Jan Magnussen and Mike Rockenfeller will return to Corvette Racing for the upcoming World Endurance Championship round at Circuit of the Americas.
The team had previously announced its intention to race in the upcoming WEC round in Austin, Texas in order to put some additional mileage on its brand-new Corvette C8.R, but it was initially unclear which of its drivers would participate in the six-hour race. Corvette Racing has now revealed fan-favorite driver Magnussen, who lost his full-time ride with the team to Jordan Taylor for 2020, will drive the sole No. 63 entry in the race, sharing it with Mike Rockenfeller.
Rockenfeller is another former Corvette Racing driver making his return to the American team. The German driver previously served as the third driver of the No. 3 car for endurance events, but had to back out from his Corvette commitments this year due to date clashes with the DTM series. His seat is filled by Dutch driver Nicky Catsburg for 2020.
Additionally, both Magnussen and Rockenfeller will be back behind the wheel of the No. 63 C8.R for the WEC 1000 Miles of Sebring in March. This split driver strategy allows the full-time Corvette Racing drivers to focus on their IMSA commitments, while the experienced Magnussen/Rockenfeller duo focuses on logging miles in the two U.S. WEC rounds.
“These two events provide us the opportunity to obtain further learnings on the new Corvette C8.R while competing against world-class competition,” Mark Kent, Chevrolet Director of Motorsports Competition, said in a statement. “Having experienced Corvette drivers such as Jan and Mike in the car will provide us a good opportunity to contend for the win in the very competitive World Endurance Championship series.”
Jan Magnussen
While Magnussen is no longer a full-time Corvette Racing driver, he raced the Corvette C5-R, C6.R and C7.R and was involved in the C8.R’s development, so any input he can provide during the COTA and Sebring weekends will be valuable to the team.
“I’m very happy to be back with Corvette Racing at Circuit of The Americas and Sebring with the mid-engine Corvette C8.R,” the Dane said. “For some time, we have been working together on plans for additional races that will help develop and prepare the team and mid-engine Corvette for the IMSA season and hopefully other big races this year. Even in early testing, I was very impressed with the level of engineering and performance of the C8.R. I’m excited to drive it again, now in race conditions.”
The FIA WEC 6 Hours of COTA will go green on Sunday, February 23rd.
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