Keating qualifies fourth in Corvette team’s push for three straight GTE Am victories
FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium (April 28, 2023) – Corvette Racing will start from the second row in Saturday’s Six Hours of Spa for the FIA World Endurance Championship as Ben Keating posted the fourth-fastest time in the GTE Am class in qualifying.
Keating set a best lap of 2:20.160 (112.282 mph) in the No. 33 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R that he’s driving with Nicky Catsburg and Nico Varrone. The trio is on a tear through two races with consecutive victories at Sebring and Portimao, a pole position the last time out in Portugal, and a healthy lead in Driver and Team points.
Those results mean that the Corvette is carrying an additional 45 kilograms (99.2 pounds) of “rewards weight”, per the GTE Am regulations to balance the competition throughout the season. Cars that finish the previous two races first, second or third must on-board additional weight on a sliding scale of 15-10-5 kilograms. In addition, the same amounts of ballast apply to the top-three entries in the GTE Am championship standings.
A red-flag stoppage with a little more six-and-a-half minutes to go split the qualifying session into two parts. Keating banked a lap early that was good enough for second before the action came to a halt. While a front-row spot would have been ideal, starting fourth in a 14-car field is positive considering the extra weight that the C8.R has earned through two rounds.
This is the third consecutive season in which Corvette Racing has competed in the Spa Six Hours – the last two years in the GTE Pro category. The team finished fourth in both 2021 and 2022.
The Six Hours of Spa for the FIA World Endurance Championship is scheduled for 6:45 a.m. ET / 12:45 p.m. Central European time Saturday. MotorTrend and MotorTrend Plus will provide both live television and streaming coverage. Radio Le Mans will stream audio coverage of qualifying and the race. Live streaming video – of the race and on-board camera feed of the No. 33 Corvette – also is available through a subscription on the FIA WEC app.
BEN KEATING, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – QUALIFIED FOURTH IN GTE AM: “I think the red flag benefitted us. P4 is a really good result for carrying 45 extra kilos on this particular track. Even without those, I don’t know if I was able to keep up with (pole-winner Ahmad) Al Harthy in the Aston Martin. The Aston is really strong around here. Last year I qualified a second-and-a-half ahead of the field in the Aston around here. But they’ve got a bunch more power and we’ve got a bunch more weight!
“Qualifying was good. From my time in IMSA in the LMP2, I’m pretty good at getting heat in the tires and doing a decent lap (early). I’ve learned from being in WEC for four years that you have to have a lap where you have no track limits before you start to push. So I got in one decent lap and I really felt like I could go faster, but then we had the red flag. I was going to be in the mid-2:18s on that lap; it was really good. But after the red flag, I went out and just got too greedy. I tried to push too hard and had a lock-up going into Turn Five. I just wasn’t able to do a quicker lap after the peak of the tire.
“The red flag kept me from doing a quicker lap but it also kept everyone else from doing a quicker lap, which is why I say because I get the tires up to pressure quickly and because I can do a lap quickly, it was a benefit to us that not everybody else got to do a lap. I’m excited to start the race P4. I think that’s a great starting place for having an extra 45 kilos in the car. I’m excited to be on the second row and that’s not too bad. I’d rather be on the inside than the outside. But the way the odd number of prototypes is, I think that might come true. I think I might actually be on the inside of the third row judging the way it’s been the first two races. It will be a long race but I’m happy to start in the front half of our class.”
NICKY CATSBURG, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: “I feel like it’s going to be difficult here. We’re really feeling the 45 kilos. Of course we also had 30 kilos at Portimao. It’s almost like not every kilo is the same. At one point, you cannot keep adding. You’re going to fall off a cliff, which I feel like we’ve done now. It’s going to be tough to compete here with the long straights and the uphills. But let’s see. We are always very good at not making mistakes. Strategically, the team is very good. In the pitlane we are very good. We just need to keep our heads down, don’t get too lost in our pace deficit, keep doing what we are doing and see where we end up.”
NICO VARRONE, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: “Spa has been difficult for us in FP1 and FP2. We are struggling with the ballast. Some of the setup changes seemed to work from FP1 to FP2. We had a little bit more for FP3 but it rained so we couldn’t test it. It will be a tough race but we need to do what we do always – stay out of trouble, try to be as fast as we can, keep it clean, be fast on the pit stops like we always are and maximize our weekend to make the most amount of points possible. If we do that, we’ll be happy with any position where we finish.
“Spa is a track for me where I have good memories. I really enjoy it. It’s my favorite track. For me, every lap is one that I enjoy a lot. I have to say with the Corvette C8.R, it’s even better. It’s been enjoyable this week even though it’s tough for us. I’m grateful to be racing here, and to do it with Corvette is even better.”
2023 FIA World Endurance Championship – GTE Am (After two of seven events)
Driver Standings
- Ben Keating/Nicky Catsburg/Nico Varrone – 64
- Christian Ried/Julien Andlauer/Mikkel Pedersen – 33
- Simon Mann/Stefano Constantini/Ulysse De Pauw – 28
- Davide Rigon/Francesco Castellacci/Thomas Flohr – 27
- Daniel Serra/Scott Huffaker/Takeshi Kimura – 24
Team Standings
- No. 33 Corvette Racing – 64
- No. 77 Dempsey-Proton Racing – 33
- No. 21 AF Corse – 28
- No. 54 AF Corse – 27
- No. 57 Kessel Racing – 24
CORVETTE RACING AT SPA: By the Numbers
- 1: As in one team, one manufacturer and one model of car for 25 years of racing: Corvette Racing, Chevrolet and the Chevrolet Corvette.
- 3: Tracks where Corvette Racing has competed in each of its 24 previous years: Sebring, WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca and Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta (later this year).
- 4: Generations of Corvette Racing entries since 1999 – Corvette C5-R (2000-04), Corvette C6.R (2005-13), Corvette C7.R (2014-2019) and Corvette C8.R (2020-present).
- 14: Manufacturer Championships for Chevrolet and Corvette Racing since 2001.
- 27: Tracks at which Corvette Racing has won races – Baltimore, Charlotte Motor Speedway, COTA, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park/Mosport, Daytona, Detroit, Houston, Laguna Seca, Le Mans, Lime Rock, Long Beach, Miami, Mid-Ohio, Monza, Portimão, Portland, Road America, Road Atlanta, Sebring, Sonoma, St. Petersburg, Texas, Trois Rivieres, Utah, VIR, Washington DC and Watkins Glen
- 34: Number of drivers for Corvette Racing since 1999. Ben Keating and Nico Varrone joined that list with their participation – and victory – in the 1,000 Miles of Sebring for the World Endurance Championship.
- 124: Victories worldwide for Corvette Racing – 113 in North America and eight at Le Mans.
- 271: Event starts by Corvette Racing since 1999.
- 354,050.01: Total number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing since its inception. To put that in perspective, Corvette Racing is more than halfway to the distance traveled by Apollo 13 – the longest manned spaceflight in history: 622,268 miles. That means Corvette Racing has raced to the moon… and then some!
Corvette Racing at Spa-Francorchamps
2021
No. 63 Corvette C8.R: Antonio Garcia/Oliver Gavin – 4th in GTE Pro (Gavin’s final Corvette race)
2022
No. 64 Corvette C8.R: Tommy Milner/Nick Tandy – 4th in GTE Pro
About Chevrolet
Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is now one of the world’s largest car brands, available in nearly 80 countries with nearly 2.7 million cars and trucks sold in 2021. Chevrolet models include electric and fuel-efficient vehicles that feature engaging performance, design that makes the heart beat, passive and active safety features and easy-to-use technology, all at a value. More information on Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.com.
