Corvette Racing band is back together for the first time in three months, with the team channeling all its efforts into another shot at a class victory at this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Two of the familiar yellow Corvettes are part of a seven-car entry in the GTE Pro category for factory and factory-supported teams.
This will be the second time at Le Mans for the mid-engine Chevrolet Corvette C8.R after a runner-up class finish in its debut last August.
The program is going for its ninth class victory at the French endurance classic.
This year’s race is back in its traditional June spot with the race set for June 11-12. The biggest change from last year’s event is that all public-facing events are back including scrutineering in downtown Le Mans, pit walks and autograph sessions and the Friday drivers’ parade.
Before practice and qualifying gets under way, though, first comes eight hours of track time Sunday during the annual Le Mans Test Day.
It’s the one opportunity for the 62 cars entered the race to get much-needed track time ahead of Wednesday’s first practice and qualifying sessions.
Time is critical given the unique nature of the circuit, 8.47 miles of asphalt featuring a mix of permanent racetrack and public roads through the French countryside.
The Corvette Racing lineup in each of the two C8.Rs remains the same as a year ago. Antonio Garcia, Jordan Taylor and Nicky Catsburg primarily competing in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship will team in the No. 63 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Corvette and hope to improve on their second-place showing from a year ago. Already, the trio has a blue-riband victory together in at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring in a GT Daytona (GTD) PRO version of the C8.R.
On the other side of the garage is the No. 64 Mobil 1/SiriusXM C8.R of Tommy Milner, Nick Tandy and Alexander Sims. Their entry is a full-time one in the FIA World Endurance Championship a first for Corvette Racing. It’s already been a successful run for Milner and Tandy with a runner-up finish in the Sebring 1,000 Miles.
The duo stand third in the GTE Drivers World Championship with Le Mans being a double-points race.
That makes it even more important for the No. 64 Corvette to show well at Le Mans and keep the other manufacturers off the top step of the podium as well.
The plan of having a Corvette full-time in WEC was focused around optimizing the team’s chances at Le Mans. Corvette Racing’s last win at Le Mans came in 2015, although the team has been agonizingly close to getting its ninth win there since, with a second- and third-place showing in the years since.
The WEC Corvette has given the entire Corvette Racing team much-needed insight and data on a wide variety of items that will be key at Le Mans.
Things like pit stop procedures, tire selection and performance, and racing rules in a variety of scenarios make this the most prepared that Corvette Racing has been for Le Mans in what will be its 22nd appearance in the race.
One of the most key benefits is that the No. 64 Corvette can focus more on race setup and development on the Test Day while the three No. 63 drivers can get used to the GTE version of the Corvette, which features more power, no ABS system and Michelin tires specifically designed for the C8.R. In IMSA, the GTD PRO Corvette runs on a common Michelin tire that is available to all teams.
Corvette Racing will contest the 24 Hours of Le Mans on June 11-12 with the green flag set for 4 p.m. CET and 10 a.m. ET. MotorTrend TV will air the race live with the MotorTrend App adding coverage of official practices and qualifying on June 8-9. Live audio coverage will be available from Radio Le Mans starting with Sunday’s Test Day.
ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 63 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R:
“Le Mans shouldn’t be too different this year. It would be way different if we were running the GTD PRO spec. We are going back to our regular GTE setup in the C8.R, and I’m looking forward to that. Part of it won’t be ideal as Jordan, Nicky and myself will need to readapt to that car a little bit.
Having the 64 car in the WEC will help the whole team, though. We will need to get up to speed at the start and maybe the 64 car will start some development early on.
We’ve done this race so many times and have raced the GTE spec so many years that it won’t take much to get on the pace.
To be honest, it is more difficult to drive the IMSA car compared to what we have driven for the last 15 years!
“It’s been too long since I have won Le Mans. We’ve been on the podium several times and could have won all those. That also tells you that you’re one of the most angry people because coming in P2 or P3 is not ideal, especially if you have a chance to win. In these races, only one car can win. If you give it everything you had and you didn’t win, then someone did it just a tiny bit better than you.
Last year, I think we had everything lined up. The pace was great but we didn’t have enough to gain those 20, 30 and 40 seconds to get ahead. It seems like very little over a race distance but we know that’s how Le Mans works. Every second you lose is very difficult and gaining that back in GTE Pro is a tough task. We need to be the ones leading and let the rest catch us. I think that is what works best at Le Mans.”
JORDAN TAYLOR, NO. 63 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R:
“I got to do some tire testing with Nick (Tandy) a couple of days after Sebring in the GTE car. But I still think it’s going to be a big adjustment for us going back to that, especially with it being such a tight schedule on the race week. There is such limited time to get three guys through the car with such a long lap and adding in the car development we want to do.
Hopefully we can hit the ground running and get comfortable right off the bat to get into development. So it will be a little bit more of a challenge, but having the 64 guys over there all year in WEC takes away some development time, so hopefully that will help us when we get there.
“It’s frustrating to look back at last year to know we did nothing majorly wrong, didn’t make any mistakes and still came up short. That part is frustrating but I think we can rely on the fact that we did a perfect race. We can have that confidence going back this time. We’ve developed the car further than where it was last year for the first time with the C8.R.
We did miss a lot of practice on the 63 side throughout the beginning of the week so I think we were behind the eight-ball a little bit compared to the other car once the race started. So we maybe were missing a little bit of performance on our own. But going into this year with what we learned last year and the confidence of a good race we had, we know we are going back with a stronger car and good position.”
