TF Sport Corvettes complete an “uneventful” outing at Le Mans

The # 82 Corvette finished 11th and the # 81 Corvette finished 15th in a 23-car field of LMGT3 class contested by Porsche, BMW, McLaren, Ferrari, AMG, Ford, Lamborghini, Aston Martin and Lexus.  A turnout of this size is unprecedented in the annals of sports car racing.

The # 91 Manthey Porsche 911 GT3.R piloted by Austrian Richard Lietz, Morris Schuring from Holland and Aussie Yasser Shahin dominated the race over 24 hours.  There were lengthy full course caution periods with pace cars circulating during heavy rainfall throughout the night.

The TF Sport team focused on finishing the race as neither Z06 GT3.R Corvette could match the 187-mph outright speed of the winning Porsche that completed 281 laps.

The # 81 driven by Belgian Tom Van Rompuy, Rui Andrade from Angola and Irish pro driver Charlie Eastwood stopped just before midnight to repair a faulty clutch and later to swap out the nose, completing 267 laps.

The # 82 driven by Hiroshi Koizumi from Japan, Frenchman Sebastien Baud and Spaniard factory driver Daniel Juncadella, all “first-timers” at Le Mans had better luck, completing 278 laps.

The Pratt & Miller team from the USA has helped TF Sport from the UK develop their Corvettes over the course of six months.  Unlike IMSA GTD cars, WEC LMGT3 cars run on Goodyear tires and have a different performance window featuring torque sensors, virtual energy tanks, aero tweaks.

The Hypercar race, in contrast, was a tense affair right down to the very end with the # 50 Ferrari 499P edging the # 7 Toyota GRO-10 to notch its second consecutive overall win.

TF Sport took delivery of its third Z06 GT3.R, chassis 011 that was on display in the fan village. The Asian Le Mans Series and the European Le Mans Series are being considered.

 The WEC circus jets off to the Interlagos circuit in Brazil on July 12-14.

 Photos by Richard Prince, Nigel Dobbie