Corvette Racing took to the track at two different venues on May 11th through 12th, 2024, tackling Laguna Seca in California and Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium, and their results couldn’t be more different.
At Laguna Seca, the No. 4 Corvette Z06 GT3.R muscled its way to a podium finish for the first time this season as Nicky Catsburg and Tommy Milner finished third in the two-hour, 40-minute IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race. Catsburg led early from the pole position, paced by a fellow Corvette Racing team, the No. 3 Z06 GT3.R of Antonio Garcia and Alexander Sims, but fell to third at the end of the race.
Unfortunately, pit strategy did not favor the No. 3 Corvette duo, who fell back after a pit stop and couldn’t find the speed to get back to the front. Both the No. 4 and No. 3 Corvettes ran within one second of each other, though they appeared to struggle once mired in traffic. Meanwhile, Matt Bell and Orey Fidani’s No. 13 Corvette finished 11th in the GTD class.
At Spa, meanwhile, things weren’t as smooth for Corvette Racing. The No. 82 Vette of Daniel Juncandella, Sebastien Baud, and Hiroshi Koizumi completed the six-hour race but just didn’t have the speed they needed to contend with the leaders, finishing 12th in the FIA WEC event, earning no points.
The No. 81 Corvette tag-teamed by Tom Van Rompuy, Rui Andrade, and Charlie Eastwood didn’t have a finish to write home about, either. While they were running well early in the race, the gearbox let go, forcing the No. 81 Vette team to turn in just before the halfway point of the race.
“The race was looking good. We were good on strategy and was managing to save a lot of fuel and energy behind the pack that was in front of me,” Andrade said. “The race looked like it was going to come to us in the end. Unfortunately these things happen. Now its full focus toward Le Mans and we’re going to give everything to win the big one.”
Endurance racing’s crown jewel, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, is up next on June 15th through 16th, 2024.
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Comments
What Triumph’s were they racing?
TR6’s??
You’re a moron…they were racing Porsche, Lamborghini, Aston Martin, BMW, McLaren, Mercedes and Lexus!!!
The 3-4 were fast in clean air but had trouble with down force in traffic. They are gaining ground on the cars in development
They qualified 1-2 which shows great pace, but they did have problems in traffic. The one comment I heard from one of the drivers was that they didn’t have enough horsepower to pass on the straights and that passing in the turns was almost impossible because of the lack of traction off the racing line.
Hopefully there will be a little BOP adjustment to help them down the straights or it’s going to be a tough go at Le Mans.
Laguna Seca is my fav track day circuit 🏍️