WEC/F1 6 Hours of Fugi this weekend in Japan

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C8.R Corvette Racing returns to action in the FIA World Endurance Championship this weekend as the series resumes after a lengthy hiatus with Sunday’s Six Hours of Fuji. It’s the second consecutive appearance in the Far East for the newly crowned GTE Am championship-winning team, with aims of continuing what has been a historic season so far.

As they have in the previous five rounds of this year’s championship, the trio of Nicky Catsburg, Ben Keating and Nico Varrone will share the No. 33 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R in its next-to-last race in the WEC. Together, the three drivers and the rest of Corvette Racing have put on a season-long show that ranks as one of the best in series history by any metric.

For starters, there is the collection of three victories, all of them significant: the season-opener at Sebring, a thrilling late-race drive by Catsburg to win in Portugal and, of course, the historic ninth victory at Le Mans for the Corvette program coming from two laps down in the process.
There also were pole-position runs by Keating at Portimão and Le Mans, and Varrone’s fastest GTE Am race lap at the 24 Hours.

All of this led Corvette Racing to clinch a class championship earlier than any previous team in the WEC, regardless of category. Still and even with all those accomplishments, Corvette Racing’s drive to keep collecting race victories with the C8.R remains.
To do so will require the team to win for the first time in Japan, after making its debut at historic Fuji Speedway a year ago in the GTE Pro class with a fifth-place class finish.

As in previous races, the C8.R will run at Fuji with a level of rewards weight due to its successes earlier this year: 15 kilograms for winning Le Mans and 15 kilograms for leading the championship, on top of 10 extra kilograms added to the car’s minimum weight ahead of the Monza round for a total of 40 kilograms – 10 less than at the Italian round.

The Six Hours of Fuji is scheduled for 11 a.m. JST on Sunday / 10 p.m. ET on Saturday. 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:

“I feel like with Fuji coming up, even though we’ve won the championship, that it will not change our approach at all. We will still try to go for race wins.
Personally, I always find Fuji a very difficult track, especially the last sector. It’s very technical and very slow. I feel this could be good for our car, but it’s not a track where I feel like I am on top of things. It will be very challenging.
But this is always one of my favorite countries to visit. Japan is a country that I really love, and I’ll stay a few days after in Tokyo just to spend some time there. I’m really looking forward to seeing all the team again and continue where we left off. I don’t think there will be a different mood because we have already won the championship. So I’m looking forward to the challenge and cannot wait to get on the plane!”

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

“I absolutely love the experience of racing in Japan. Each year I’ve been in WEC, the Japanese fans have been some of the best around the world. They are extremely passionate about the racing, they know the competitors, and the level of respect that have for what we do is tremendous. We are all honored to compete for them this weekend.

“I also really enjoy the track at Fuji. It is a track where you don’t necessarily need the fastest car, but you need one that is well-balanced in terms of pace and handling ability. I hope some of the previous success I’ve had at Fuji can be passed along to the Corvette team.
Yes, we’ve won the championship already but in some ways I think it makes us want to have a solid run in Japan that much more.
I expect a really strong and competitive race. All three classes in WEC are so close and super competitive that I am confident we will put on a good show for the fans.”

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

“It feels like I haven’t been in the Corvette for quite a long time. For that reason, I’m excited to go to Fuji and Japan for the first time there in my career. I have heard from a lot of people on the team how great it is to race in Japan, how nice of a track this is and the warm reception of the fans there. I definitely want us to be big in Japan! This is one of the reasons I am excited to drive for Corvette Racing in WEC.
Of course, having secured the championship already is very nice, too! That doesn’t mean we will simply show up. We want to keep racing hard and going for wins.”

2023 FIA World Endurance Championship – GTE Am
(After five of seven events)

Driver Standings
1. Ben Keating/Nicky Catsburg/Nico Varrone – 145
2. Michelle Gatting/Rahel Frey/Sarah Bovy – 67
3. Ahmad Al Harthy/Charlie Eastwood/Michael Dinan – 65
4. Christian Ried/Julien Andlauer/Mikkel Pedersen – 60
5. Benjamin Barker/Michael Wainwright/Riccardo Pera – 54

Team Standings
1. No. 33 Corvette Racing – 145
2. No. 85 Iron Dames – 67
3. No. 25 ORT by TF – 65
4. No. 77 Dempsey-Proton Racing – 60
5. No. 86 GR Racing – 54
 
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In GTE Am, Ben Keating secured his third pole position of the 2023 season in the No. 33 title-winning Corvette Racing C8.R, with a 1m38.338 with just over four minutes remaining in the first of the three sessions.

