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CORVETTE RACING AT IMOLA: Building on Qatar Performance
CORVETTE RACING AT IMOLA: Building on Qatar Performance
TF Sport team buoyed by pre-race testing at Italian circuit ahead of Round 2
DETROIT (April 16, 2024) – Corvette Racing and TF Sport write their next chapter together this weekend as the team and its pair of Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs travel to Italy for the FIA World Endurance Championship’s Six Hours of Imola.
The goal this time around for TF Sport and Chevrolet is to earn more points in the LM GT3 Drivers, Manufacturers and Teams championship standings. Both the No. 81 and No. 82 Corvettes came away from the season-opening event in Qatar with points and positives to take into the Italian round.
The second round of the championship is at a new venue for the Corvette brand, but not for TF Sport. Already, the team has undertaken a robust testing program at the 3.05-mile, 19-turn circuit in which the two Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs recorded more than 3,000 kilometers. TF Sport has raced just once at Monza but it was a stellar outing – a 1-2 finish in the European Le Mans Series’ GTE class and the LMP2 Pro-Am victory in 2022.
In addition, Corvette Racing has tasted success in Italy during the last two FIA WEC seasons: it won the GTE Pro class at Monza in 2022 with the Corvette C8.R, and the team wrapped up the GTE Am Drivers and Teams titles in 2023 also at Monza.
The FIA WEC’s Six Hours of Imola Prologue is set for 1 p.m. Central European Time / 7 a.m. Eastern Time on Sunday, April 21. MotorTrend and MotorTrend Plus will provide both live television and streaming coverage of the race and Friday’s qualifying, as will the FIA WEC app and the MAX app in the U.S. Radio Le Mans will stream audio coverage of the race plus Friday’s final practice and qualifying.
CHARLIE EASTWOOD, NO. 81 TF SPORT CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: "I feel everyone is thinking the same thing in that it will be a super-tough race with traffic. As we know, Imola has the characteristics of one of the more old-school European tracks. With that, it makes passing between GT3 and Hypercar very difficult. We were testing at Imola a few weeks ago in the Corvette, and the delta of lap time between GT3 and Hypercar was significantly smaller than most circuits. The main reason for this is that at Imola in the GT3 cars, you can take a lot of curbs. There has been a completely new profile of the curbing around most of the circuit so that the GT3s can get right on top of the curbs, which the Corvette was handling very well at the test but the Hypercars cannot; they have to drive around them. So the laptime delta is going to be very small and I feel they are going to struggle to pass the GT cars very easily. So you're going to see a lot of aggression into braking zones and things like that. It's going to be an interesting race and hard to know how it's fully going to pan out. But it will be action-packed and with a chance of some collisions between cars in different classes.
"I have raced at Imola in LMP2. That in itself was very difficult with the traffic. If anything, the Hypercars may struggle even more as they are a heavier car and can't take the curbs as much as the P2s. We might find that some Hypercars may be stuck behind GT3s for half a lap or maybe a third of a lap, which is a significant laptime loss for those guys."
DANI JUNCADELLA, NO. 82 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: "I did a race in 2022 with GT World Challenge at Imola where I finished second. It's a pretty cool track, to be fair, with not much rest between corners; there aren't many long straights so there is a lot of activity in your driving. The Corvette felt pretty good at the test. It was a positive session, and it was positive because my teammates did pretty well. Both Seb and Hiroshi... especially Hiro. He found a lot of speed during the two days, which is very encouraging. As I've said before, our result in the end ultimately depends a lot on their performance. They were both impressive, which is encouraging as a sort of driver coach.
"An interesting feature about Imola is that at most of the corners, there are very high curbs. It's a quite unique driving style because you need to use as much as you can from the curbs. But on the other hand, it's difficult to set up the cars to ride those curbs properly. In the test, we could see that it was quite upsetting when you were beating those big curbs. But there is a way to go through to maximize the car balance and performance.
"Also there is the atmosphere around the corner where Aryton Senna crashed. There is a statue of him, a lot of flowers and a lot of memories. It's always special to be in such an environment. You can feel that vibe around the track."
SEBASTIEN BAUD, NO. 82 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: "I am very much looking forward to participating in this second round of the World Endurance Championship. We have had good preparation with the team and my teammates. And above all, a good analysis of our performances after the first round in Qatar. I am very determined for this six-hour race and also to demonstrate the full potential of the Corvette Z06 GT3.R. Imola is going to be a tricky race with traffic. You will have to remain very attentive, while being quick."
