Corvette Racing was forced to withdraw their No. 63 C7.R from the 83rd running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans following a heavy crash while Jan Magnussen was in the car during practice. The unfortunate turn of events didn’t just put a damper on the team’s Le Mans efforts, it also put them one chassis down for the next leg of the Tudor United Sportscar Championship, the Sahlen’s 6 Hours of The Glen.
Withdrawing a car from two races in a row is not an option for Corvette Racing, so they turned to customer team Larbre Competition for help. Late last year Larbre received Corvette Racing’s two C7.R chassis the team used in 2014 and was also conveniently on hand at this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans. The Corvette camp asked Larbre if they could borrow one of their chassis for the next leg of the Tudor series, and team owner Jack Leconte graciously agreed.
“Right now it looks like we’ll probably use the Larbre car for Watkins Glen,” Corvette Racing program manager Doug Fehan confirmed to Sportscar365. “Quite honestly, I don’t think there’s enough time to get the No. 3 car done.”
“It’s through the generosity of Jack Leconte and being part of the team,” he added. “We’re going to use his car to do Watkins Glen. Where (else) does that happen? That’s a pretty cool story in itself.”
The Larbre car will be shipped back to Pratt & Miller’s headquarters in Michigan to be prepped for the upcoming race at Watkins Glen. It was also damaged in practice at Le Mans in the hands of Larbre driver Gianluca Roda and will thus be repaired before being put on the truck to New York.
“That’s the beauty of the Corvette over a monocoque construction because it’s essentially a tube-frame car,” Fehan said. “We have a set of fixtures we’ll put it on and see what’s damaged.”
You can catch Corvette Racing as they go for their third straight endurance race win in North America at Watkins Glen on June 28. Magnussen and teammate Antonio Garcia currently lead the GT Le Mans class driver’s standings with 128 points, while BMW drivers Bill Auberlen and Dirk Werner barely trail them in second with 126 points.
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The Corvette family is mighty strong !