Crosses line in first but post-race penalty costs American second Feature Race victory

SILVERSTONE, England (8 July 2024) – Jak Crawford scored a third-place finish in Sunday’s Feature Race at Silverstone, wrapping up his third-consecutive double-points finish as the FIA Formula 2 Championship entered the second half of the 2024 season.

It was a productive but bittersweet weekend for the 19-year-old American Formula 1 hopeful. Crawford was the first driver to take the checkered flag on Sunday after a strong drive to the front, but a five-second penalty for an unsafe pit release dropped him to third – as he missed out on another Feature race victory by just 1.8-seconds, and second place by only one-tenth of a second.

“It was a perfect race,” said the DAMS Lucas Oil driver. “It was a good drive, good pace but unfortunate for the penalty, of course. I feel I did everything right. We had lots of speed, and we were clearly the quickest car. Without the penalty, it would have been one that I would remember forever.”

Gridded seventh on soft tires, Crawford used an outside pass to quickly move to fourth as rain began to fall on the circuit. A pair of incidents led to two safety car periods in the early laps, and he was second when he made his mandatory pit stop on Lap 9 to switch to the harder-compound tire.

Following a quick stop, the Texan just edged a competitor out of the pits, but was noted for an unsafe release as he rejoined the race in 14th position.

“It’s a bit unfortunate how the rules worked, because he wasn’t even in the fast lane when they released my lollypop,” he explained. “It was safe, because there was no one in the fast lane, but because of the dynamic of how it works, it was a penalty.”

Crawford made the move of the race on Lap 19, passing two cars to take the effective race lead behind cars still to make their mandatory stops. At the same time, though, a five-second penalty for the pit infraction was posted.

“That pass was pretty sweet,” Crawford said. “I could see it happening ahead, I could see I would have an opportunity. I was saving my tires up until that point, and then – all of a sudden – I found myself in the [virtual] race lead. Then I could push maximum.”

Crawford charged for the final 11 laps, setting several fastest race laps in the process. He took the actual race lead with two laps remaining, pushing all the way to attempt to gap his rivals for the podium.

“After I made the pass [for the virtual race lead}, I didn’t do one bit of saving,” he said. “It was flat out until the end. I could see them in my mirrors, so I knew it wasn’t five seconds, but I knew I was on the podium anyway, so I might as well send it off and make up as much time as possible. At the end, it was super close. In a normal race, if they issued the penalty after the race, they wouldn’t have been pushing so much and I could have taken the win despite the penalty. I only just missed out by a tenth of a second on P2.”

Crawford’s run to the Feature race followed a strong performance in Saturday’s sprint, held in extremely challenging rainy conditions that led to a midrace red flag. He started fourth and ran in the top-six throughout the race to take sixth at the finish.

“It was a bit chaotic, and really wet at some points,” he said. “We struggled a little bit with the car. It was a small error that made a big difference in how the tires degraded, and it won’t happen again.”

Seventh in rainy opening practice, Crawford managed to place seventh in qualifying, moving from 15th to sixth in the final four minutes.

“Our main thing to fix is our qualifying,” he said. “We haven’t been performing the best, and qualifying is very important. We’ll get on our best game to make that good.”

Crawford ends a stretch of three-consecutive race weekends with six top-10 finishes. He finished fourth and took his first F2 Feature Race victory at Barcelona, and then was sixth and 10th at Spielberg. The mid-season surge netted 52 points, moving him to sixth in the championship with 84 counters.

“It seems we have the best points streak at the moment, with three strong weekends in a row and two Feature Race wins on track – but only one stood. It’s been a strong three weeks, and it’s still pretty close in the points with six rounds to go. Anything can happen, and there’s no reason why we can’t be confident for the rest of the year.”

There’s only a one-week break before competition resumes with another stretch of back-to-back events. Next up is Hungaroring in Budapest on July 20-21, followed by Belgium’s Spa-Francorchamps on July 27-28.

“Hungaroring will come up quick, even though we have a week off. It suits our car well, especially in the race, and I think we can fight for another Feature Race win.”

Corvette Z06 GT3.R, TF Sport set for their first race at Sao Paulo

DETROIT (July 8, 2024) – In a season full of firsts for the Corvette Racing program, this weekend in the FIA World Endurance Championship presents another new opportunity with the running of the Six Hours of Sao Paulo from Brazil’s Interlagos circuit.

TF Sport and its pair of Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs are set for their first race in South America as the WEC leaves the European continent after three consecutive rounds.