4. Ahmad Al Harthy/Maxime Martin/Valentino Rossi – 18
5. David Rigon/Francesco/Castellacci/Thomas Flohr – 15
10. Daniel Juncadella/Hiroshi Koizumi/Sebastien Baud – 2
11. Charlie Eastwood/Rui Andrade/Tom Van Rompuy – 1
LMGT3 Teams Standings
1. No. 92 Manthey PureRxcing – 38
2. No. 27 Heart of Racing Team – 27
3. No. 777 D’Station Racing – 23
4. No. 46 Team WRT – 18
5. No. 54 Vista AF Corse – 15
10. No. 82 TF Sport – 2
11. No. 81 TF Sport – 1
CORVETTE RACING BY THE NUMBERS: Imola
• 2: Starts for Corvette Racing in Italy – both at Monza in WEC (2022, 2023)
• 3: Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs in competition this weekend – No. 13 of AWA at Long Beach, No. 81 and No. 82 of TF Sport at Imola
• 4: Generations of Corvette ZR1 (C3, C4, C6 and C7). The eighth-generation Corvette ZR1 will be revealed this summer
• 14: Manufacturer Championships for Chevrolet and Corvette Racing since 2001
• 19: Number of street circuit victories for Corvette Racing – more than any other IMSA entrant at the circuit.
• 27: Tracks at which Corvette Racing has won races – Baltimore, Charlotte Motor Speedway, COTA, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park/Mosport, Daytona, Detroit, Houston, Laguna Seca, Le Mans, Lime Rock, Long Beach, Miami, Mid-Ohio, Monza, Portimăo, Portland, Road America, Road Atlanta, Sebring, Sonoma, St. Petersburg, Texas, Trois Rivieres, Utah, VIR, Washington DC and Watkins Glen
• 45: Number of drivers in Corvette Racing entries since 1999. Rui Andrade, Sebastien Baud, Hiroshi Koizumi and Tom Van Rompuy joined the list at Qatar to open the WEC season
• 71: Years since Corvette was introduced to the world on Jan. 17, 1953 in New York City. A total of 300 cars were produced that year
• 127: Victories worldwide for Corvette Racing – 115 in North America, nine at Le Mans and three in the FIA WEC
• 287: Event starts by Corvette Racing since 1999
• 4,225.27: Number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing in its 15 previous trips to Long Beach. That represents 2,147 laps around the 1.968-mile street circuit.
• 371,612.71: Total number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing entries since 1999. To put that in perspective, Corvette Racing is more than halfway to the distance traveled by Apollo 13 – the longest manned spaceflight in history: 622,268 miles
Corvette Racing in Italy (wins in bold)
2022
No. 64 Corvette C8.R: Tommy Milner/Nick Tandy (Monza) – 1st in GTE Pro
2023
No. 33 Corvette C8.R: Nicky Catsburg/Ben Keating/Nico Varrone (Monza) – 4th in GTE Am (clinched GTE Am championship)
I mean, I know they are trying to make the cars as equal as possible, but the differences between the makes and models are what should be celebrated! If not, why not provide each race team with the same cars mechanically, and have them just put their particular body on the chassis. Then, everybody is equal except for looks.
Seems like the GTD class is turning into a pure spec series, as opposed to one where various manufacturers try to get the best out of their cars that is possible (within the rules).
Doug Fehan has talked about this frequently and he is fully in the camp that BoP is needed to keep the series financially viable. This is a perennial topic of discssion, the reality is that if you do not have BoP , you will get a runaway series for cost or a failure of participation (or both). We can all hate BoP, but the next best alternative is worse
a) it could be the same car -> we already have that in LMP3 and Nascar
b) let manufacturers be manufacturers -> Then one team spends alot of money and dominates and the other teams quit. Even with BoP it was hard enough to get teams to race against Corvette Racing and ultimately the division fell apart and now we cannot have factory sponsored teams in GTD Pro. And if that is not the case - bring what you build, then we would not see Corvettes racing 911, it would be a race of unobtaniums like the Ford GT of 2016-2019.
WEC / IMSA are trying very hard to keep the racing affordable. Pratt Miller Corvette Racing is not making any money on this, fans should be worried about whether that program survives financially.
