24 Hours of Le Mans: Corvette wins

WECLM GTELMGTE

Jun 14

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Le Mans. The LMGTE Am class cars who lead the race more than 50 laps each.

The race was hotly contested in the LMGTE Am class with 4 cars leading the race more than 50 laps each: #56 Project 1 - AO Porsche 911 RSR-19 leading 78 laps, Corvette Racing leading 66 laps, Iron Dames leading 63 laps with their Porsche 911 RSR-19 and #57 Kessel Racing Ferrari 488 GTE Evo leading 53 laps. Those four led a total of 260 laps (83%)out of the 313 covered by the winning Corvette #33.

Corvette’s ninth class victory at Le Mans

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Le Mans 2023. Corvette C8.R flying to victory Sunday morning.

Nicky Catsburg, Ben Keating and Nico Varrone drove the No. 33 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R to the program’s ninth class victory at Le Mans and first for the mid-engine Corvette sports car. The victorious trio won for the third time in the FIA World Endurance Championship this season and increased its points lead to sxx with three events and 91 remaining in the season.

This weekend’s Le Mans marked the 23rd start of Corvette Racing’s successful run at Le Mans. Its last victory came in 2015 with the seventh-generation Corvette, although the mid-engine C8.R led each of the last two years. The 2022 race was particularly cruel as the No. 64 Corvette was knocked out of the race with six hours to go.

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Le Mans 2023. Ben Keating capturing pole position Thursday.

Keating captured pole position Thursday, the second time this year the Corvette started a WEC race out front. Disaster struck not long after as the Corvette crew had to replace the right-front damper after Catsburg, who started the race, radioed in that something didn’t feel right.

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Le Mans 2023. Corvette Racing pit stop.

The service in the garage was a quick change but it still put the C8.R down two laps. Class pole-winner Keating – who got in the Corvette while the damper was still being fixed – began to claw back time before heavy rain pelted parts of the circuit.

Keating survived the deluge, and Corvette race engineers called him to the pitlane for wet tires. The race’s second safety car period came out moments later, giving the team hope of gaining a lap back because the C8.R would be ahead of the class leader in a train behind one of the three safety cars. For reasons unknown to the team, a group of cars – including the GTE Am leader – were allowed to exit pit lane before the next of the three safety cars came around. The mistake meant that the Corvette was trapped behind the class leader and couldn’t advance around the track to catch back up after all the safety car queues moved.

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Le Mans 2023. Corvette C8.R #33 winning LMGTE AM class.

Undeterred, Varrone drove a speedy triple stint that saw him make up more than a half-lap on the field with times between four and seven seconds quicker than the rest of GTE Am.

The heroics continued into the overnight session as Keating drove a triple-stint in the middle of darkness and kept hope going for a miraculous turnaround. It eventually came – albeit gradually – through fast laps by all three drivers, quick decisions by the engineering team and fast pit stops by the Corvette Racing crew, which never had to bring the C8.R back in the garage, change brakes or do anything much beyond adding fuel and tires.

Daybreak saw the Corvette come alive as the gap came down to one lap, then two minutes, then less than 60 seconds as the drivers, crew and engineers worked their magic. Critically, the #33 C8.R gained a full pit-stop advantage over the other GTE Am contenders inside the final hours to give Corvette Racing a lead they didn’t relinquish the rest of the way.

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Le Mans 2023. Ben Keating before start.

BEN KEATING: “You can look at all the stats about it being the last year of GTE, the Centenary of Le Mans, the 25tth season of Corvette Racing, an American driver racing an American car with an American team… that even doesn’t do this justice. After the first hour when we had to replace the right-front damper, I thought there was no chance. Even when I went to sleep at midnight angry because we didn’t get our lap back because race control messed up, I thought it was over and I was so mad. To wake up and I think we were running in P4 a few hours later, I was baffled. I didn’t understand how in the world we were there. All of our strategy completely went out the window. We had everything lined up and planned exactly how we were going to do it. Nico got sick and I didn’t plan on doing any driving, and I ended up driving from 2 a.m. to 5 a.m. I didn’t plan on doing any driving in the rain, and I ended up having a stint in the rain. Everything got turned on its head. It turned out that it was exactly what we needed to get our laps back. The way we won it is special. To feel like it was out of reach and then watch this team claw back and get victory out defeat’s grasp was really special. It was really nice to feel like I was a part of that. It’s one of those deals where you can look at every member of the team on this win, and you know everyone contributed. That makes it special.”

