Corvette Racing wrapped up the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) with a bang at Bahrain on November 2nd, 2024. TF Sport’s two Corvette Z06 GT3.R commanded second and third in the LMGT3 class, marking the organization’s first double-podium finish in the WEC.
Charlie Eastwood, Tom Van Rompuy, and Rui Andrade split the wheel of the No. 81 Corvette Racing Z06 GT3.R, bringing up second place in the LMGT3 class, while the No. 82 Z06 GT3.R of Daniel Juncandella, Hiroshi Koizumi, and Sebastian Baud followed in third. Both race cars battled to the front and led for portions of the race; the No. 81 Corvette showed the way six different times for a total of 81 laps, the most of any competitor.
In fact, the No. 81 Vette had to battle its way back from eighth to the front not once, but twice during the eight-hour endurance race. Van Rompuy galloped past six cars after starting eighth, closing out his first stint in second place before swapping the controls. However, as the race wore on, the No. 81 Corvette fell victim to competitors with fresher tires.
Andrade completed his stint and handed the race car to Eastwood, who was faced with muscling back toward the front from back in eighth place once again. Eastwood set the No. 81 Corvette Racing machine in the right direction and recovered to second place by the time the checkers dropped.
“The race was great from start to finish from us. We got super-unlucky with the first VSC and the timing of it. We weren’t able to change tires and most of the class were,” Eastwood said. “We didn’t give up until the very end. We got it down to three seconds but it wasn’t enough. But ultimately for the team to finish with a double-podium is a fantastic result.”
The No. 82 Corvette Z06 GT3.R had its own class of challenges to overcome. Koizumi started 10th, but was served a stop-and-go penalty for avoidable contact in the opening laps. He was sent back out on track in 16th place, but the combined efforts of Juncadella and Baud got the No. 82 Vette back to the front of the line as they took advantage of several full-course yellows to advance their position. However, colder tires relegated the No. 82 Vette to third place, just behind their sister entry.
“Congratulations to TF Sport, team owner Tom Ferrier, the drivers and all the members of the team on today’s double-podium to close the FIA WEC season in Bahrain – the first in this championship for the Corvette Z06 GT3.R,” said Mark Stielow, Director, GM Motorsports Competition Engineering. “It has been exciting to watch the team continually work and extract more and more from their Corvettes at each event this year. This is a great way not just to end 2024 but also use this as a springboard to bigger and better things in 2025.”
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