TF Sport looking for strong close to end of first season with Corvette in Eight Hours
DETROIT (Oct. 29, 2024) – The first season of the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R comes to a close this weekend with the Eight Hours of Bahrain and the end of this year’s FIA World Endurance Championship.
TF Sport will look to be on the right side of luck in Saturday’s race to wrap up its first campaign with the Corvette brand. The team’s pair of Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs – the No. 81 of factory driver Charlie Eastwood, 2023 LMP2 race-winner Rui Andrade and Tom Van Rompuy plus the No. 82 of factory driver Daniel Juncadella, Sebastien Baud and Hiroshi Koizumi – with a well-deserved podium finish… and perhaps more.
The potential for a strong finish to 2024 is definitely in the cards. The most recent WEC round at Fuji saw both Corvettes run toward the front of the LMGT3 class after putting the two Z06 GT3.Rs in the Hyperpole qualifying round for the first time.
The No. 81 Corvette finished a season-high fourth in class in Japan after being hit late in the race by a prototype. It was the second straight race that the Eastwood/Andrade/Van Rompuy trio were knocked out of contention by another car having been collected at Circuit of the Americas two weeks earlier while running second.
On the other side of the garage, the pace and performance of the No. 82 Corvette also has taken big steps forward starting at Le Mans in June. Like the sister car, the Fuji round started strong with Koizumi’s best qualifying effort of the season before a mechanical issue on the first pit stop relegated the No. 82 down the order.
Corvette engineers will have the benefit of experience at Bahrain thanks to last year’s race with the Corvette C8.R in the GTE Am class.
The Eight Hours of Bahrain is scheduled for 2 p.m. Arabian Standard Time / 7 a.m. ET on Saturday. MotorTrend TV will air full and live television coverage from 6:30-3:30 p.m. ET. Full live streaming coverage of Free Practice 3, qualifying and the race – including the No. 81 Corvette on-board camera – will be available on the FIA WEC app and the MAX app in the U.S. Radio Le Mans also will stream audio coverage of Friday’s final practice and qualifying, plus Saturday’s race.
TF SPORT PRE-EVENT DRIVER QUOTES
CHARLIE EASTWOOD, NO. 81 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “I’m ready to get going in Bahrain. We were so close to a very, very good result at Fuji. We showed such super strong pace there on the back of what we showed at COTA. I feel that everyone on the team is very motivated to get a good result at Bahrain and end the season on a high. It’s been a challenging year but we’ve gotten stronger every race. Fuji showed that we had fantastic pace and it was a faultless job by the crew and my teammates. Our goal is to repeat that same performance at Bahrain and hopefully not get caught up in any dramas to get a podium at minimum and go for a win.”
RUI ANDRADE, NO. 81 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “I’m hopeful heading into Bahrain. The team and the performance of the car is stronger than it has been at any point this year. All three of us – myself, Tom and Charlie – have driven well really the last four events going back to Le Mans. The team is executing at a high level on the pit stops and strategy. I really feel like we should have won the last two races were it not for other people hitting us. That’s tough to take when we did absolutely nothing wrong in both those cases. Hopefully things swing back our way and we close things strong at Bahrain. A podium would be nice but we want and deserve a win.”
DANI JUNCADELLA, NO. 82 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “It’s pretty exciting to come to Bahrain because I’ve never been there. That goes together with Qatar and Le Mans being highlights for me because they are new tracks. So I’m excited to see how the Corvette feels at Bahrain. The last few rounds have been a massive step forward in terms of pace, and my teammates have been doing very, very well. I think we have a good chance to score a top result to finish off the season. That would be a fantastic way to finish things off in style, and I fancy our chances for that. This is a longer event, too, finishing at night. With testing of the Cadillac Hypercar the next day, it’s a pretty exciting weekend coming up.”
2024 FIA World Endurance Championship Points
LMGT3 Drivers Standings
- Aliaksandr Malykhin/Joel Sturm/Klaus Bachler – 136
- Morris Schuring/Richard Lietz/Yasser Shahin – 90
- Augusto Farfus/Darren Leung/Sean Gelael – 85
- Alex Riberas/Daniel Mancinelli/Ian James – 83
- Ahmad Al Harthy/Maxime Martin/Valentino Rossi – 61
- Charlie Eastwood/Rui Andrade/Tom Van Rompuy – 23
- Daniel Juncadella/Hiroshi Koizumi/Sebastien Baud – 14
LMGT3 Teams Standings
- No. 92 Manthey PureRxcing – 136
- No. 91 Manthey EMA – 90
- No. 31 Team WRT – 85
- No. 27 Heart of Racing Team – 83
- No. 46 Team WRT – 61
- No. 81 TF Sport – 23
- No. 82 TF Sport – 14
CORVETTE RACING AT BAHRAIN: By the Numbers
- 1: As in one program, one manufacturer and one model of car for 26 years of racing: Corvette Racing, Chevrolet and the Chevrolet Corvette
- 3: Positions gained in GTE Pro by Tommy Milner and Nick Tandy from start to finish in the 2022 Bahrain race in the No. 64 Corvette
- 7: Hours difference between Manama, Bahrain and Detroit in the Eastern Time Zone
- 14: Manufacturer Championships for Chevrolet and Corvette Racing since 2001
- 28: Tracks at which Corvette Racing has won races – Baltimore, Barber Motorsports Park, 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
- 53: Number of drivers in Corvette Racing entries since 1999. DXDT Racing’s Patrick Liddy and Blake McDonald joined the list at Indianapolis in GT World Challenge America
- 71: Years since Corvette was introduced to the world on Jan. 17, 1953 in New York City. A total of 300 cars were produced that year
- 138: Victories worldwide for Corvette Racing – 116 in IMSA, nine at Le Mans, three in the FIA WEC and 10 in GT World Challenge America
- 308: Event starts by Corvette Racing entries since 1999, starting with that year’s Rolex 24 At Daytona. No. 300 came in early August at Road America in IMSA
- 6,883: Approximate mileage from Detroit Metropolitan Airport to Bahrain International Airport, one way. That’s a greater distance than the No. 33 Corvette C8.R has raced this year in WEC competition
- 397,343.78: Total number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing since its inception. At present level, the program will surpass the 400,000-mile mark at the 2025 Rolex 24 At Daytona.
Corvette Racing at Bahrain (wins in bold)
2022
No. 64 Corvette C8.R: Tommy Milner/Nick Tandy – 2nd in GTE Pro
2023
No. 33 Corvette C8.R: Nicky Catsburg/Ben Keating/Nico Varrone – 7th in GTE Am
Team Chevy high-resolution racing photos are available for editorial use.
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