Corvette Racing, the famine has lasted long enough at Le Mans

The Test Day rankings usually have little value before the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but seeing Alexander Sims' yellow Corvette C8.R set the best time in the GTE Pro class on Sunday June 5 is enough to boost morale. Corvette Racing.

However, the British driver had to compete in the ePrix of Formula E in Jakarta the day before, and therefore barely had time to rest before these Le Mans training sessions! “It was a bit of a crazy night to fly here from Formula E in Indonesia and complete a good number of laps, which I couldn't do last year,” explained the man who recently retired from the 24 Hours of Nürburgring with BMW.

Scenes from # LeMans24, Test Day Edition Part 1… very close and very competitive in GTE Pro. We learned a lot from last year & made good improvements for today. Now to pour over the data and see what progress we can make before Wednesday's official practice #Corvette #C8R #WEC pic.twitter.com/NkcU4fBHBj

— Corvette Racing (@CorvetteRacing) June 5, 2022

« It was nice to get a good feel for the car and find your rhythm. We learned a lot about tire longevity. I was lucky enough to have a few safety car phases and Slow Zones in order to go through the specific rules at Le Mans; these things can happen during the race, so it was really helpful. Things like this and doubling up on tire stints will also prove helpful. Overall it was a good day. »

Corvette Racing is chasing a ninth victory in Grand Touring since the last success was won by the C7.R in 2015. The drought has therefore lasted long enough for the men of Laura Wontrop Klauser, who wanted to compete in the 2022 season of the World Championship. 'endurance (WEC) in order to gain experience with Michelin tires, different from the rubbers used in IMSA in the United States in GTD class.

“We're returning to our usual GTE setup in the C8.R, and I'm looking forward to it, says Antonio Garcia. Some of it won't be ideal because Jordan Taylor, Nicky Catsburg and I will have to readjust to this car a bit. Have car #64 in WEC (that of Sims-Milner-Tandy) will however help the whole team.

We'll have to get into the rhythm and maybe the sister car will start trying developments sooner. We've done this race so many times and raced in GTE spec for so many years that it won't take much to keep up. To be honest, it is more difficult to drive the IMSA GTD car compared to what we have driven in the last 15 years! »

Fastest lap in GTE Pro goes to @TommyMilner late in the session – 3:54.690 for a 0.076-sec gap over @nickcatsburg to make it a #Corvette 1-2 as the first Test Day session ends w/ all 7 GTE Pro cars within 1 second of each other # LeMans24 #C8R @TeamChevy @FIAWEC @ 24hoursoflemans pic.twitter.com/W0ILlH6ljW

— Corvette Racing (@CorvetteRacing) June 5, 2022

His teammate Jordan Taylor struggled to get second place for the first participation of the C8.R in August 2021. “We did nothing wrong, we made no mistakes and we still failed. It's frustrating but I think we can count on the fact that we had a perfect race. We can have that confidence today. We have developed the car further than last year.

We missed a lot of practice on the #63 side throughout the beginning of the week, so I think we were a little behind the other car once the race started. So maybe we were a little lacking in performance on our own. But going into this year with what we learned last year and the confidence we had from a good race, we know we come back with a stronger car and in a good position. »

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