Am Qualifying saw multiple cars briefly claim provisional pole, as the times steadily improved across the board when the drivers got used to the grip levels available on the greasy track surface.
But again it would be Keating who would steal the show, with a lap that seemingly came out of nowhere, especially as Corvette hadn’t laid down any markers during practice.

The time bettered the best tour from Iron Dames’ Sarah Bovy by just 0.035, which was good enough for provisional pole for a handful of seconds before the Texan completed his best lap.

“I don’t know why (race engineer) Tyler Neff has to wait until qualifying to give us the excellent setup!” said Keating.
“I went more than two seconds per lap faster in qualifying today than I have at any other time this weekend.
It’s because the setup is that much better. It was so confidence-inspiring. I could really push the car without losing grip, even on a damp track.

“I don’t know what they did, but the car was really nice to drive. I wasn’t expecting to be on the pole.
It’s always so much fun to be that close with Sarah. She did a good job. I thought I had a pretty good lap and then the team said she did a 1:38.3, and I came across the line at a 38.3 and not knowing who was going to be in front. It was super, super close.”

Behind the Corvette C8.R and Iron Dames Porsche, the No. 777 D’Station Racing and No. 98 Northwest AMR Aston Martins took the spots on the second row, with the fastest Ferrari the No. 21 from AF Corse securing fifth on the grid after a strong performance from Hiroshi Koizumi.

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Ben Keating believes there’s “nothing to lose” in the final two FIA World Endurance Championship races of the season, after already clinching the GTE-Am title for Corvette Racing last time out.

Keating and co-drivers Nick Catsburg and Nico Varrone enter Sunday’s penultimate round of the season at Fuji Speedway with an insurmountable lead in the drivers’ championship, following key class victories at the 1000 Miles of Sebring, 6 Hours of Portimao and 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Additionally, the Bronze-rated Texan put the No. 33 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R on pole for the 6 Hours of Fuji, his third top qualifying effort of the season out of seven events.

“It’s been interesting,” Keating told Sportscar365.
“There’s something competitiveness-wise, in the way I approach the weekend, that I’ve questioned my competitive edge.
“OK, we’re still competing for a race win but without that same level of stress of what’s going to happen, it doesn’t have the same level of worry.
“It just feels different.”

Keating explained that the car rolled out of the container struggling for pace in Friday’s pair of Free Practice sessions, prior to an overhaul in setup made before qualifying on Saturday afternoon.

“We were struggling with our setup,” he explained.
“The team has been trying to use everything that they did last year with the GTE-Pro car and the fact is, it’s the same car but two different chassis and for whatever reason they like two different things.
“Every time it hasn’t worked for us in this car. They made some big changes, changing the aero balance, changing the toe, changing the differential, all before qualifying, and it was magical when I got out there,
“Before that, when we are chasing our tail a bit in mixed conditions, it was a weird feeling from my standpoint of saying, ‘I’m not happy with where we are but does it really matter?’

“We have a lot to gain if we can win a race, but we have nothing to lose.”
Keating added: “I think about last year in Bahrain in the Aston Martin. I had to finish the race. I had to finish a certain way and I had to be conservative.
I had to make sure nobody took me out.

“It’s definitely a different mindset of not taking any risks and not letting anybody get close to me. It didn’t really matter if I won the race, as long as I finished.
“This year, you don’t have any of that to worry about. Nobody does for that matter.
“We’re just going to charge hard for the win.”

When asked if there is a different feeling within the Pratt Miller-run camp this weekend, Keating said they’re still in a sort of celebratory mood after already securing nearly all the key objectives for the season.
“Every weekend as a team, we’re all kind of celebrating still,” he said. “It’s fun to be together. It’s fun to talk about being world champions.
“It’s unusual that we’ve achieved it with two races to go.

“The air around the garage has changed. There’s a little bit of a relief, but there’s also a little bit of pride. This was something special this year.
“This season continues to be a fairy-tale season. Every time you think it can’t get any better, it keeps getting better. I’m just trying to soak up and enjoy every last minute.”
 
