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TF Sport Corvette Racing Pulls Off Season-Best Finish At Fuji 2024

A fourth-place LMGT3 finish was more than enough cause for Corvette Racing team TF Sport to celebrate a Fuji on September 15th, 2024. The result marked the season’s best for the organization thus far, thanks to the expertise of Charlie Eastwood, Rui Andrade and Tom Van Rompuy behind the wheel of the No. 81 Corvette Z06 GT3.R in the six-hour sprint.

The No. 81 Corvette was clearly one to beat. It spent quite some time showing the way for the LMGT3 field, although contact from a Hypercar competitor snuffed out the trio’s hopes of winning. The spin sent Eastwood, who was driving at the time, plummeting from fourth in the standings to 11th place.

He quickly gathered the race car back up and drove the wheels off the No. 81 Vette in the final 75 minutes of the race, regaining seven positions before the checkered flag flew. His incredible feat earned him the Goodyear Wingfoot Award, which is granted to the LMGT3 driver who achieves the best stint during the race.

“What could have been, once again. We were in a really good spot the whole race,” Eastwood explained. “The Corvette was really flying and we were in the podium spots. Unfortunately a Hypercar missed his braking into the last corner and spun us around. He got a drive-through [penalty] for it, but it was no real consolation to what it did to our race. The positive is that we came back from P11 to P4, chased down the podium cars and didn’t give up until the finish.”

TF Sport’s other entry, the No. 82 Vette of Daniel Juncadella, Sebastien Baud, and Hiroshi Koizumi, didn’t have the chance to find out if it had the same speed as its sibling. Koizumi completed his stint and brought the No. 82 Corvette Racing machine down Pit Road for the team’s first pit stop from fifth place, but the race car wouldn’t refire.

The team lost 10 laps as they swapped out the starter, but after the No. 82 Vette was turned back out, it suffered from loss of power within the final hour, forcing the team to retire from the race.

Alexandra is a Colorado-based journalist with a passion for all things involving horsepower, be it automotive or equestrian.

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  1. I note it talks about the racing Corvettes being ZO6s. When will they be using the ZR1 twin-turbo engine?

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