Heartbreak at home for No. 81 Corvette in lone WEC American stop
AUSTIN, Texas (September 1, 2024) – TF Sport’s Daniel Juncadella drove through the field and into the points as TF Sport’s No. 82 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R placed eighth in the LMGT3 class of the FIA World Endurance Championship at the end of Sunday’s Lone Star Le Mans six-hour race.
The trio of factory driver Juncadella plus teammates Hiroshi Koizumi and Sebastien Baud finished in the class top-10 and scored points for the fourth time this season. After Koizumi started and Baud drove the middle stints of the race, Juncadella got in the Corvette with just under two-and-a-half hours left and 15th place in class. He carved his way through the field as the trio rebounded from two drive-through penalties.
Juncadella’s race pace came as no surprise as he was the fastest driver in the final two practice sessions of the event.
TF Sport’s No. 81 Corvette suffered the cruelest of luck as mid-race contact and its after-effects took the trio of Charlie Eastwood, Rui Andrade and Tom Van Rompuy from contending for a podium and possible victory to out of the race with approximately one hour to go.
Van Rompuy started fifth and quickly jumped into podium position inside the first 15 minutes. After his double-stint, Andrade climbed aboard and ran fifth due to the class pit stop cycle. Like his teammate, Andrade wasted no time in moving up and quickly grabbed second place before contact from the No. 85 Lamborghini damaged the left front bodywork of the Corvette.
Following the driver change from Andrade to Eastwood – only minutes before Juncadella took over the sister Corvette – the real damage from the hit began to rear its head. The team was forced to bring the No. 81 into the garage to swap out the toe link, but additional problems continued to surface before the car was retired.
TF Sport is back in action in two weeks at the Six Hours of Fuji from Fuji Speedway in Japan.
TF SPORT POST-QUALIFYING DRIVER QUOTES
DANI JUNCADELLA, NO. 82 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “It was clear that we were going to be very competitive today. I had no doubt that if I got in the car in the last two hours in contention for a top result that we would get it. Hiroshi surprised me in the first stint. That was very good from his side, but unfortunately the second one he struggled a bit more. We were only about 90 seconds down. Seb was competitive and I knew we could get some of it back. But we lost about 35 seconds on the stop because the door latch on the passenger side was stuck, so we went a lap down but he did well to get it back to show the amount of pace in the car. Then there were some penalties to lose some ground. Whenever I jump in the car, I take every race with the same approach and give 100 percent. There is always something to learn. I thoroughly enjoyed those two-and-a-half hours driving a really fast Corvette.”
CHARLIE EASTWOOD, NO. 81 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “This is one that slipped away, definitely. The Corvette has been incredible from FP1 all the way through. Unfortunately the contact Rui had from the Iron Dames popped the toe link out on the rear-left. The car was grabbing and things down the straight pretty badly, but we still had a pretty good pace even with it not being 60 percent right. We just tried a few things but it still wasn’t right. There was no point putting anything at risk and called it a day. It’s a shame.”
TOM VAN ROMPUY, NO. 81 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “Really frustrating. This is the best the car has felt this year. From the start, we had a really good car. I managed to pull up two positions to P3 and tried to stay close to P2 and P1 and kept them in sight. I did some energy savings to get the maximum out of our laps, so we gained a bit on that. I had to let one of the BMWs go because he was a Pro driver, but I managed to have a good fight with him before I let him go. I had a lot of fun out there.”
About Chevrolet
Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is now one of the world’s largest car brands. 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.