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Ben Keating put the team’s No. 33 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R on the GTE Am pole position Saturday ahead of Sunday’s Six Hours of Fuji the sixth round of the FIA World Endurance Championship.

Keating, who is teaming with Nicky Catsburg and Nico Varrone, set the best lap of 1:38.338 (103.769 mph) in the championship-winning C8.R. Corvette Racing clinched the GTE Am Drivers and Teams titles in the last WEC round at Monza, Italy, and is seeking its fourth victory of the season.

On Saturday, Keating was just 0.035 seconds clear of Sarah Bovy in the No. 85 Porsche of the Iron Dames team.
The top half of the class was very close, with the six fastest GTE Am cars separated by just 0.673 seconds around the 2.84-mile, 16-turn circuit at the base of Mount Fuji. Keating claimed his third pole position of the season and eighth in the class since the start of 2021 more than any other GTE Am driver.

It was difficult for the full field of 36 cars to get a read on the track during the three practice sessions. Friday’s opening practice and Saturday’s final practice were in mixed conditions, with periods of rain and dry weather. That left Friday’s second practice as the only fully dry running ahead of qualifying.

Still, Corvette Racing engineers made good use of each session with the conditions uncertain heading into qualifying with a variety of tuning and chassis changes in hopes of finding a good balance in the Corvette for not just the 15 minutes but also Sunday’s six-hour race.

As in previous races, the C8.R will race at Fuji with a level of rewards weight due to its successes earlier this year:
15 kilograms for winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans and 15 kilograms for leading the championship, plus 10 extra kilograms added to the car’s minimum weight ahead of the previous round at Monza for a total of 40 kilograms, 10 less than at the Italian round.

The Six Hours of Fuji is scheduled for 11 a.m. JST on Sunday / 10 p.m. ET on Saturday. MotorTrend and MotorTrend
Plus will provide both live television and streaming coverage, as will the FIA WEC app. Radio Le Mans will also stream audio coverage Sunday’s race.

BEN KEATING, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – POLE-WINNER:

“I don’t know why (race engineer) Tyler Neff has to wait until qualifying to give us the really good setup!
I went more than two seconds per lap faster in qualifying today than I have at any other time this weekend. It’s because the setup is that much better. It was so confidence-inspiring. I could really push the car without losing grip, even on a damp track. I don’t know what they did, but the car was really nice to drive.
I wasn’t expecting to be on the pole

It’s always so much fun to be that close with Sarah. She did a good job. I thought I had a pretty good lap and then the team said she did a 1:38.3, and I came across the line at a 38.3 and not knowing who was going to be in front. It was super, super close. Last year being with TF Sport and being teammates with Satoshi Hoshino in the Aston Martin this is his home track and where he lives.

I’m really happy for him to come in P3. It was a little bit of a reunion at tech after qualifying, seeing Sarah and Hoshino down there. It’s a lot of fun. This season continues to be a fairy-tale season. Every time you think it can’t get any better, it keeps getting better. I’m just trying to soak up and enjoy every last minute.

“It was exciting before we left. They asked me what I thought, and I thought it would be the best thing to go out on a drying wet tire. To me, the front straight looked wet. We watched every car around me put on slicks, and so the engineers made the decision to go with slicks from the get-go. When I got around on the back half of the track, it was a lot drier than it was on the front straight.

I came on the radio and congratulated them on making the right call. It was a matter of bringing them up to temperature slowly and not over-driving in the damp conditions. But you only have a 15-minute window to get them up to temperature and take advantage of the peak of the tire to get those extra few tenths. “We made some big, sweeping changes on the car. We had been chasing it a little bit.

I give the engineers such a hard time because it seems like it’s the same at every race we go to!
We’re not exactly sure where we are, but when we get to qualifying, I have a really, really strong setup on the car.
We made some really big changes, and they got it really right. The car felt perfect.
I felt like I could really attack the corners without feeling like I’m walking on eggshells.
Especially in Sector Three, you have to be able to have confidence going through there if you’re going to be fast. It’s the first time I’ve felt that here, and the car felt wonderful.”

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

“As always, it was Ben and Sarah putting on a good show. We had to wait until her last lap to be finished, and Ben did an amazing job. To be fair, I didn’t predict him to be on pole because we were struggling quite a bit in the mixed conditions, but he once again delivered! I’m super happy with that.

