Third Hyperpole appearance of season for No. 34 Racing Team Turkey Corvette
SĀO PAULO, Brazil (July 11, 2026) – TF Sport’s two Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs will roll off the LMGT3 grid nose-to-tail Sunday of the FIA World Endurance Championship’s Six Hours of Sāo Paulo at Brazil’s Interlagos circuit.
The No. 34 Corvette will start 10th after it advanced from the first qualifying session into the 10-car Hyperpole period around the 2.677-mile, 15-turn track. Peter Dempsey moved the red Racing Team Turkey by TF Corvette out of the 12-minute qualifying round – setting the best time in the process – and teammate Salih Yoluc was 10th in the final standings.
It was the second time this season that Dempsey went quickest in the opening qualifying round. He, Yoluc and Corvette factory driver Charlie Eastwood are coming off a sixth-place finish at the 24 Hours of Le Mans for the team’s best finish to date.
Eastwood also was part of a runner-up effort in last year’s LMGT3 race at Interlagos in a TF Sport Corvette.
Speaking of Le Mans, the class-winning and championship-leading No. 33 Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Ben Keating, Johnny Edgar and Nico Varrone will start 12th in LMGT3 after a very encouraging qualifying run by Keating. The result came as a pleasant surprise with the Corvette carrying a significant amount of success ballast due to heading the points standings and the Le Mans victory.
The Six Hours of Sāo Paulo is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. Brasilia Time / 10:30 a.m. ET on Sunday, July 12. Live streaming coverage of the race plus timing and scoring is available through a subscription on FIA WEC Plus. Additional live streaming is on the HBO Max app in the U.S., plus live TV coverage on TruTV. Radio Le Mans also will provide live streaming audio coverage as well.
CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R POST-QUALIFYING DRIVER QUOTES
PETER DEMPSEY, NO. 34 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:
“It’s my first time coming to a track on the calendar this year where I had never been prior to an event apart obviously from Le Mans. It was nice to be able to test at Imola and Spa before those races. Definitely a new challenge. When you arrive and do your prep in the sim, it helps to understand the lay of the land. Then you see new patches of asphalt laid down to give you different grip levels and you have to manipulate the car for areas of performance. But honestly the car has felt really good this weekend. We’ve just been fine-tuning on balance to keep it in a good window so the team has done a great job with that to let us roll off strong. Qualifying was good. It was my first time on a new set of tires this weekend, so there was a bit of a learning curve in two laps to figure out. Overall that did the job and I’m happy where we are.”
(Impact of WEC being only series on track) “That’s probably why the track keeps ramping up through the weekend. We noticed that from the first practice to Practice Two to Practice Three. It’s gained a lot and it will continue all the way through the race.”
BEN KEATING, NO. 33 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:
“I’m very happy with how we qualified. I did not expect to be P12. In the last session, I did a qualifying sim and I was one place away from being P-last. This qualifying performance was over a full second faster than I was able to do this morning. And so, yeah, I did not think we would be in this position. Because we won Le Mans and because we’re leading the championship, we’re carrying an extra 36 kilograms, and so we’re heavier than any other car out here. On this track with all the tight, twisty turns, it really makes a big difference. So when I look at our place and our time compared to everyone else that doesn’t have weight, I’m pretty happy with where we are.”
NICO VARRONE, NO. 33 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:
“First of all coming into this round, I’m grateful to Corvette Racing, to TF Sport and to Ben for having the confidence in me. I’m so happy to be here. I’m already enjoying it a lot. It feels really good to come in after winning Le Mans. They are leading the championship so my role is to help them to get the best result possible like any race that I do, maximize the potential we have and take as many points as possible. I want to help the team with my experience in setting up the car and try to deliver on the track good pace and whatever the race brings to us to help with the championship run.”
Source:
CorvetteRacing.com
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