Fidani, Bell set for season’s first street race in No. 13 AWA Corvette
DETROIT (April 17, 2024) – The next chapter in the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R program gets under way this weekend with the first street race for the first-year racecar in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
Orey Fidani, Matt Bell and AWA are set for their first appearance at the Grand Prix of Long Beach, the third round of this year’s GT Daytona (GTD) championship. The 100-minute race features a 27-car grid including 17 production-based GT entries – including the No. 13 Corvette Z06 GT3.R.
The AWA duo is coming off ninth-place class finish in last month’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Cadillac. This time around it’s an all-out sprint race for the No. 13 Corvette with close-quarters racing the norm between the concrete barriers along the 1.968-mile, 11-turn Long Beach street circuit.
Chevrolet and the Corvette brand have been a fixture at Long Beach since the Corvette Racing program first visited Long Beach in 2007. In 15 visits, Corvette GT cars have captured eight victories with two additional in the Corvette Daytona Prototype era. Combined with results from the NTT INDYCAR SERIES, Chevrolet boasts a total of 22 victories in the Grand Prix’s two premier events.
Orey Fidani, Matt Bell and AWA are set for their first appearance at the Grand Prix of Long Beach, the third round of this year’s GT Daytona (GTD) championship. The 100-minute race features a 27-car grid including 17 production-based GT entries – including the No. 13 Corvette Z06 GT3.R.
OREY FIDANI, NO. 13 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “It’s a privilege to be able to be a part of such a historic event. This is a very challenging circuit that requires a lot of focus since the margin of error is so small, but we made some solid progress at Sebring. We’re taking steps in the right direction and doing everything we can to be more and more competitive as the season goes on. The team is working hard as always to give us a great car, and I believe we have some good opportunities to do well in this round.”
MATT BELL, NO. 13 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “Long Beach will be an exciting new challenge for Orey and myself, as we have never been there before. I’VE watched the race many times over the years and always wanted to race there, I’m glad the wait is finally over!
“Our pace and performance across the week at Sebring gave us a good boost of confidence, and I’ve been told that Long Beach has many similar characteristics, so despite the fact that this is a new circuit for us and we have some gaps in knowledge to fill, I have no doubt that AWA and Corvette will give us a car capable of getting a strong result.”
2024 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Points
GTD Drivers Standings
1. Indy Dontje/Philip Ellis/Russell Ward – 725
2. Antonio Fuoco/Giorgio Sernagiotto/Roberto Lacorte – 589
3. Adam Adelson/Elliott Skeer/Jan Heylen – 570
4. Albert Costa Balboa/Cedric Sbirrazzuoli/Manny Franco – 545
5. Francois Heriau/Miguel Molina/Simon Mann – 485
19. Lars Kern/Matthew Bell/Orey Fidani – 347
GTD Teams Standings
1. No. 57 Windward Racing – 725
2. No. 47 Cetilar Racing – 589
3. No. 120 Wright Motorsports – 570
4. No. 34 Conquest Racing – 545
5. No. 21 AF Corse – 485
18. No. 13 AWA – 347
GTD Manufacturers Standings
1. Mercedes-AMG – 751
2. Porsche – 634
3. Lamborghini – 616
4. McLaren – 550
5. Lexus – 527
7. Chevrolet – 505
CORVETTE RACING BY THE NUMBERS: Long Beach
• 3: Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs in competition this weekend – No. 13 of AWA at Long Beach, No. 81 and No. 82 of TF Sport at Imola
• 4: Generations of Corvette ZR1 (C3, C4, C6 and C7). The eighth-generation Corvette ZR1 will be revealed this summer
• 6: Iterations of Corvette GT entries at Long Beach since 2007 – Corvette C6.R GT1 (2007-09, Corvette C6.R GT2/GT (2010-13), Corvette C7.R (2014-2019), Corvette C8.R GTE (2021), Corvette C8.R GTD (2022-2023) and now the Corvette Z06 GT3.R
• 8: Number of drivers who have competed at Long Beach for Corvette Racing – Olivier Beretta, Antonio Garcia, Oliver Gavin, Jan Magnussen, Tommy Milner, Johnny O’Connell, Nick Tandy and Jordan Taylor. That list grows this year with addition of Orey Fidani and Matt Bell in the No. 13 AWA Corvette Z06 GT3.R
• 8: Number of Long Beach victories in 15 appearances for the Corvette Racing program
• 10: Number of Long Beach sports car victories for Chevrolet. Throw in 12 IndyCar wins, and Chevrolet has claimed 22 victories in the event’s two premier races.
