Yahoo Autos ‘We joked about going home’ – A look inside Corvette’s remarkable Le Mans comeback
Corvette Racing’s ninth Le Mans class victory came in fine style Sunday, the U.S.-flagged factory team overcoming a two-lap deficit early in the race to take a commanding victory by the end of the 24 hours.
In the final GTE race at the Circuit de a Sarthe, it was somewhat fitting that Corvette Racing, a servant of the Le Mans 24 Hours’ GT categories since the turn of the century, would achieve a historic victory at the centenary event.
The story of Corvette’s win didn’t start on lap one. Instead, the opening chapter was penned when the mechanics put in a heroic effort to prepare the car for practice on Wednesday. A costly error from Nico Varonne in FP1 at Tertre Rouge left the car badly damaged and the team scrambling.
The job list was huge, with the crew fitting the car with new right side suspension, new right side brakes, a new floor, rear facia, rear wing, decklids, seat belts, right side front and rear fender, right side door (pause for deep breath)…right side rocker, and more.
In a matter of hours, the car was ready to get out for qualifying, allowing Nicky Catsburg to sneak the car into Hyperpole, setting up Ben Keating for a performance for the ages on Thursday night, which saw him take class pole by over a second. Had the team not moved so quickly to prep the car, it would have started at the very back. In the tricky mixed conditions in the opening hours, the outcome of this race could have been oh so different amid the chaos that ensued.
Come the start of the race, the team hit trouble early. In only the second hour a damper failure saw the No. 33 pushed into the garage for a quick fix. Once again the crew moved fast, but it wasn’t possible to get out fast enough to stay on the lead lap. Instead, Keating climbed in and found himself two laps down, tasked with surviving the heavy rain that caused so many incidents in the Am class.
“We joked about going home,” Catsburg said. “Thankfully the car was back to normal and felt good.”
Masterful pit work is no small part of success at Le Mans. Corvette Racing brought it in spades all week long. Alexander Trienitz/Motorsport Images
Varonne, too, felt a win was out of the equation at that point, telling RACER after taking the victory that he felt a win would be “impossible.”
“But somehow we came back like crazy with great strategy and timing,” he continued. “The decisions we made paid off. The car was mega.”
Initially, after Keating survived the race’s first deluge, the Corvette race engineers called him to the pitlane for wets. At that point, the crew thought it would gain back one of its laps as part of the new safety car procedure because the C8.R would be ahead of the class leader in a train behind one of the three safety cars.
For reasons unknown to the team, a group of cars – including the GTE Am leader – were allowed to exit pit lane before the next of the three safety cars came around. The mistake meant that the Corvette was trapped behind the class leader and couldn’t advance to catch back up after all the safety car queues moved. The car stayed two laps down as the sun set over the circuit.
“It was super tricky in the wet,” Keating said when asked about the opening hours when the track was wet in some places, dry in others. “I cost us 20s in an escape road at one point, but I then watched a competitor in the same place hit a wall. So it was a good decision to be cautious!”
The challenge beyond that, with the night hours underway, was clearly two-fold: stay focused and out of trouble while so many other GTE Am cars saw their races end in the barriers, and chip away at the deficit.
“Over half the class retired, which was a big part of our fightback,” Keating explained when asked about the rate of attrition that saw over half the Am field retire during the race. “Some of our biggest (WEC) competitors didn’t make it; second, third, fourth place in the championship were all wrecked. I don’t know if I’ve had a race like this with this many retirements.”
Varonne, like Keating, had to brave the wet weather during the race’s second major downpour. Catsburg felt the Argentinian’s performance — on the wrong tires while the team waited for a safety car that never came — was key in staying in the fight.
“One of the most significant moments in this race for us was Nico’s stint in the wet on slicks,” Catsburg said. “Half of the field completely destroyed their cars and it’s so difficult to stay calm and mistake-free.”
With brake discs glowing and fireworks overhead, the pace of the ‘Vette began to improve substantially as the track dried and Sunday arrived. Keating completed a triple stint before Varonne took over in the morning.
Varonne was simply masterful with the sun rising, setting the fastest GTE time of the entire event as part of a triple stint that saw him make up more than a half-lap on the field. It was the perfect response to his FP1 shunt and resulted in a welcome reception in the garage after his final stint before Catsburg took the wheel for the finish.
More Le Mans/WEC!
Garage 56 celebrates ‘mission accomplished’ at Le Mans
Le Mans win 'unforgettable' for Ferrari chairman John Elkann
Corvette Racing fights through to take final GTE victory at Le Mans
“I felt like I was in the right moment, at the right time on track,” Varonne told RACER. “The car was better through the high-speed corners and in the last sector when the track warmed up. I had clean laps and managed to do the fast lap. I am really happy because after Wednesday my confidence was down. I was so angry with myself. So gaining that confidence back, setting the fastest lap, was so satisfying.”
All of a sudden, by the end of the seventeenth hour with the crowd beginning to build trackside for the end of the race, the Corvette team was back on the lead lap. The progress made before Catsburg’s final stint was enormous. In the final run to the flag, Catsburg simply had to manage the gap as he continued to pull away as other competitors in the top five, including Bronze-rated drivers in the field, burned the last of their drive time with the race coming to a close.
The Dutchman would cross the line far ahead of the chasing ORT by TF Sport Aston Martin. GR Racing and Iron Dames Porsche were more focused on securing podium places than catching the C8.R by that point.
The team’s achievement caused an eruption in the garage. A ninth-class win, at the centenary event, and finally a victory for the C8.R in France in its final attempt.
“I’ve never taken the finish here,” Catsburg said. “I didn’t know it was so super-crazy on the in-lap, so that was nice. That it’s the 100th anniversary makes it special. That it’s the last year of GTE makes it extra special. That it’s the last year of the C8.R makes it extra special. I’m so happy for the whole team because I feel like we should have already won it in the years before. So it’s sweet for this to happen this year.”
Looking ahead, the result at Le Mans has greatly increased the crew’s chances of wrapping up the class title in the WEC early. With three wins in four races this season, including double points secured at Le Mans, Catsburg, Varrone and Keating can crown themselves champions at Monza next month, before the WEC heads to Fuji and Bahrain for the final two races.
That’s next month, though. For now, the celebrations are fully underway in the Le Mans paddock.