The six-driver lineup continues on as it has for the previous four FIA WEC rounds – Tom Van Rompuy, Rui Andrade and Corvette factory driver Charlie Eastwood in the No. 81 Z06 GT3.R while Hiroshi Koizumi, Sebastien Baud and factory driver Daniel Juncadella are in the No. 82 Corvette.

Both TF Sport entries are coming off solid runs at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, where both Corvettes completed the full 24 hours.

The results marked a key achievement in the first year of the Z06 GT3.R, which has shown increased reliability since the first races of 2024 at Daytona and Qatar.

The 15-turn, 2.677-mile Interlagos track will be the 38th different circuit on which a Corvette Racing entry will compete in its 25-year run. In addition to being a new track to the Corvette Racing program, Interlagos is the shortest track on the WEC schedule. The layout features a number of mid- and high-speed corners, which should ideally suit the characteristics of the first-year Z06 GT3.R.

This won’t be the first time a Corvette competes at Interlagos in WEC competition. Larbre Competition campaigned independent Corvette C6.Rs in 2012 and 2013 with a runner-up GTE Am finish in the former.

The Six Hours of Sao Paulo is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. ET on Sunday, July 14. MotorTrend TV will air live television coverage with streaming coverage on the FIA WEC app and the MAX app in the U.S. – all beginning at 10 a.m. ET.. Radio Le Mans also will stream audio coverage of Saturday’s final practice and qualifying, plus Sunday’s race.

TF SPORT PRE-EVENT DRIVER QUOTES

DANIEL JUNCADELLA, NO. 82 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “Sao Paulo is a really cool event. It’s a place WEC hasn’t been in some time. Going back to Brazil for racing is always cool. I raced there in 2008 in Formula BMW where I have some good memories. I have not so great memories from the last time I was in Sao Paulo! I was in Formula One where I went off and crashed in the Force India car. Nevertheless it’s a cool place. I like the track a lot. It has a really good mix of fast corners and tight sections, and I think many of those sections should suit our Corvette. So I’m excited for this. WEC has been a cool season so far even though we haven’t achieved yet the results we were hoping for at the start. It’s another event where we can turn things around and have some fun. Hopefully we’ll have a fast and clean car for the race and then go fight at the end.”

SEBASTIEN BAUD, NO. 82 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “I can’t wait to go to Brazil for the next WEC round. With TF Sport and Corvette Racing, we continue to gain momentum and a better understanding of this magnificent Corvette GT3 car! My teammates and I are motivated to achieve a great result there on such a legendary circuit like Interlagos. It will be a totally new track and event for me, so for sure there is a lot to discover. So I will have to be even more vigilant and attentive to be able to perform to the best of my abilities for the team. I’m ready for it.”

2024 FIA World Endurance Championship Points

LMGT3 Drivers Standings

1. Morris Schuring/Richard Lietz/Yasser Shahin – 75
2. Aliaksandr Malykhin/Joel Sturm/Klaus Bachler – 75
3. Augusto Farfus/Darren Leung/Sean Gelael – 73
4. Erwan Bastard/Marco Sorensen – 42
5. Michelle Gatting/Sarah Bovy – 41
6. Daniel Juncadella/Hiroshi Koizumi/Sebastien Baud – 10
7. Charlie Eastwood/Rui Andrade/Tom Van Rompuy – 7

LMGT3 Teams Standings

1. No. 91 Manthey EMA – 75
2. No. 92 Manthey PureRxcing – 75
3. No. 31 Team WRT – 73
4. No. 777 D’Station Racing – 42
5. No. 85 Iron Dames – 41
6. No. 82 TF Sport – 10
7. No. 81 TF Sport – 7

Team Chevy high-resolution racing photos are available for editorial use.

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.

Lance Willsey’s family escaped Czechoslovakia before WWII and made a home in Canada – Willsey and the SCM team show their appreciation with the annual Maple Leaf livery on the No. 33

JUPITER, Fla. (8 July 2024) – Sean Creech Motorsport (SCM) will once again carry the Canadian flag on its entry in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s Chevrolet Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park this weekend. The story behind the livery involves family, a hidden room, an incredible escape from pre-World War II Czechoslovakia – and a family that was welcomed by Canada, able to create a new life in their new country.

The No. 33 SCM Focal One Ligier JS P217 driven by Lance Willsey and João Barbosa will carry the Canadian flag this weekend, a tradition begun by Willsey when he first raced a Ligier JS P320 in the IMSA Prototype Challenge (now the VP Racing Challenge). Willsey provided insight as to why the family carries such an appreciation to the country of Canada.

“My mother’s family came to settle in Niagara Falls, Ontario when they were forced to leave Sered, Czechoslovakia due to the oppressive conditions brought upon the Jewish people there in the late 30s and early 40s,” said Willsey, who will also run the pair of 45-minute VP Racing Challenge races in the No. 33 Focal One Ligier JS P320 at CTMP. “I’m so appreciative to Canada for taking them in, so I honor that every year with the Maple Leaf livery.”