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Le Mans 2023. Keating, Varrone and Catsburg before start.

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. I could see we were very fast. The only really worry was that I didn’t use our Bronze yet. But whenever we put him in the car, he’s just as fast as anyone else. All of a sudden, there was no deficit anymore.”

NICO VARRONE: “I have no words even though it’s only just been an hour from the end. It’s just been incredible. Our race basically started two laps down early, but the team was so fast in managing to repair it. We went back out and had great pace and a great car. The Corvette Racing team, the engineers and strategy, my teammates Nicky – he’s a legend and did a lot of stints and was really quick – Ben – even though he’s a Bronze, he was flying – all of GM and Chevrolet, my family and everyone… there are a lot of people involved in this. It’s a dream come true.” Source: Corvette Racing

With this third victory in the LMGTE championships, Corvette Racing and the drivers trio increase their advantage to 74 points in both FIA Endurance Trophy for LMGTE AM Teams and FIA Endurance Trophy for LMGTE AM Drivers.

TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage second

Out of the three TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage GTE taking to the track on the asphalt of La Sarthe, the #25 Vantage from ORT by TF Sport with Ahmad Al Harthy, Michael Dinan and Charlie Eastwood, at the wheel was the only one to cross checkered flag still with a brilliant P2.

Al Harthy and his teammates only drove 5 laps ahead of the pack of LMGTE but the #25 Aston Martin Vantage was always on it.

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Le Mans 2023. Michael Dinan, Charlie Eastwood and Ahmad Al Harthy.

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Le Mans 2023. #25 Vantage from ORT by TF Sport.

Porsche third and fourth

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Le Mans 2023. #86 Porsche 911 RSR from GR Racing

The drivers of the #86 Porsche 911 RSR from GR Racing put in a flawless drive. Riccardo Pera, Michael Wainwright and Ben Barker miraculously stayed out of trouble for 24 long hours and secured a podium finish with third place.

Michael Wainwright (Porsche 911 RSR #86): “I’m delighted for me personally, of course, but even more so for our team. We’ve been working towards a result like this for eight years – and it worked out at the centenary celebrations of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, of all places. It was great fun, even though it was pretty wild due to all the incidents. Now, it’s time for some celebrating.” Source: Porsche

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Le Mans. Iron Dames Porsche 911 RSR-19 #85.

Just behind them: the Iron Dames. Rahel Frey, Sarah Bovy and Michelle Gatting matched a 91-year-old record. Back then, France’s Odette Siko had also finished fourth at Le Mans.

The Iron Dames playing the leading roles stint after stint. They fought for victory against the #33 Corvette Racing entry and the #25 ORT by TF Aston Martin.
A final pitstop with a change of brakes inside the 24th and decisive hour dropped them back to fourth place, losing track position to the #86 GR Racing Porsche. As fate intervened, the pink car was denied a top three finish to come home fourth.

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Le Mans 2023. Rahel Frey.

Rahel Frey (Porsche 911 RSR #85): “The race went brilliantly; we made very few mistakes. Everyone in the team did a perfect job both on and off the track. The crew was really strong and supported us one hundred percent. Unfortunately, we didn’t quite maintain the necessary pace at the end to hold on to a podium position. My brakes were struggling at the end. Maybe we did too much braking and not enough accelerating. We deserved more.”Source: Porsche

AF Corse Ferrari fifth

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Le Mans 2023. #54 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo.

T. Flohr, F. Castellacci and D. Rigon end fifth of class with #54 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo. Small consolation for AF Corse which quickly lost two of its three Ferraris, the #21 leaving after 21 laps and Lilou Wadoux having a violent crash with the #83.