“It’s always nice in Fuji. The location at Mount Fuji is an awesome place, and Japan is one of my favorite places to go.
So I always love coming to Fuji, and we’re looking forward to racing here. We’ve been struggling a little bit with the weather conditions, as everyone else has. It’s always in between wet-dry-wet-dry
We haven’t really gotten any valuable data yet, so it will be interested in the race.

You’re right below the mountain and right on the edge of where it starts. It wasn’t supposed to rain today, and it’s been wet the whole day because the clouds just keep sitting here. It’s weird and difficult to prepare for this. You go with certain predictions, and they just do whatever they want.”

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

“This is really cool. Being in Japan for the first time, the people are great and the culture is so different. I’m really enjoying it and getting used to it. '
The track is really fun to drive. It’s really tricky; almost all the last sector is difficult to find where the lines are, so it is tough. But it is better than I expected.
We have a great car, and we worked through all the sessions. And now Ben has taken pole!
It’s been superb so far, and we’re all very happy.”
 
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#33 C8.R ends with a second place finish

The No.54 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo claimed its first win of the 2023 season as it surged to the front in the second half of the race.
Thomas Flohr survived an early contact with the No.33 Corvette Racing Chevrolet C8.R of pole sitter Ben Keating to hand over to teammate Francesco Castellacci in the second hour.

Castellacci was able to hunt down the Iron Dames Porsche 911 RSR 19 and establish the lead before handing over to Davide Rigon who took the checkered flag.
It was the No.54 AF Corse's second victory at Fuji after its 2017 success, and Rigon's first LMGTE Am category win since 2013.

The title winning No.33 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C8.R of Ben Keating, Nicolas Varrone and Nicky Catsburg placed second after eventful race.
Ben Keating collided with Thomas Flohr in the early stages and received a 10-second penalty for the altercation.
But strong fuel saving work by Keating and rapid pace of Varrone and Catsburg ensured they took the runners-up position.

This came after the Kessel Racing Ferrari driven by Ritomo Miyata, Takeshi Kimura and Scott Huffaker was penalized post-race for a late full course yellow infraction, which demoted them to third place.

GTE Am was another thriller, with twists and turns all the way to the end. The No. 54 AF Corse Ferrari of Davide Rigon, Francesco Castellacci and Thomas Flohr took their first win of the season, finishing 19 seconds clear of the #57 Kessel Racing Ferrari that made it a 1-2 for the Italian manufacturer with its best finish of the season.

“Fuji brings us a lot of luck (after the #54 crew won Am previously in 2017). There was a big scare when I was hit by the Corvette, but my past rally experience allowed me to miss the wall. If we are put down, we fight harder and that’s the spirit of the team,” said a delighted Thomas Flohr.

The result would change after the flag, though, as the No. 57 Ferrari received a post-race 10-second time penalty because Ritomo Miyata “didn’t reduce speed to 80 kph within the required time under FCY” during the race.
This promoted the No. 33 Corvette Racing C8.R to second place, adding to what was a rollercoaster race for Ben Keating, Nico Varrone and Nicky Catsburg.

Had the No. 33 not ended up serving two costly penalties, one for the aforementioned contact with the winning No. 54 Ferrari into Turn 10 and another for forcing the GR Racing Porsche off track, Corvette would surely have scored its fourth win of the season. The fuel-saving strategy the team attempted to employ was simply staggering, Ben Keating in the opening stints of the race tasked with trying to limit the car to four pit stops.

“I am a right-foot braker,” Keating said to WEC TV after his stint. “Because I only use my right foot on the pedals, I use a lot less fuel. Turn 1 is downhill, Turn 3 is downhill, and you can save without losing much lap time. They gave me a target to hit.”

But his swipe on Thomas Flohr, which sent the Swiss off track and onto the grass, would force the team in for both a door change at a regular stop and a 30-second stop and hold.

After the penalties were served, Nico Varrone fought hard to claw back the lost time and put the car back into contention before Catsburg’s stint. The second penalty put the final nail in the coffin though, dropping the car to third late in the race, with a margin to the cars ahead that Catsburg was unable to make up before the end of the race.

The penalty for Kessel dropped its Ferrari to fourth. Further back, the No. 85 Iron Dames Porsche, which was in the mix throughout, ended up finishing fourth, ahead of the Project 1 AO 911 RSR 19. The best of the Aston Martins, the No. 98 Northwest AMR Vantage, ended up seventh, behind the No. 77 Dempsey Proton Porsche.
 
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