Corvette Racing wrapped up its factory-backed chapter in IMSA on October 14th, 2023 at Petit Le Mans, and though things didn’t go the way The Bow Tie hoped, there’s still one more shot to turn things around before sending off the factory ‘Vette race cars for good. Now, the organization eyes its final outing in the FIA World Endurance Championship as a manufacturer program at Bahrain on November 4th, 2023.
The No. 33 Corvette Racing C8.R will take to the track with Nicky Catsburg, Ben Keating and Nico Varrone tag-teaming the eight-hour race. It won’t be difficult for The Bow Tie to close things out on a high note, as the team already has the GTE Am win in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the 1,000 Miles of Sebring and the Six Hours of Portimão.
Additionally, the No. 33 C8.R has not posted a result worse than fourth place thus far this season, and has already nailed down the GTE Am Drivers and Teams championship, both of which were secured two months ago at Monza.
“The pressure is a little bit off, but it is a weekend I’m looking forward to. It’s our last weekend together with this team in WEC with the C8.R and the GTE cars. It’s kind of like a weekend of goodbyes,” Catsburg said. “It will be great to be back with the guys again, driving a car that I love to drive, and being with Ben and Nico again.”
Varrone echoed Catsburg’s bittersweet sentiment, stating, “It’s crazy. This has been a dream season. We won a lot of races, won the championship three races early, we won Le Mans as well. It’s been a fantastic season and we’ve had so much fun that it went so far, which is sad a little bit.”
While its factory-backed days are behind it, Corvette Racing isn’t gone for good in IMSA or the WEC. It will live on in the new Corvette Z06 GT3.R, which will take to the track as part of the organization’s customer racing program.
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Sad to see factory backed corvette racing ending, especially with such awesome corvettes now .. racing is expensive , and super expensive at that level (one of many reasons they’re out) … so even though customer based racing is always available, whether with a customer racing program” or not it will be very difficult for a customer racing program to compete at that level against other factory backed teams.