Six Hours of Monza WEC July Ninth

[teamzr1]

Fresh off a class victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans its ninth since 2001 Corvette C8.R Racing can add one more major honor this weekend with the resumption of the FIA World Endurance Championship.

Depending on its finish and those of other title contenders, Corvette Racing can wrap up the GTE Am Drivers and Teams championships at the Six Hours of Spa. Nicky Catsburg, Ben Keating, Nico Varrone and the team of the No. 33 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R have won three of the first four WEC rounds to open a commanding 74-point advantage with 91 possible points remaining in the final three races of the season.

Such a position likely was incredibly optimistic for even the biggest Corvette Racing fan before the season began. Not only is this season the first for the Catsburg/Keating/Varrone trio, but it also is the in GTE Am for Corvette Racing.
The new challenge hasn’t been too big for the team, which largely has nailed every pit stop and strategy call during this year’s campaign.

That was part of the story last year at Monza for the Corvette squad, which won in its debut at the circuit in the GTE Pro class. Tommy Milner and Nick Tandy were winners that day in the C8.R on a strategic masterpiece by the Corvette squad.

The team will need to rely on some of that quick and clever thinking this time around as the Corvette will carry 40 additional kilograms of “success ballast” in accordance with GTE Am sporting rules.
That is due to the victory in the previous race at Le Mans, 10 kilograms for taking the runner-up spot at Spa (the race prior to Le Mans) and another 15 for leading the championship.

On a positive note, the No. 33 C8.R raced at Spa with 45 extra kilograms over its minimum weight and placed second, highlighted by a furious late-race defense by Catsburg to hold on to the second position.

The Six Hours of Monza is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. CET / 6:30 a.m. ET on Sunday, July 9. MotorTrend and MotorTrend Plus will provide both live television and streaming coverage, as will the FIA WEC app. Radio Le Mans will stream audio coverage of qualifying and the race.

NICKY CATSBURG, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R:

“Coming into the season, we were confident that we could compete for race wins and the championship. We knew we had a good team and a good car. But I couldn’t have expected the success we have had so far, with three wins Le Mans among that and a chance to win the championship this early. Even though we are in this position, we cannot take anything for granted or lose focus.

Fortunately, I have teammates in Ben and Nico and a team behind us in Corvette Racing that won’t let that happen. Monza is a very good and fast track. We may be a little limited by the success ballast, but it will not change our approach and mindset. I’m ready to get there and go for the best result we can get.”

BEN KEATING, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R:

“I love Monza. On the WEC calendar, Le Mans and Monza are my best tracks. Interestingly enough, in my first year at Monza in WEC, I rented a bicycle and was riding around. On the grandstand side, there is a driver development simulator company. I spent four or five hours there on a whim.

At the time, my chief competitor was a Ferrari with Alessio Rivera, and in the sim he was my coach! So every year since then, I always book time. Monza is one of my best tracks, but I’ve yet to finish a race there.

It’s been my unluckiest track. One year we had a blowout at 170 mph, and it blew apart the car so much that it bent the exhaust, blew the floor out and blew the hood off. Then last year, we lost brakes and flipped the car. Even though I feel excellent about my performance at Monza, the track has not always loved me back.
I have a lot of faith in the Corvette and the Corvette Racing team. I really feel like in this season, the team’s performance has been key to our results.

This race will be no different. We’ll be carrying 40 extra kilograms for the race, but the other teams chasing us have weight, too. I’m hopeful we can clinch a championship there. It doesn’t require a podium finish, but does require some points for us and the 25 and 85 cars having a bad race.
With the 40 extra kilograms, it would be a lot to expect us to win. I’m not saying it’s impossible because anything is possible with this car and this team.”

