In the 82nd running of the most grueling and famous endurance race on the planet Corvette Racing was hoping for their 8th victory since 2001, this time in their new class GTE Pro. After qualifying 2nd and 4th, we finished the way we started. Ferrari, Porsche and Aston Martin all ran very strong and all finished. Two mechanical issues cost Corvette the victory, but the team worked hard the entire race. I went to bed at midnight with six hours left in the race with Corvette running P4 and P5 in the darkness and down multiple laps. I work up before 6AM to see the end of the race and was pleasantly surprised to find that the #73 Corvette with Antonio Garcia at the wheel ran down the Porsche and was closing in on the Ferrari as the clock ticked down to the finish. A very good result for the first year out with the new platform.
Cars from all the major manufacturers were represented at Le Mans: Toyota, Nissan, Honda, Audi, Porsche, and Aston Martin (BMW was not there because everyone knows that you can't drive a BMW 24 hours without returning it to the Dealer for repairs!). The USA was represented by only one manufacturer (where was Viper?). Corvette Racing returns to Watkins Glen for the next round of the ALMS Series on June 29th.
Corvette Finishes 2nd and 4th at Le Mans
My great friend, Bill Athas, tipped me off on the "missing Vipers" at Le mans in 2014. Here is the url:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.autoblog.com/2014/03/25/srt-pulling-vipers-out-le-mans/
Don Kingery offers this article for the "story behind the story"!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.corvetteonline.com/news/race-recap-24-hours-of-le-mans-2014/