CORVETTE RACING AT COTA: Corvette’s Home Race

TF Sport looking for season’s best FIA WEC result in series’ lone American stop

 DETROIT (August 27, 2024) – TF Sport and the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R program come full-circle this weekend as the FIA World Endurance Championship returns to Circuit of The Americas for the first time since 2020 at the six-hour Lone Star Le Mans.

Two of the TF Sport-run Corvettes are set for Sunday’s race around the 21-turn, 3.4-mile circuit in Austin. It’s the lone visit to the U.S. for the FIA WEC and the pair of first-year GT3.Rs that are part of the LMGT3 class.  However, it isn’t the first race for the Corvettes at COTA this season as the Corvette swept both rounds of GT World Challenge America.

Despite a difference in weather conditions – May vs. September and tires – Pirelli vs. Goodyear – there are significant lessons that can carry over to the WEC round.

From an engineering perspective, suspension and other points in chassis setup – with validations from Chevrolet’s Driver in the Loop simulator – should provide a solid baseline for when TF Sport arrives at COTA and hits the track for Friday’s first practice.

The squad has previous success at COTA with a GTE-Am class win in the last FIA WEC event at the track in 2020. Corvette factory driver Charlie Eastwood was part of the winning lineup and was part of the program’s first test with the Corvette Z06 GT3.R roughly a year ago.

Eastwood will continue in the No. 81 Corvette alongside full-season teammates Tom Van Rompuy and Rui Andrade – each of which will compete at COTA for the first time. So will all three members of the No. 82 Z06 GT3.R lineup: while Hiroshi Koizumi, Sebastien Baud and factory driver Daniel Juncadella, who also tested the Corvette for the first at COTA last August.

The Lone Star Le Mans is scheduled for 1 p.m. CT on Sunday, September 1. MotorTrend TV will air live television coverage with streaming coverage on the FIA WEC app and the MAX app in the U.S. Radio Le Mans also will stream audio coverage of Saturday’s final practice and qualifying, plus Sunday’s race.

TF SPORT PRE-EVENT DRIVER QUOTES

CHARLIE EASTWOOD, NO. 81 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: "In general it's a fantastic track. It’s undergone some repaving so it will be interesting to see what happens with that. I have fond memories of COTA. The last time we were there in WEC we won the race, which was a great result. It also was the very first place I got to drive the Z06 GT3.R a year ago in the heat of the summer, which is what we're going to have. I think it will suit the car very well. Degradation will be a key – in the middle of summer in Austin it's not going to be cool at all – so managing that from the outset will be important. I'm looking forward to it. Brazil wasn't a great result but we showed some strong pace, which at the minute is what we need to show. We've got a bit of confidence going in.

"The three sectors are three different racetracks, for sure. The first is super-high speed. You really have to have a good aero platform to get through. It's still seven corners but they're almost all high-speed so you need a good car under you. The middle sector is super-tricky with really long apexes and really late apexes. Then going to the final sector you still need a really good car under you. There is a lot of speed so the deg will be high. It's a really tricky track to get it fully hooked up. It's a super-long lap with a lot of high-speed corners with a lot of corners... it'll test both the car and the drivers. Hopefully we can put everything together for a good result."

RUI ANDRADE, NO. 81 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “I’m very excited to race in COTA for the first time. The track is incredible and to race a Corvette in the USA is such an amazing opportunity. The season hasn’t been easy for us but we are taking steps forward, and in Brazil we saw some good steps in performance. I can’t wait to hit the track and give it our all to try and chase some trophies.”

DANIEL JUNCADELLA, NO. 82 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: "COTA will be quite a special event for me. I've never raced at COTA but I did my first test there in a Corvette GT3 last August. So it's cool to close out my first proper year of driving Corvettes at COTA. With it being the home WEC race for the Corvette should be a good event. The track is cool. Watching on TV, you always think it's not super-exciting because there is so much asphalt runoffs there. But when I drove there last year, I was quite impressed by the combination of high-speed corners, the fast changes of direction and elevation. It's quite interesting and I really enjoyed it, even though I only drove maybe 20 or 25 laps. So it should be cool. It will be difficult to manage the heat so that will play a big role in terms of strategy and how we manage the tires. These are a couple of good ingredients to make the race quite exciting for everybody. Hopefully we can navigate those and get our best result for the season."