• 14: Manufacturer Championships for Chevrolet and Corvette Racing since 2001
• 19: Number of street circuit victories for Corvette Racing – more than any other IMSA entrant at the circuit.
• 27: Tracks at which Corvette Racing has won races – Baltimore, Charlotte Motor Speedway, COTA, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park/Mosport, Daytona, Detroit, Houston, Laguna Seca, Le Mans, Lime Rock, Long Beach, Miami, Mid-Ohio, Monza, Portimăo, Portland, Road America, Road Atlanta, Sebring, Sonoma, St. Petersburg, Texas, Trois Rivieres, Utah, VIR, Washington DC and Watkins Glen
• 45: Number of drivers in Corvette Racing entries since 1999. Rui Andrade, Sebastien Baud, Hiroshi Koizumi and Tom Van Rompuy joined the list at Qatar to open the WEC season
• 71: Years since Corvette was introduced to the world on Jan. 17, 1953 in New York City. A total of 300 cars were produced that year
• 127: Victories worldwide for Corvette Racing – 115 in North America, nine at Le Mans and three in the FIA WEC
• 287: Event starts by Corvette Racing since 1999
• 4,225.27: Number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing in its 15 previous trips to Long Beach. That represents 2,147 laps around the 1.968-mile street circuit.
• 371,612.71: Total number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing entries since 1999. To put that in perspective, Corvette Racing is more than halfway to the distance traveled by Apollo 13 – the longest manned spaceflight in history: 622,268 miles
Corvette Racing at Long Beach (wins in bold)
2007
No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Jan Magnussen/Johnny O'Connell – 2nd in GT1 (Magnussen fastest race lap)
TF Sport was P1 and P2 in the 1st practice session and P1 and P3 in the second for WEC. Over in IMSA, AWA took P1 in the first practice, although the car had wall contact towards the end, hopefully no major damage.
Would limit some enthusiasm, because despite the car having pace, the AM drivers may be a little off (particularly AWA where Fidani was near the bottom of the timing board).
Not great qualifying this weekend. AWA qualified 15th in GTD for today's Long Beach race. With the short race (100 minutes) and difficulty passing there, hard to see a great result, although the car seems to have good pace.
At Imola, neither TF Sport Corvette made the Hyperpole session, and they'll start 11th and 13th in class. A little more time to make up spots with a 6 hour race there.
TF Sport Corvettes seek to make their way through GT3 field after qualifying
IMOLA, Italy (April 20, 2024) – TF Sport and its two Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs will look to race their way through the LMGT3 field following Saturday’s qualifying session ahead of the Six Hours of Imola for the World Endurance Championship.
Tom Van Rompuy led the TF Sport qualifying results with the 11th-fastest class time in the No. 81 Corvette that he will share with Rui Andrade and Corvette factory driver Charlie Eastwood.
Van Rompuy’s best lap of 1:43.897 (105.695 mph) was less 0.2 seconds from making the 10-car Hyperpole session to set the first five rows of the grid. He was the pole-winner for the season-opening race in Qatar.
Teammate Hiroshi Koizumi will start the No. 82 Corvette Z06 GT3.R directly behind Van Rompuy in 13th after his best lap of 1:44.108 (105.509 mph). He will drive with Sebastien Baud and factory driver Daniel Juncadella – the trio having finished 10th after 10 hours at Qatar.
TF Sport tested at Imola in the weeks leading up to this weekend’s event at the 3.05-mile, 19-turn circuit. The Corvettes were 1-2 in Friday’s two practice sessions, but changing temperatures and track conditions Saturday swung the momentum away from the TF Sport entries.
The FIA WEC’s Six Hours of Imola is set for 1 p.m. Central European Time / 7 a.m. Eastern Time on Sunday, April 21. MotorTrend and MotorTrend Plus will provide both live television and streaming coverage of the race, as will the FIA WEC app and the MAX app in the U.S. Radio Le Mans will stream audio coverage of the race.
