Yahoo Autos Corvette switches to party mode after wrapping up WEC GTE Am drivers’ title
At first glance, Corvette Racing’s fourth-place finish at the 6 Hours of Monza may seem unremarkable. Following a string of outstanding results since the season began in March, including wins at Sebring, Portimao and Le Mans and a second-place finish at Spa, you could be fooled into discounting yesterday’s outcome as a forgettable day at the office.
Look at the points table, however, and you will see the full picture. Ben Keating, Nico Varrone and Nicky Catsburg didn’t finish on the podium and therefore leave Italy without a set of trophies, but by scoring 12 points they secured the biggest prize for GT drivers in the WEC: the GTE Am Driver’s Championship.
Wrapping up the title in July, in a season that started in mid-March, has simply never been done before in this championship. No core FIA WEC title has ever been clinched with two races to go, four months before the end-of-season prize presentation.
But Corvette Racing did it. After lackluster performances from their title rivals, who folded under the pressure of the situation and the scorching temperatures trackside, a fourth-place finish in front of a 65,000-strong crowd at Monza was enough to seal the deal.
“I’ve said it over and over, but in this championship and in each one of the five races we’ve had, it has been a true team performance overall,” Keating said after the race. “You win as a team and you lose as a team, but we’ve also been lucky in quite a lot of places. It’s just been a magical season.
“Everyone kept talking about us needing to finish first or second in order to clinch the championship here. I kept saying it was more about where the No. 25 (ORT by TF Aston) and No. 85 (Iron Dames Porsche) finished rather than where we finished. We weren’t really racing for that.”
This is Keating’s second FIA WEC title in a row. Last year the Texan claimed the Am title with British Aston Martin outfit TF Sport, which until yesterday was a title contender once again and coincidentally, was announced as Corvette Racing’s first customer for the forthcoming FIA WEC LMGT3 category that debuts next season prior to the meeting.
Keating has continued to set the standard for Bronze-graded drivers worldwide with his efforts this year. He will be missed next season when he is expected to race elsewhere, having declared that he has no intention of competing in GT3 on the world stage.
For teammate Nicky Catsburg, this title is the latest accolade in an ongoing series of remarkable results in 2023.
The Dutch Corvette factory driver, who has become renowned for his versatility, has added a number of significant lines to his resume in recent weeks. His tour of Europe since mid-May has netted a Nurburgring 24 Hours overall victory in a Ferrari 296 GT3, a Le Mans 24 Hours win with Corvette in GTE Am, a class win at the Spa 24 Hours in a Mercedes AMG GT3 and now the GTE Am title in a C8.R.
“Honestly, this season might have been one of my nicest in motorsport,” he said. “It has been so cool, right from the start. It was always very relaxed with not a lot of pressure. Somehow the results just kept coming.
“It’s super, super cool to be able to call myself a World Champion. I think I had won it before with a team but not as a driver. So I’m really, really happy!”
Fourth at Monza was enough for the Corvette crew to wrap the GTE Am title up with two races to spare. Motorsport Images
Nico Varrone’s part in this title win has been key. The 22-year-old Argentinian has taken to life at Corvette Racing like a duck to water and quickly become a popular member of the team. His unwavering positivity has been infectious, and his performances behind the wheel throughout his debut season in the WEC have been head-turning.
This was a driver who thought his career was over during the pandemic. “I ran out of money, I ran out of support to get a drive,” he told RACER before Le Mans. “I returned home (from Europe) to Buenos Aires, I thought I would need to get a job or work in the family business.”
But this shot to prove himself after Jeroen Bleekemolen (a friend and former teammate) put in a good word with Corvette and recommended him for the WEC Bahrain Rookie Test last year has re-launched his career and taken him to new heights.
“It feels very weird at the moment but means so much,” he admitted after the race. “To say that we are World Champions is just an amazing feeling. I’ve been working for this since I was 8 years old and started driving karts. I didn’t imagine it was going to be so early.
“As Ben said, this was all teamwork all season. We’ve all done a great job – the three of us as teammates, the engineers and the pit crew have been amazing.”
All in all, for a factory team like Corvette Racing, which has been a loyal servant to top-level GT racing since the turn of the century, claiming a Le Mans class win and WEC title in the final year for GTE racing seems fitting.
On the cusp of a new era, which will mark Corvette Racing’s primary role shifting from all-out factory racing to operating a new customer program in the GT3 space, it’s a memorable sign-off.
“How cool is this?” Said Laura Wontrop Klauser, the GM Sports Car Racing program manager.
“The Corvette Racing team joined the WEC full-time last year to learn the championship and had some great successes. We enjoyed it so much and had an opportunity this year with Ben, Nicky and Nico to have a Corvette in the GTE Am class. This group couldn’t say no!
“Now to be able to walk away champions and win the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the final year of GTE and the C8.R is a dream come true.”
So what about the remaining races in Japan and Bahrain? Keating said after the race that it will be a four-month party until the end-of-season prize-giving ceremony in the Middle East. The pressure is now off.
“I keep on joking that because we’ve finished fourth, we get to lose 10 kilograms in success ballast!” he chuckled. “Now we can really start pushing hard because we don’t have to be conservative…
“Just kidding! It’s been a great season. I’m really proud of everyone on the Corvette Racing team.”
