Larbre Competition had a difficult 2015 season with its Corvette C7R. Over the course of six races, the car never finished better than fourth in its category and even retired on two occasions, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Overall, the French team ranked seventh in the WEC LMGTE Am Championship. Nonetheless, team manager Jack Leconte still considered the prospect of engaging two Corvettes in the 2016 WEC, one in the LMGTE Pro category (possibly involving the Taylor family) and one in the LMGTE Am category. On February 6, the ACO revealed that Leconte will only have one Corvette C7R engaged in the LMGTE Am class of the WEC.
A brand new driver line-up will be at its wheel, including returning Gold-ranked driver Paolo Ruberti, Silver driver Pierre Ragues and Bronze driver Yutaka Yamagishi.
This will be Ruberti’s second consecutive season of with Larbre Competition. Ragues is also no stranger to the French team, as he raced their Morgan Nissan with Keiko Ihara and Ricky Taylor in the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2014.
“This season will mark my tenth season in endurance racing and my tenth participation in the 24 Hours of Le Mans,” says Ragues. “I started out in GT back in 2006. and I have since accumulated a great deal of experience alternating between LMP1 and LMP2. This year’s Le Mans will also be my tenth anniversary of taking part so it will be extra poignant.” Yamagishi is probably the least known of the three drivers yet he is no beginne, having driven for Ibanez Racing in the LMP2 category of the European Le Mans Series and in the 24 Hours of Le Mans last year. He also shows a solid GT background with a career in Japanese GT and several Le Mans drives in such cars as the Porsche 911 GT3 RS and the Lamborghini Murcielago R-GT.
Leconte still believes that he stands a significant chance of entering a Corvette in the LMGTE Pro category in the near future. “As well as playing the leading role in the LMGTE Am class, our drivers and team personnel will also be laying the foundations for a 2017 LMGTE Pro program, ” he says. ”Even with limited funding for LMGTE Pro, we’re sure that the Corvette’s reliability would’ve allowed us to beat Ford’s armada as early as this year. The recent Daytona 24 Hours proved this with a superb 1-2 finish for Corvette. I’m convinced that it’s a missed opportunity, but hopefully it’s only a matter of time!”
Mat Fernandez (@matlemans)
