Bad weather and even worse luck forced Corvette Racing to settle for a fourth-place finish in the FIA World Endurance Championship round from Spa-Francorchamps.
Corvette Racing qualified third in class for Sunday’s running of the 6 Hours of Spa – a very strong result given the team’s lack of experience on the Belgian circuit compared to its Europe-based rivals. Tandy started the race behind the two factory-backed Porsche 911 RSRs, which locked out the front row on Saturday, and managed to hang onto the back of the two German entries throughout the opening stint.
As the two Porsches made their first pit stops, Chevy elected to leave Tandy out for one more lap as they sought to move into the lead with an undercut. A very untimely safety-car period then came out for a heavy prototype crash, with the subsequent red flag closing the pit entry and exit just before Tandy could make it into the pits. This meant the British driver had to stop for a five-second emergency service for fuel once racing got back underway and forgo strong track position.
That bit of bad luck put the No. 64 Corvette C8.R a lap down, as Tandy wasn’t allowed to leave the pitlane until the rest of the GT and prototype field completed a lap past the pit exit due to specific WEC regulations. Tandy stayed in the car, however inclement weather forced two more red flag stoppages, making it hard for the Chevy to make up ground to the race-leading Ferrari. Tandy handed driving duties over to Tommy Milner just past the halfway mark, who eventually began to struggle on the grooved Michelin rain tires as the track dried. The American stopped once more to hand the baton back to Tandy for the final 30 minutes, with the Chevy squad settling for fourth in class. The 51 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo of AF Corse took top honors overall.
Click here for full results from the FIA WEC 6 Hours of Spa. The next FIA WEC race of the season for Corvette will be the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June, in which the Chevy factory team will be present with its usual two-car lineup.
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Comments
This wasn’t the season opener! That was the 1000 Miles at Sebring, which happened in March.
At least this C8 didn’t get hit with 175 lbs…