At the centenary celebration of the world’s best known sports car race, the 25th season of Corvette Racing, the last year of the GTE class, and the last year for the Corvette C8.R, Corvette Racing came out victorious in its class for the ninth time at Le Mans. The #33 Corvette was driven by the trio of Nicky Catsburg, Ben Keating and Nico Varrone, who drove the car to Corvette’s first Le Mans win since the C7.R won in 2015.
Keating had just been called in for wet-weather tyres when the safety car came out. This should have given the #33 one lap back and placed it ahead of the class leaders who needed to stop for their wet-weather tyres. In a classic “stuff-up” when a group of cars, including the class leader were allowed to prematurely exit pit lane ahead of the Corvette, which trapped it behind the class leader instead of in front. Was Michael Masi officiating? However, Varrone continued to drive at a furious pace for a triple stint, lapping between four and seven seconds faster than the rest of the GTE-Am field initiating an incredible fight back.
But this was no easy victory for Corvette. After capturing pole position for the class Corvette #33 led the GTE-Am class for the first two hours of the race until it a right-front damper replacement, dropping it two laps behind the leading pack. Pole winner Keating then set out to grasp back the lost time with heavy rain falling over most of the circuit.
Amateur racer Keating then took over for another triple stint during the night, pegging back the field with great work by the pit team and flawless running by the Corvette, which needed no more than fuel and tyres for the remainder of the race. Then, with 6 hours of the race remaining, the mighty #33 was back in the lead of the GTE-Am class. The Corvette had critically picked up a full pit stop on the opposition with its flawless running.
Having retaken the class lead, the Corvette stretched its lead to finish a full two minutes ahead of the second placed Aston Martin, with the third placed Porsche 911 RSR a further 57 seconds back.
NICKY CATSBURG: “This is the one race that I wanted. Now I have all the big ones, so this is super awesome. Even yesterday afternoon, I didn’t think this was possible. But somehow we made it back to the front. These two guys drove unbelievably fast and all of a sudden we were back in contention and won with a massive lead. It’s an unbelievable feeling”.