NICO VARRONE, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R:

“I love Monza! It’s a fast track with a lot of history. We have been doing a great job all year. I feel like the pressure from ahead of Le Mans is gone with the victory there. We will arrive at Monza with less pressure and I think enjoying the moment.
We will do what we do every race do what we do, do what we know, keep it clean, be as fast as we can and get the pit stops and strategy right. Everything will come to us after that. If we are champions in Monza, then great. But we are not going in with that mindset. We are going to do our best and trying to win.”

 

[Vetteheadracer]

Sadly I won't be there this weekend as it clashes with Corvette Fame at Valkenburg

 

[teamzr1]

Winning a race as big of the 24 Hours of Le Mans is something special. It’s the culmination of a year’s worth of work, preparation and execution.
In the case of Corvette Racing, winning this year’s GTE Am class didn’t just validate all of that effort. It also exorcised some very painful memories of near-misses, most notably the team’s end to the 2022 race.
Ahead of this weekend’s Six Hours of Monza in the FIA World Endurance Championship, a few Corvette Racing team members shared their thoughts on a sweet and redemptive victory

NICKY CATSBURG, DRIVER, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R:

“We’ve been trying to win Le Mans with the C8.R for a couple of years. We managed to get P2 in 2021, and last year Alex (Sims), Tommy (Milner) and Nick (Tandy) seemed to have it all sorted before a crazy spell of bad luck took them out of the race.
We knew this was our last chance for our car to win it before the end of the GTE category. It’s clear with Ben and Nico that we have a strong lineup, and we had an insanely successful season in WEC going into Le Mans.

But that never means winning there is easy. All the ingredients were there, but you still need to make it happen. We lost a lot of time at the beginning of the race, and I really felt like that was the end of it. But this team never gives up. Corvette Racing is an insane team with a lot of young guys so incredibly eager to win races. They were on top of their game!
The flawless pitlane work and flawless drives by both Nico and Ben brought us to the top step of the podium. It was the one big 24-hour race that I didn’t have on my CV, and now I do. I can’t begin to thank everyone on this program enough. The whole team has such a good dynamic going on, and the atmosphere is so cool. I’m very thankful and grateful.”

KYLE MILLAY, CORVETTE RACING CHIEF ENGINEER:

This Le Mans had a much different feel than years past. We always had the same two-car effort, garages, engineering offices, hospitality, driver rotations and so on. This year, not having that feel of familiarity while not impacting our approach added to the feeling of finality from the 2022 event. With about six hours to go we found ourselves with a comfortable lead that would have allowed us to easily bring the car home.

I can distinctly remember feeling the buzz that we can win this race from here, but tempering that with knowing that six hours is a long way to go. What seemed like not five minutes later, I happened to look up at the TV feed and saw a yellow car spearing into the wall. I quickly glanced at my telemetry screen and confirmed it was us. The next thing was the radio call to Sims asking if he was ok and confirming our day was done.
After sitting there for a few minutes letting it sink in, you close your computer and walk back from the wall. It went the way a lot of Le Mans have gone for us: with good cars not making it to the end. For me personally, it stung as much or more than 2017 when we lost the lead coming to the white flag.

As with all Le Mans I headed into this year’s race anticipating some kind of setback that we would need to recover from. It came in Hour Two with a suspension issue. When something like that happens, you assess the situation and move on. In this case, I felt we had 22 hours to make up two laps and with the new safety car regs, that was a possibility.

Everyone kept focused and knew that we still had options to get us back in the fight. We stuck to our plan to try and execute our driver and tire strategy as planned and see what would happen. We didn’t have to wait too long when the first of a few rainstorms came to bring out a safety car. This was our first opportunity to get one of our laps back, except race control executed the pit exit sequence incorrectly, and it kept us trapped two laps back. The weather of the next few hours was pretty messy, with car starting to drop out due to heavy accidents and issues.

Nico had to drive a crazy stint in mixed conditions and then heavy rain while on slick tires after a gamble didn’t pay off. Over the next few hours, we just slowly narrowed the gap, and more cars dropped out. We luckily caught another safety car, which did bring us a lap closer.
That was it for safety cars giving us the freebies, and we had to race are way back for the rest.
The car was fast, and we were in a position with the driver rotation where we could really take out massive chunks of time to the leaders.
We raced ourselves back on the lead lap, and then got the lead while building the gap.

