Corvette Racing has in very many ways been the benchmark team in GTE racing for much of its history.
Laser-focused on its factory fully-pro programmes, which have seen major success almost everywhere that the usually all-yellow cars have raced. It has achieved championship wins, major race wins including at Daytona, Le Mans and Sebring amongst an enviable roll of honour.
The stats speak for themselves. In the GTE era as a factory team Pratt Miller’s Corvette programme achieved three Rolex 24 GTLM wins, four Sebring 12 Hours victories, two Le Mans GTE Pro wins, a GTE Am win at Le Mans, two ALMS GT titles, eight GTLM titles (including three Endurance Cup crowns) and a GTE Am title this year.
Privateer efforts have been limited, though the GTE era is book-ended by success from Larbre Competition in the ILMC, WEC and Le Mans and Corvette Racing with its one-and-only Pro/Am effort in the final year of the GTE Am class taking the world title and Le Mans win in the WEC.
Corvette has been notoriously conservative with its platform changes over the years. The legacy C6.R GT2 started the era before the transition to the phenomenally successful C7.R in 2014, which was one of the longest-serving platforms of the entire history of GTE.
Whilst the C7.R’s final days saw its ultimate pace blunted against more modern and sophisticated opposition, the consistency remained. Look no further than Corvette’s 2018 IMSA title win which featured eight podium finishes but not a single win across the season for Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia.
The perhaps somewhat belated C8.R changed everything, bringing Corvette back into competitive form and introduced a mid-engined format to the story for the first time in its now 70-year history.
Its introduction coincided with the extraordinary circumstances of the COVID Pandemic, which brought with it reduced testing opportunities, numerically shortened seasons and a year (2020) in which Corvette didn’t make the journey to France for Le Mans, for the first and only time in the team’s 25-year history.
A word on the drivers must be uttered to. During the GTE/GTLM era, Corvette, as it always has, remained extremely loyal to its factory driver stable. And that admirable trait was rewarded by some spectacular performances. The results achieved by Oliver Gavin, Tommy Milner, Jan Magnussen, Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor, Corvette’s longest servants, will live long in the memory.
In North America Corvette Racing has long been the most popular team, with the most fans. ‘America’s sportscar’ still holds huge appeal and its international successes have only enhanced that reputation.
The history books talk of Ford vs Ferrari, but the fans trackside have long relished Corvette vs the world.
Corvette platforms:
C6.R 2011, C7.R 2014, C8.R 2020
Teams:
Corvette Racing, Larbre Competition, Team AAI,
By the Numbers
- 1: As in one team, one manufacturer and one model of car for 25 years of racing: Corvette Racing, Chevrolet and the Chevrolet Corvette
- 3: Positions gained in GTE Pro by Tommy Milner and Nick Tandy in last year’s Bahrain race in the No. 64 Corvette
- 3: Number of GTE Am wins in four FIA WEC races this season for Nicky Catsburg, Ben Keating and Nico Varrone with the No. 33 Corvette C8.R
- 7: Hours difference between Manama, Bahrain and Detroit in the Eastern Time Zone
- 14: Manufacturer Championships for Chevrolet and Corvette Racing since 2001
- 27: Tracks at which Corvette Racing has won races – Baltimore, Charlotte Motor Speedway, COTA, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park/Mosport, Daytona, Detroit, Houston, Laguna Seca, Le Mans, Lime Rock, Long Beach, Miami, Mid-Ohio, Monza, Portimão, Portland, Road America, Road Atlanta, Sebring, Sonoma, St. Petersburg, Texas, Trois Rivieres, Utah, VIR, Washington DC and Watkins Glen
- 34: Number of drivers for Corvette Racing since 1999. Ben Keating and Nico Varrone joined that list with their participation – and victory – in the 1,000 Miles of Sebring for the World Endurance Championship
- 35: Kilograms of success ballast for the Corvette C8.R at Fuji – 10 for finishing second at Fuji, 15 for leading the GTE Am championship and 10 additional kilograms added to the car’s minimum weight by the organizers
- 127: Victories worldwide for Corvette Racing – 115 in North America, nine at Le Mans and three in the FIA WEC
- 283: Event starts by Corvette Racing since 1999
- 6,883: Approximate mileage from Detroit Metropolitan Airport to Bahrain International Airport, one way. That’s a greater distance than the #33 Corvette C8.R has raced in 2023 in WEC competition
- 361,214.36: Total number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing since its inception. To put that in perspective, Corvette Racing is more than halfway to the distance traveled by Apollo 13 – the longest manned spaceflight in history: 622,268 miles. That means Corvette Racing has raced to the moon and more than halfway back!