TOM VAN ROMPUY, NO. 81 TF SPORT CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R - QUALIFIED 11TH IN LMGT3: “This weekend, we didn’t have the package to go for pole. But let’s hope we can have a package for good race pace. It’s a bit of the opposite from last time (Qatar) where we had good qualifying pace but not such a good race pace and some technical issues. We have done quite a bit of work with some small changes or updates from Qatar. One is working better than the other, but we need to keep putting some work on it. For now we are missing a bit of top speed but we will do the best we can as drivers and as a team to make a good effort and try to put a good result together.”
CHARLIE EASTWOOD, NO. 81 TF SPORT CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “Yesterday was amazing. We came here testing and hit the ground running pretty nice. We’re working through a few things on our end so maybe it looked slightly better on paper than it really was. Final practice was a little struggle, but as a team we are learning this new Corvette with every session. The track changed quite a bit today with a lot more rubber down and temperatures increased. We’re adapting with that. Once we start to do more running and get a better picture, we’ll be able to adapt having that experience in this scenario again for the races later in the year. There are a few bits to work on for the long stuff but there is still a lot to play for.”
RUI ANDRADE, NO. 81 TF SPORT CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “There have been some ups and downs. Yesterday we were quite strong, and I think today we took a slight step back with the balance. Besides that, I think we have a strong car and we showed it all day long Friday. I think we have a good package for the race after our testing here. It’s only the second race of the season and the second race for the team with this car, so we are finding things all the time. If we put everything together, we can have a strong race.”
HIROSHI KOIZUMI, NO. 82 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R - QUALIFIED 13TH IN LMGT3: “The feeling of the car isn’t that bad at all. I couldn’t quite get my best lap in during qualifying. But I’m not giving up for the race and I’ll try to get the best position I can in the race. Rather than the car being one that can put in one really fast lap, it’s a car that has good pace over a longer run, so I think we can have a good finishing position tomorrow.”
DANI JUNCADELLA, NO. 82 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “Today was a bit harder. We’re still sorting out some little hiccups here and there. We’re working on the driveability of the engine and still developing further things. We’re getting close to the limits of the power levels. We are still learning. It’s been a difficult weekend for sure because with the curb striking and so on, the torque is very inconsistent but that is the same for everybody. Other than that, everything else feels great. The car balance is very good in the corners and the Corvette is very nice to drive.”
SEBASTIEN BAUD, NO. 82 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “It was a good couple of free practices yesterday. I drove a lot and we all improved. I’m happy because the car is very good and the setup is good for this track. This is my first race in Europe for the WEC, and I really like this track. There are a lot of sponsors and partners here with me. On the track, it’s very difficult because we have a lot of traffic for a track as short as Imola. For the race, it will be very important to be careful in the traffic with both Hypercars and the LMGT3 cars. The car is very good and very fast. The goal for the race is a top-five and I hope the podium.”
I still don't know why Corvette Racing didn't throw a non "pro" driver in their line up and take their cars to Long Beach. Lexus did.
At least they could have sent some team members to assist the #13 car. Maybe they did.
Right now, kinda disappointed with this years results. Hopefully they get better.
I still don't know why Corvette Racing didn't throw a non "pro" driver in their line up and take their cars to Long Beach. Lexus did.
At least they could have sent some team members to assist the #13 car. Maybe they did.
Right now, kinda disappointed with this years results. Hopefully they get better.
DXDT debuts their new Corvette in GT America World Challenge this weekend and released their livery (below). They've also announced their second entry to start next month at COTA with Tommy Milner as one of the drivers.
Believe they'll run the second car in GT America Sprint race this weekend as well.
DXDT also spun off a brand to continue to race one of their AMGs (assuming the deal with Corvette didn't allow them to run a second manufacturer in the same series, but just a guess).
DXDT debuts their new Corvette in GT America World Challenge this weekend and released their livery (below). They've also announced their second entry to start next month at COTA with Tommy Milner as one of the drivers.
Believe they'll run the second car in GT America Sprint race this weekend as well.
DXDT also spun off a brand to continue to race one of their AMGs (assuming the deal with Corvette didn't allow them to run a second manufacturer in the same series, but just a guess).
Once again, a very sweet livery.
Now if the car could only perform as good as it looks!
04-16-2024, 11:53 AM
CORVETTE RACING AT IMOLA: Building on Qatar Performance
