Customer teams (vs the factory Corvette Racing team) will carry the flag for Corvettes at Le Mans for the second straight year and the foreseeable future.
The 24-hour race on June 14-15, 2025 is the fourth (and most important race) in the eight race World Endurance Championship Series.
WEC rules require teams to enter all eight races. 12 cars are signed up for the LMGT3 Class.
The UK-based TF Sport team has two Z06 GT3.R Corvettes. Ben Keating from Texas is the lead driver for the # 33 and Tom Van Rompuy from Belgium the is lead driver for the # 81.
The Canadian AWA Team of Andrew Wojteczko received a special invitation from the WEC for their Corvette that normally races in the IMSA GTD Class. Orey Fidani is the lead driver for the # 13 Z06 GT3.R, decked out in red for the occasion.
Back in the days
The Briggs Cunningham (3 cars) and the Camoradi team (1 car) were the first Corvettes at Le Mans in 1960. John Fitch & Bob Grossman piloted the # 3 Corvette to a dramatic win while the 2 others dropped out; and the # 4 Camoradi Corvette fell short of the distance to be classified.
The Corvette team of Frenchman Henri Greder appeared in 1969 through 1975, assisted by Belgian-born Corvette Chief Engineer Zora Arkus Duntov who also had raced at Le Mans.
John Greenwood entered Le Mans three times under Zora’s tutelage: in 1972 & 1973, shod with BFG tires and in 1976 with his eponymous widebody design.
Reeves Callaway and his Callaway Competition cohorts from Germany entered their slick fourth-generation Corvettes from 1994 through 1997. At their first outing, Race Officials strongly advised Callaway to enlist a French driver. Well after the sun went down, Michel Maisonneuve missed instructions to stop for fuel, ran out of gas on the Mulsanne straight and walked away into the night. Of course the pompous Race Officials disqualified the # 51 Corvette.
A shoestring effort by Doug Rippie entered “the mother of all” IMSA supercharged ZR1 Corvettes in 1995. The car was sold off in Europe after it blew up just past halfway.
The GM-backed Corvette Racing Team followed with the revolutionary new C5, C6, C7 and C8 Corvettes that won the most races for GT Sports Cars in the history of Le Mans.
A book by Nigel Dobbie catalogs C5 thru C7 which you can order via this link:
Photo credits: WEC, AWA, Greenwood Archives, Richard Prince
