Corvette Racing will go to this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans as the reigning GTE-Pro class champions. The team reminded us all of their dominance last week by successfully defending their Rolex 24 at Daytona title, but they may have a harder time defending the Le Mans trophy after Ford today announced it will field four of its GT racecars in the race.
The Ford GT didn’t strike fear into the hearts of competitors at Daytona last week, finishing 7th and 9th after both cars entered suffered reliability issues, but that’s not to say the team wasn’t strong. They posted fast, competitive times in practice and even passed a Corvette for the lead early on, so they could easily become a force to be reckoned with by the time Le Mans rolls around.
Ford, in partnership with Chip Ganassi Racing, is fielding the GT in both IMSA and the FIA World Endurance Championship this year, giving them access to four cars total. Its current IMSA roster of Ryan Briscoe, Joey Hand, Dirk Müller and Richard Westbrook will be at Le Mans, along with the FIA WEC roster of Marino Franchitti, Stefan Mücke, Olivier Pla and Andy Priaulx. The third drivers for each car have yet to be announced.
Corvette Racing may have the advantage of experience at Le Mans, but Ford will have the advantage of quantity. With four cars on the grid, Ford can not only experiment with different strategies for each but have the cars work together to gain an advantage over the two-car GTE-Pro teams. Both teams will also have the ultra competitive FIA GTE-Pro field to worry about, which consists of entries from Porsche, Ferrari and others.
We’re looking forward to seeing an intense dogfight between the yellow Chevys and red, white and blue Fords come June, as we’re sure the countless other Team Chevy and Ford Performance fans all over America and the world are. Let’s just hope both Corvettes make it to the starting line this year and that Ford can get its reliability in check.
Comments
Yes but Ford will have two well developed Corvettes to deal with at Le Mans.
Ford like GM will have some issues to start with. They will learn and get competitive but that first year is always the toughest.
GM will face the same thing with a Mid Engine car in the near future but they do have Pratt and Miller on the job and it does not get better than that in road racing.
Ford is using their old plan from the 60’s and send a bunch of cars in hopes one will finish up in the standing. GM has always played it tough with two cars.
It is so sweet,To see America’s sport car stop the,the nonsense.Watching it win is so warm,and delightful.Wasting those supposed,European dogs of cars.So much fun.I love the fact it cost a third of a Porsche and kills it on the track,and that shitalian flaming fruit car.Furraggie,cost upwards of four times and yet cant win.These are golden days for the corvette.
Be careful these are not stock Corvettes.
They may be based on production cars but all the cars in this class are very expensive and well built race machines. The lesser classes are more production based.