Willsey’s mother’s family – her mother, father, and brother – lived in Sered in what is now the Czech Republic. The extended family included brothers and uncles, spouses and children, owning and working together in a variety of business ventures. His grandfather was Jewish but his grandmother was Catholic, which shielded her and the children from the Nazi inquisition. As the 1940s began, a forced labor camp was established near Sered which became a transition point to some of the concentration camps in Poland. Willsey’s grandparents’ families were being slowly rounded up, put on trains and buses, and taken to the forced labor camp to work under a variety of conditions, but many of them ended up in concentration camps in Poland and where killed.

“At some point in time, the powers that had aligned with the Axis in Germany took interest in finding my grandfather, primarily because he was a fairly wealthy man, a successful businessman, and a leader in the community. They sought him out, coming to the house on multiple occasions in search of him. They spared my grandmother because she was Catholic and spared my mom and her brother – my mom was probably around five or six years old at the time, and my uncle was an infant.

“Soon it became untenable for my grandfather to try to remain at the house. So when the military showed up searching for him, he left the house and went and lived in the woods, because he could not safely come back to the house. The family lost contact with him – they did not know his whereabouts, or if he was safe or not.”

Hoping for her husband’s return, Willsey’s grandmother had a false wall constructed in the house and placed the wood burning stove in front of it to hide it. Eventually, her husband returned, and they boarded him into the tiny room that had a small space to slide a plate of food in. His grandfather spent months living in this room with no daylight and no human contact, other than hands touching his through this space where the family could share a plate of food with him. Meanwhile, his grandmother watched more and more family members taken away, never to be seen again, as also found themselves in hiding. Clearly, the time to act had come and soon, a plan began to develop.

“My grandparents family, including my grandmothers brothers and uncles, sold everything they could sell given the constraints placed on them, and converted the money into diamonds, which were the densest form of wealth that they could travel with, and then bought train tickets for each one of them to get on a train to an uncertain destination. They never knew where they would end up, they just entrusted someone to get the family out of there – though it’s my understanding that initially, safety was not defined. It was just somewhere where Jewish people could safely live.”

Willsey’s grandfather, grandmother, and – to Willsey’s knowledge – several of his brothers and uncles, and their spouses and children, traveled in whatever conveyance they could (from false floors of railroad cars to buses) and through a long circuitous route, they ended up in Niagara Falls, Ontario – with the clothes on their backs and the diamonds in their pockets, to start a brand-new life.

“Each of the brothers and uncles started a different business, some of which remain to this day. One went into the dry goods business and sold clothing, and I believe his store still exists in Niagara Falls. My other uncle went into the cattle and meat packing industry, and my grandfather went into the clothing business with my grandmother, who sewed clothes in their workshop and helped him fill his car with clothes as he traveled around Ontario selling clothes out of the back of his station wagon.

“And that’s how they restarted their lives. Happily, there were some non-Jewish friends in Sered that hung onto some of their possessions, in the hope that they would survive and could be reunited at some point. After the war they were able to get back some of their furniture, and some artwork. Things that reminded them of home. Many of them are still there, I see them whenever I go to Canada.

“So I have an incredible sense of gratitude to Canada, because Canada provided the destination, the safe haven, for my mom’s side of the family. My mom’s brother and uncle still live in Toronto, though slowly, just by time, that generation is moving on. Putting the Canadian flag on our race car is my way of remembering them, of remembering that Canada was willing to take them in. It my way of saying thank you.”

SCM thanks partner Focal One for its continued support.

The Chevrolet Grand Prix takes the green flag Sunday at 11:05 a.m. Eastern. The race will be broadcast live in the U.S. on USA Network and Peacock. International viewers can watch via IMSA.tv, with IMSA Radio also available at IMSA.com.

About SCM

Team leader Sean Creech has competed in a multitude of sports car series from 1990 until the present day, including Group C, IMSA GTP, WSC, Grand-Am, SRO World Challenge, and IMSA. SCM will contest the full WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in 2024 with João Barbosa and Lance Willsey. https://seancreechmotorsport.com/

About Focal One

One in eight men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during their lifetime in the United States. The Focal One® HIFU Prostate treatment offers patients a non-invasive outpatient procedure to target prostate tissue while avoiding the common side effects such as loss of urinary continence and sexual function. The Focal One treatment uses high-performance, high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) to precisely target and ablate the prostate, allowing patients to quickly return to normal activities. http://www.focalone.com/