Corvette grabs 2nd place in FIA World Endurance Challenge season opener at Sebring
Tommy Milner and brit Nick Tandy fought their way to 2nd place in the # 64 C8.R GTE LM Corvette at Sebring.
It was the opening round of the WEC series that includes the 24 hours of Le Mans in June and ends in the Persian Gulf Monarchy of Bahrain in November.
The specs for the # 64 C8.R Corvette remain the same for last year in the IMSA GTLM class which is now over and done with.
Pits and staging were set up by the long straight right after turn 16 for the 6-hour WEC race that took place separately on Friday March 18, a day before the fabled 12 Hours of Sebring IMSA race that kicks off at 10:00 am on Saturday March 19 and ends in darkness.
Competition for the # 64 Corvette consisted of 2 Factory-backed Ferrari 488 GTE EVO and 2 factory-backed Porsche 911 RSR-19 among a total of 37 cars in 4 different classes, all pictured above.
Tandy and Milner led for the first 2 hours but a heavy crash just before halfway caused officials to stop the race to clear the track.
That erased a valuable lead gained via a bold double-stinting strategy that minimized time lost in the pits vs normally spending more time for fresh tires.
Not to mention several full-course cautions that bunched up the field and lower fuel economy than the Porsches.
2 more red flags for severe thunderstorms stopped the field and then just after 5 hours, a decision by the officials to end the race.
That ultimately cost the Corvette boys the chance to catch the leading # 92 Porsche for the win, while holding off the # 91 Porsche before the checkered flag waved.
A terrific result and more success to come the next day.
Video includes race recap courtesy of Mobil1
Photos, courtesy of Richard Prince and others.