2024 FIA World Endurance Championship Points

LMGT3 Drivers Standings

1. Aliaksandr Malykhin/Joel Sturm/Klaus Bachler – 100

2. Morris Schuring/Richard Lietz/Yasser Shahin – 75

3. Augusto Farfus/Darren Leung/Sean Gelael – 74

4. Alex Riberas/Daniel Mancinelli/Ian James – 55

5. Alessio Rovera/Francois Heriau/Simon Mann – 49

20. Charlie Eastwood/Rui Andrade/Tom Van Rompuy – 11

22. Daniel Juncadella/Hiroshi Koizumi/Sebastien Baud – 10

LMGT3 Teams Standings

1. No. 92 Manthey PureRxcing – 100

2. No. 91 Manthey EMA – 75

3. No. 31 Team WRT – 74

4. No. 27 Heart of Racing Team – 55

5. No. 55 Vista AF Corse – 49

15. No. 81 TF Sport – 11

17. No. 82 TF Sport – 10

CORVETTE RACING AT COTA: By the Numbers

• 3: Generations of Corvette Racing entries at COTA since 2013 – Corvette C6.R (2013), Corvette C7.R (2014-2019) and the mid-engine Corvette C8.R – which raced at COTA for the first time in WEC competition in 2020 – and Z06 GT3.R, both of which are eighth-gen Corvettes

• 4: Class wins at COTA for Corvette Racing entries in two championships: IMSA and GT World Challenge America. Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen won twice in ALMS GT/WeatherTech Championship GTLM. Tommy Milner and Alec Udell won in GT World Challenge America earlier this year in the first wins for the Corvette Z06 GT3.R

• 8: Wins this year for the Corvette Z06 GT3.R including two earlier this year at Circuit of The Americas

• 14: Manufacturer Championships for Chevrolet and Corvette Racing since 2001

• 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, Portimão, Portland, Road America, Road Atlanta, Sebring, Sonoma, St. Petersburg, Texas, Trois Rivieres, Utah, VIR, Washington DC and Watkins Glen

• 51: Number of drivers in Corvette Racing entries since 1999. DXDT Racing’s Bryson Morris joined the list at Road America in GT World Challenge America

• 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

• 135: Victories worldwide for Corvette Racing – 116 in IMSA, nine at Le Mans, three in the FIA WEC and seven in GT World Challenge America

• 302: Event starts by Corvette Racing entries since 1999, starting with that year’s Rolex 24 At Daytona. No. 300 came in early August at Road America in IMSA

• 3845.40: Number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing in its eight previous events at Circuit of The Americas. That represents 24 trips across the Texas Panhandle.

• 387,712.20: Total number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing since its inception. 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. That means Corvette Racing has raced to the moon and more than halfway back!

Corvette Racing at Circuit of The Americas

2013 – IMSA

No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Antonio Garcia/Jan Magnussen – 1st in GT

No. 4 Corvette C6.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 11th in GT

2014 – IMSA

No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Antonio Garcia/Jan Magnussen – 9th in GTLM

No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 10th in GTLM

2014 – FIA WEC

No. 65 Corvette C7.R: Tommy Milner/Jordan Taylor/Ricky Taylor – 7th in GTE Pro (FIA WEC entry)

2015 – IMSA

No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Antonio Garcia/Jan Magnussen: 6th in GTLM

No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner: 8th in GTLM

2016 – IMSA

No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Antonio Garcia/Jan Magnussen: 3rd in GTLM

No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner: 5th in GTLM

2017 – IMSA

No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Antonio Garcia/Jan Magnussen: 1st in GTLM

No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner: 7th in GTLM

2020 – FIA WEC

No. 63 Corvette C8.R: Jan Magnussen/Mike Rockenfeller: 6th in GTE Pro

2024 – GT World Challenge

No. 63 Corvette Z06 GT3.R: Tommy Milner/Alec Udell – 1st,1st in Pro

No. 08 Corvette Z06 GT3.R: Bryan Sellers/Scott Smithson – 6th, 11th in Pro-Am

Team Chevy high-resolution racing photos are available for editorial use.

Ryan Smith
Judy Kouba Dominick