Corvette Racing confirmed this weekend to the ACO that it will be withdrawing from this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans amid ongoing concerns over the Coronavirus pandemic. The decision will likely break a 20-year streak of consecutive appearances by the factory Corvette team at Le Mans.
The ACO had previously rescheduled the French Classic from its traditional mid-June running to September 19-20th. It appears that the logistics of moving equipment and people across borders during this time was just too much while also taking into consideration the revised IMSA schedule.
Corvette Racing follows the CORE Autosport’s Porsche 911 RSRs who also have withdrawn from Le Mans.
Jim Campbell, VP of Performance and Motorsports confirmed the move in a statement to Sportscar365.com:
“Corvette Racing has a long history of competing at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, so our decision to not participate in this historic race this year was not an easy one,” said Jim Campbell, U.S. Vice President – Performance and Motorsports, in a statement supplied to Sportscar365.
“Several factors played into our decision, including current conditions and the rescheduled timing.
“We’re proud Corvette Racing has been invited to the 24 Hours of Le Mans over the past 20 years and regret that we won’t be participating this year. We hope we have the opportunity to race at Le Mans again.”
The withdraws from Corvette and Porsche brings down the total entries for GTE-Pro to seven.
This would have been the first appearance at Le Mans by the new mid-engine Corvette C8.R. So far the new racecar has only appeared in two races, the Rolex 24 at Daytona and the Six-Hour Lonestar Le Mans at COTA.
Source:
Sportscar365.com
Related:
IMSA Looks to Resume Racing at Watkins Glen in June But Obstacles Remain
IMSA Revises the 2020 Racing Schedule
The 24 Hours of Le Mans Is Postponed to September 19-20th
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Wow! Covid19 has really put the kibosh on Motorsports! It’s understandable that manufacturers who have lost billions in sales are hesitant to throw more money out in racing competition aside from what they say are health safety concerns.
Totally sad and confirms the devastating impact of “delaying” any future C8 variants: the Most notable being the Z06 which the C8R is based on. Hence when the Z06 was pushed back, automatically disqualified them from Lemans in terms of homologation (engine and body work). Interesting that FORD GT got a waver and was pardoned for not reaching production milestones in 2016.
Half the Porsche team backed out as well…and I don’t think Corvette will be the last. I don’t think it was so much a financial piece as it was logistics. But I have a feeling the race might not go on at all at this pace. When you start having noteworthy entrants pull out, it raises questions.
This being said, hopefully the team can take advantage and maximize development!!
Ford is a winner at LeMans – 4 out of six appearances in the Sixties, and in their first appearance out of the box with the new Ford GT in 2016. Stuff of legends and major motion pictures. That sells tickets and governing bodies like tickets to sell at a race. I’d give Ford a pass anytime too. Chevrolet with the vette has always been about then next color-coordinated option pack for the next model year for the country club set.
First times out with ‘8 BM were beat handily by a front engined rear wheel drive 4 door passenger seedan modified to be a sports car by BMW. Hardly street creds to get special consideration for the greatest race in the world. And BM be smart enough to not get trounced again in front of the biggest motor car racing audience in the world with what they can bring to the table
Seems like over kill to me. And by the way Ford boys, why is there not a single Competitive Ford Mustang in NHRA anymore??? Huhhhh?? And Ford doesn’t do well in most of the other forms of Motorsports, Indy Cars are GM powered, most all off-shore race boats use GM motors, Ford GT’s are such pieces of crap not offered other then limited production. You Ford boys are funny, always grabbing at straws. Pretty funny.
Bapak Bob, it’s not hard to win when everything gets handed to you! The balance of power rules are completely biased and make no sense whatsoever. The new Ford GT is not a legend like the original car was. The whole modern Ford vs Ferrari thing that happend was completely fabricated to sell tickets. The Corvette was and still is an attainable car, the Ford GT has never been and will never be attainable for the masses. Even the Viper was a better street and racecar when compared to any modern incarnation of the Ford GT. From a design and engineering standpoint, Ford has lost it’s way. Most of the performance cars they offer today have zero to no heritage when compared to the original cars they use to offer.
Yeah guys the Ford GT win in 2016 at Le Mans was suspicious to say the least. And it happened on the 50th anniversary of the first win. That’s why us guys that attend IMSA races don’t call it the Ford GT its know as “Fraud GT” Powered by ACO Boost.
I can’t argue with any Corvette supporter nor with these particular comments. In the Le Mans world is would be exceptionally difficult to manufacture a win and lets don’t forget, the Ferrari which was in the to pack and in the lead prior to a pit stop had to have an equipment failure which put the car hopelessly out of the race, in order for Ford to triumph. Be that as it may, the two companies have gone in somewhat different directions for a long time. Many of the comments are about the past. The last three years, the different direction of Ford and GM has resulted in Ford putting out that expensive limited production car that two highly respected vlog makers call it one of the great automotive cars of all time. Meantime, Corvette/GM/Chevy did an amazing job of evaluating where they were and where they were going and finally listened to the phantom of Zora and headed toward what he’d urged all along. There is a legacy of c1-C-7 with an amazing number of variants. Ford now, is going to be forced to live with their decisions, while Chevrolet, according to Doug Demuro and plenty of automotive magazines, is the hottest car of the year or the last five for that matter. Nuff said!! AF
For crying out loud, if there is any sport where it’s possible for the audience to socially distance themselves, it’s sports car racing, where you can spread yourselves out over a multi mile track.
Half my kids are in motor sports… and their programs have managed to figure this out. Why Chevrolet can’t make it work defies logic.
Very sad news. The last 5 years we (my son and I) really enjoyed the appearance and mostly the noise of the Corvettes. They even once won the 24H! Chicken skin moment. Never in my life (56 now) I ever was a fan of something or someone until ….. my 1st Le Mans with this amazing Vette cars. This year would be special for us with Nicky Catsburg in the team. We fully enjoyed his win at 24H of Spa a couple of years ago in the BMW. And were very eager to see him compete at LM 24. Thank God my son handed me a side sitting tour in a C3 Stingray as a birthday gift. A Dutch fan.
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