#64 Corvette Out at the 24 Hours of Le Mans

5
1462

An inspiring run by Oliver Gavin in the #64 Corvettes looks all for naught as white smoke out of the Corvettes left-side exhaust signaled an end for this year’s 24 hours of Le Mans. Oliver had just run a 3:59.356 lap following 30 minutes in the garage to repair the Corvette after it when hard into the wall at the Porsche Curves. That crash dropped to class leading GT2 Corvette down to the 5th place.

Gavin was instructed to park the Corvette and he did so at the Musanne corner.

From Corvette Racing:

Corvette Racing’s Le Mans Ends with No. 64 Corvette Retirement

Mechanical Problem Sidelines Gavin at 18 Hours

Corvette Racing’s bid for its first GT2 title in the 24 Hours of Le Mans ended this morning at 9:42 a.m. when the No. 64 Corvette C6.R retired with an apparent engine problem. Driver Oliver Gavin nursed the car to a marshal’s station at Mulsanne corner, where it was pushed behind the barriers and officially retired.

“The guys fixed the car brilliantly after the crash, and I was able to run my fastest lap of the race with a rebuilt car,” Gavin said. “The Corvette Racing team is fantastic, and I literally trust them with my life. I’m impressed with their spirit, guts, and determination to take on everybody. We had the fastest car for 18 hours, but unfortunately it wasn’t enough.

“It’s frustrating that we get so far into it, we prove that we have the speed and the pace to win the race, and then a crazy move by one of the Peugeot drivers forced Manu off the road at a very dangerous spot,” said Gavin. “Everybody has to share the track; we are racing four different classes, and every driver has to have respect for the others. That accident was huge, but it shows the strength of the car that Manu was able to drive back to the pits and climb out without an injury.”

After six wins in the GTS/GT1 class at Le Mans, Corvette Racing was bidding for its first GT2 title in the world’s most famous sports car race. The Corvettes qualified 1-2 and dominated the race until a series of mishaps took them out of the running.

“There are different ways to make history, and today’s result certainly wasn’t what we set out to accomplish,” said Corvette Racing program manager Doug Fehan. “At the end of the day, you have to look at what you did accomplish and the goals that you had set.

“The Corvettes qualifying first and second in an extremely competitive class validated all of the time spent designing and developing the GT2 Corvette C6.R,” he noted. “Second, we demonstrated the value of safety engineering being transferred from production to racing. The No. 63 Corvette had a huge impact, but Emmanuel walked away and is feeling fine. That’s a testament to the product relevance of the Corvette Racing program.

“So now we go back, we work harder, we improve ourselves, and we look forward to coming back next to achieve our goal of winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans,” Fehan said. “We never give up at Corvette Racing.”


 



-

5 COMMENTS

  1. I was watching the race on Speed when that moron in the Peugeot pulled his idiotic stunt and just screamed after what I saw! That jackoff should be banned from next years race for trying to pass where it was least possible to do so… I was hoping the driver was fine and was amazed to see the Vette make it back to the pits for repairs! It might have been a little easier to take if this happened with another GT2 competitor, but for it to end this way made me sick!!! Once again Corvette has proven that it not only can run with the best but beat them to… I hope next year turns out better!

  2. maybe team corvette will go back to katech engines after these 2 failures as they never had a engine failure with katech engines. the failed engines were developed and built in house i bet because GM did not want to be sending $$$ outside the company during the bankruptcy

  3. This the first time these engine has ran at lemans, there is nothing wrong with GM’s building there engines in-house. The engine has to be production base for GT class. Also a katech engine failed on the #63 car at the petit lemans in 2007 or 2008.

  4. Kudos on the live streaming! I’ve had it up on the big screen all day, volume cranked!

    I would like to see GM step-up to play with the big boy hybrids. Come on, you can do it.

    Corvettes on top of the podium in multiple classes!

Comments are closed.