“In the last few hours of the race, time seems to slow to a crawl when you are at the front. The last hour can be excruciating because there is nothing left to do but watch and think about everything that can go wrong. This time it was smooth sailing.

This win had some extra meaning for the guys who had been so close over the last eight years, the ones who worked so hard to develop and build the C8.R and to see it, check this one off the list. It was super special, and I was glad I could be a part of it.”

TIM KAVANAGH, CAR CHIEF, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R:

For me, the events of last year at Le Mans served as a reminder of how tough this race can be. It’s just like the events of our crash at the end of the first practice this year and the suspension issue early in the race. This group never gives up. We don’t know how. “Our success in Le Mans came down to every single person involved executing to their maximum potential and staying determined to achieve our goals together.
This is truly the best group of men and women I have ever had the privilege to work with.

“We came into the 2023 season not knowing what to expect, but proud to be part of the final season of GTE competition and of the C8.R.
So many people at GM and Pratt Miller have poured their hearts and souls into this project. A proper send off with a Le Mans win and championship is the only option.”

 

[teamzr1]

C8.R was wacked again with the BoP adding a lot more weight and seen during Qualify

It was a challenging session for the championship-leading Corvette Racing C8.R, which is running with 40 kg of “success ballast” this weekend.
Ben Keating initially struggled with the car’s traction control systems in his first run, had a lap deleted and ended up sixth.

Without securing the point for pole, Corvette now finds itself requiring a win or second-place finish to secure the title this weekend.

“I had hoped we would be higher than P6,” admitted Keating.
It was an unfortunate red flag in the middle of qualifying.
I was on my best lap at the peak of the tire and had the best sector one and a pretty good sector two before I had to shut it down at the end.
I think that was going to be a excellent lap.

We’re carrying more weight than we were at the beginning of the season.
That’s the penalty of the amazing success that we’ve had. If you look at how much it’s worth around this track, it’s probably not far from the pole.

“From a points' perspective, I’d rather Sarah Bovy got the pole instead of Ahmad Al-Harthy.
That gives us a little bit more margin in the championship, but the fact that both will start up front means they will have a little bit of an advantage at the beginning of the race. We’ll see.”

 

[teamzr1]

C8.R Corvette Racing will roll off from the third row of the GTE Am grid Sunday in its push to wrap up FIA World Endurance Championship class titles at the Six Hours of Monza.

Ben Keating qualified the No. 33 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R sixth with a lap of 1:48.519 during Saturday’s 15-minute session at the 3.60-mile, 11-turn Autodromo Nazionale Di Monza circuit with a red-flag period in the middle. He, Nicky Catsburg and Nico Varrone can wrap up the Drivers and Teams championships in a number of different scenarios, the easiest being finishing first or second in class Sunday.

Keating ended 0.887 seconds off Sarah Bovy’s class pole-winning time in the No. 85 Porsche.
The trio and the No. 33 Corvette team have been nearly perfect all season, with three wins and runner-up finish in four races.
It’s a remarkable achievement for a first-year trio and the team’s first season in GTE Am.

A podium finish this weekend would be just as impressive. The Corvette will carry 40 additional kilograms of “success ballast” in accordance with GTE Am sporting rules. That is due to the victory in the previous race at Le Mans, 10 kilograms for taking the runner-up spot at Spa (the race prior to Le Mans) and another 15 for leading the championship.

In addition, the C8.R received 10 additional kilograms of pre-event weight by the rules-makers, making the Corvette 50 kilograms (110 pounds) heavier than how it began the season at Sebring. On a positive note, the No. 33 C8.R raced at Spa with 45 extra kilograms over its minimum weight and placed second, highlighted by a furious late-race defense by Catsburg to hold on to the second position.