The Corvette Racing band is back together for the first time in three months, with the team channeling all its efforts into another shot at a class victory at this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Two of the familiar yellow Corvettes are part of a seven-car entry in the GTE Pro category for factory and factory-supported teams.
This will be the second time at Le Mans for the mid-engine Chevrolet Corvette C8.R after a runner-up class finish in its debut last August.
The program is going for its ninth class victory at the French endurance classic.
This year’s race is back in its traditional June spot with the race set for June 11-12. The biggest change from last year’s event is that all public-facing events are back including scrutineering in downtown Le Mans, pit walks and autograph sessions and the Friday drivers’ parade.
Before practice and qualifying gets under way, though, first comes eight hours of track time Sunday during the annual Le Mans Test Day.
It’s the one opportunity for the 62 cars entered the race to get much-needed track time ahead of Wednesday’s first practice and qualifying sessions.
Time is critical given the unique nature of the circuit, 8.47 miles of asphalt featuring a mix of permanent racetrack and public roads through the French countryside.
The Corvette Racing lineup in each of the two C8.Rs remains the same as a year ago. Antonio Garcia, Jordan Taylor and Nicky Catsburg primarily competing in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship will team in the No. 63 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Corvette and hope to improve on their second-place showing from a year ago. Already, the trio has a blue-riband victory together in at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring in a GT Daytona (GTD) PRO version of the C8.R.
On the other side of the garage is the No. 64 Mobil 1/SiriusXM C8.R of Tommy Milner, Nick Tandy and Alexander Sims. Their entry is a full-time one in the FIA World Endurance Championship a first for Corvette Racing. It’s already been a successful run for Milner and Tandy with a runner-up finish in the Sebring 1,000 Miles.
The duo stand third in the GTE Drivers World Championship with Le Mans being a double-points race.
That makes it even more important for the No. 64 Corvette to show well at Le Mans and keep the other manufacturers off the top step of the podium as well.
The plan of having a Corvette full-time in WEC was focused around optimizing the team’s chances at Le Mans. Corvette Racing’s last win at Le Mans came in 2015, although the team has been agonizingly close to getting its ninth win there since, with a second- and third-place showing in the years since.
The WEC Corvette has given the entire Corvette Racing team much-needed insight and data on a wide variety of items that will be key at Le Mans.
Things like pit stop procedures, tire selection and performance, and racing rules in a variety of scenarios make this the most prepared that Corvette Racing has been for Le Mans in what will be its 22nd appearance in the race.
One of the most key benefits is that the No. 64 Corvette can focus more on race setup and development on the Test Day while the three No. 63 drivers can get used to the GTE version of the Corvette, which features more power, no ABS system and Michelin tires specifically designed for the C8.R. In IMSA, the GTD PRO Corvette runs on a common Michelin tire that is available to all teams.
Corvette Racing will contest the 24 Hours of Le Mans on June 11-12 with the green flag set for 4 p.m. CET and 10 a.m. ET. MotorTrend TV will air the race live with the MotorTrend App adding coverage of official practices and qualifying on June 8-9. Live audio coverage will be available from Radio Le Mans starting with Sunday’s Test Day.
ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 63 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R:
“Le Mans shouldn’t be too different this year. It would be way different if we were running the GTD PRO spec. We are going back to our regular GTE setup in the C8.R, and I’m looking forward to that. Part of it won’t be ideal as Jordan, Nicky and myself will need to readapt to that car a little bit.
Having the 64 car in the WEC will help the whole team, though. We will need to get up to speed at the start and maybe the 64 car will start some development early on.
We’ve done this race so many times and have raced the GTE spec so many years that it won’t take much to get on the pace.
To be honest, it is more difficult to drive the IMSA car compared to what we have driven for the last 15 years!
“It’s been too long since I have won Le Mans. We’ve been on the podium several times and could have won all those. That also tells you that you’re one of the most angry people because coming in P2 or P3 is not ideal, especially if you have a chance to win. In these races, only one car can win. If you give it everything you had and you didn’t win, then someone did it just a tiny bit better than you.
Last year, I think we had everything lined up. The pace was great but we didn’t have enough to gain those 20, 30 and 40 seconds to get ahead. It seems like very little over a race distance but we know that’s how Le Mans works. Every second you lose is very difficult and gaining that back in GTE Pro is a tough task. We need to be the ones leading and let the rest catch us. I think that is what works best at Le Mans.”
JORDAN TAYLOR, NO. 63 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R:
“I got to do some tire testing with Nick (Tandy) a couple of days after Sebring in the GTE car. But I still think it’s going to be a big adjustment for us going back to that, especially with it being such a tight schedule on the race week. There is such limited time to get three guys through the car with such a long lap and adding in the car development we want to do.
Hopefully we can hit the ground running and get comfortable right off the bat to get into development. So it will be a little bit more of a challenge, but having the 64 guys over there all year in WEC takes away some development time, so hopefully that will help us when we get there.
“It’s frustrating to look back at last year to know we did nothing majorly wrong, didn’t make any mistakes and still came up short. That part is frustrating but I think we can rely on the fact that we did a perfect race. We can have that confidence going back this time. We’ve developed the car further than where it was last year for the first time with the C8.R.
We did miss a lot of practice on the 63 side throughout the beginning of the week so I think we were behind the eight-ball a little bit compared to the other car once the race started. So we maybe were missing a little bit of performance on our own. But going into this year with what we learned last year and the confidence of a good race we had, we know we are going back with a stronger car and good position.”