In addition to a championship, Corvette Racing is going for its second straight class win at Monza. It was the site of the program’s lone 2022 WEC victory in GTE Pro for the duo of Tommy Milner and Nick Tandy.
The Six Hours of Monza is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. CET / 6:30 a.m. ET on Sunday, July 9. MotorTrend and MotorTrend Plus will provide both live television and streaming coverage, as will the FIA WEC app. Radio Le Mans will stream audio coverage of the race, as well.

BEN KEATING, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – QUALIFIED SIXTH IN GTE AM:

“I had hoped we would be higher than P6. It was an unfortunate red flag in the middle of qualifying. I was on my best lap at the peak of the tire and had the best sector one and a pretty good sector two before I had to shut it down at the end. I think that was going to be a perfect lap.

Because we’re at the end of pitlane, we made the decision to go to the pit exit and queue up there rather than go to the box and change tires. It’s hard to know whether having track position is more important or having the peak of the tire one more time is more important. Hindsight being 20-20, I think I would have preferred to have new tires.
The tires just didn’t feel the same to get those last three- or four-tenths out of a lap. We’re carrying 50 kilograms more weight than we were at the beginning of the season. That’s the penalty of the amazing success that we’ve had. If you look at how much 50 kilograms is worth around this track, it’s probably not far from the pole. From a points' perspective, I’d rather Sarah Bovy got the pole instead Ahmad Al-Harthy.

That gives us a little bit more margin in the championship, but the fact that both will start up front means they will have a little bit of an advantage at the beginning of the race. We’ll see. We have a really, wonderful racecar. As a team and a car, we carry the weight well. We’ll have to work our way up one hour at a time. We’ve got a lot of experience doing that.”

 

[teamzr1]

C8.R finished one lap down from the leader :-(

Corvette Racing Secures GTE-Am Title with Two Races to Spare

Corvette Racing clinched the world championship in GTE-Am by finishing fourth in class, while Dempsey-Proton Racing took the class victory.
Although Ben Keating, Nico Varrone and Nicky Catsburg failed to score a podium for the first time this season, the No. 33 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R now sits at 174 points.

The resulting points lead can no longer be overhauled by the rest of the GTE-Am field in the two remaining races in Fuji and Bahrain.
Keating retained his GTE-Am title from last year in the process, while Varrone and Catsburg both wozn their first WEC crowns.

The American squad ran near the front in the opening phase of the race, but dropped back due to a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pitlane.
The No. 33 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R then fought back with Varrone at the wheel, even taking the lead by passing the No. 86 GR Racing Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Riccardo Pera round the outside at Variante Ascari.

Corvette then dropped behind the No. 77 Dempsey-Proton Porsche of Christian Ried, Mikkel Pedersen and Julien Andlauer, which went on to win the race, and the No. 60 Iron Lynx entry when Catsburg took the car over in the penultimate hour.
The Dutchman eventually also conceded third place to the GR Racing squad, which completed the podium with Pera, Ben Barker and Mike Wainwright at the wheel of the No. 86 Porsche.

 

[teamzr1]

MONZA, Italy (July 9, 2023) – Campionato, Corvette!

Corvette Racing clinched the GTE Am Drivers and Teams titles in the FIA World Endurance Championship on Sunday with a fourth-place finish at the Six Hours of Monza for the trio of Nicky Catsburg, Ben Keating and Nico Varrone. The No. 33 Corvette C8.R team finished ahead of its closest championship competitors to wrap up the program’s first title in WEC competition.
It’s been a dream season for Corvette Racing with three victories – the 24 Hours of Le Mans, 1000 Miles of Sebring and Six Hours Portimão – in addition to a runner-up finish at the Six Hours of Spa.

“Congratulations to Ben Keating, Nicky Catsburg and Nico Varrone on their championship in the first year for Corvette Racing in the World Endurance Championship’s GTE Am class,” said Mark Stielow, Director, Chevrolet Motorsports Competition Engineering.

“This was not an easy accomplishment, despite the results this season. The strategy and execution by the entire Corvette Racing team, the drivers, the crew and the engineers has been excellent throughout the season.
This was a deep and competitive class, and we are grateful that Corvette Racing has come out on top. It gives us great momentum going into the end of the season and 2024 when the Corvette Z06 GT3.R customer program arrives in WEC.”

There were a number of scenarios in play to clinch the title. The most straight-forward options were to win or finish second Sunday, or place ahead of its two nearest challengers, the No. 25 TF Sport and No. 85 Iron Dames entries. The latter worked just fine.

Keating set the tone for the Corvette team early. He started sixth but picked up spots on consecutive laps to run third prior to a safety-car period at the 15-minute mark. The Corvette crew elected to bring the C8.R into pitlane for a fuel top-off. By the time Keating made his second stop at 80 minutes running, he had worked his way back up to second as the varying pit strategies came into view.

He gave way to Varrone just past the two-hour mark, but a rare in-race mistake meant the C8.R was called in for a drive-through penalty due to speeding in the pitlane. Varrone slid back to sixth but steadily worked his way back to the lead with strong pace and the pit stop cycle.
By the time his driving time was complete just prior to the four-hour mark, the C8.R ran third but less than four seconds from the leader.

Catsburg drove the final 92 minutes, but was unable to make in-roads to the podium finishers – all of which were from the same manufacturer and ran more than 100 pounds lighter than the Corvette.
The C8.R carried 40 additional kilograms of “success ballast” in accordance with GTE Am sporting rules. That is due to the victory in the previous race at Le Mans, 10 kilograms for taking the runner-up spot at Spa (the race prior to Le Mans) and another 15 for leading the championship. In addition, the C8.R received 10 additional kilograms of pre-event weight by the rules-makers, making the Corvette 50 kilograms (110 pounds) heavier than how it began the season at Sebring.

The next round for Corvette Racing in the FIA WEC is the Six Hours of Fuji on Sunday, September 10.

NICKY CATSBURG, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – FIA WEC GTE AM CHAMPION:

“Honestly, this season might have been one of my nicest in motorsport. It has been so cool, right from the start. It was always very relaxed with not a lot of pressure. Somehow, the results just kept coming. I cannot deny that we have a great car, a great team and we have an awesome lineup. But we still need to execute, and I feel like we did that really well.
Today I feel like we should have come away with a podium. We got a little bit unlucky with some of the safety car situations, but we did great. It’s super, super cool to be able to call myself a World Champion. I think I had won it before with a team, but not as a driver. So I’m really, really happy!”

BEN KEATING, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – FIA WEC GTE AM CHAMPION:

“I’ve said it over and over, but in this championship and in each one of the five races we’ve had, it has been a true team performance overall. You win as a team, and you lose as a team, but we’ve also been lucky in quite a lot of places. It’s just been a magical season. Everyone kept talking about us needing to finish first or second in order to clinch the championship here.

I kept saying it was more about where the 25 and 85 finished rather than where we finished. We weren’t really racing for that. We were racing to be as far up in the order as we possibly could be.
Furthermore, we had an excellent race.

It’s been an amazing season. I keep on joking that because we’ve finished fourth, we get to lose 10 kilograms in success ballast! Now we can really start pushing hard because we don’t have to be conservative. Just kidding! It’s been a great season. I’m really proud of everyone on the Corvette Racing team.”

NICO VARRONE, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – FIA WEC GTE AM CHAMPION:

“This means quite a lot. It feels very weird at the moment but means so much.
To say that we are World Champions is just an amazing feeling. I’ve been working for this since I was 8 years old and started driving karts.

I didn’t imagine it was going to be so early. As Ben said, this was all teamwork all season.
We’ve all done a great job, the three of us as teammates, the engineers and the pit crew has been amazing. We did a fantastic job.

Today we weren’t racing for the win and couldn’t make it. But finishing fourth and sealing the title already with two rounds to go is just amazing