Corvette Racing's bid for the GT2 title at the 24 Hours of Le Mans ended Sunday morning, when the #64 Corvette C6.R retired with an engine problem. The #63 Corvette fell out about three hours earlier, also with engine issues.
In the #63 car, Antonio Garcia had just left the pits after replacing Johnny O'Connell and was starting the car's 226th lap of the 8.47-mile circuit. "There was no sign of a problem," Garcia said. "Suddenly there was a big noise and an engine alarm. I tried to cruise back to the pits, but that was it. Last year we won Le Mans, and this year it is a shame not to finish."
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The lead was carried on by Emmanuel Collard in the remaining Corvette. The team had been running 1-2 in class since the Risi Competizione Ferrari suffered a transmission failure late Saturday night. Around 8:30 a.m. Sunday morning, Anthony Davidson, driving the #1 Peugeot LMP1 car, passed Collard on the inside of the Porsche Curves.
"I turned to the second left in the Porsche corner and the Peugeot was on the inside," Collard said. "I didn't know he was there, I was focused on my driving. There was no contact, but he was there on the inside and I missed the right line. The car lost grip, and I crashed."
Returning to the pits, the car had suffered significant damage to the rear end, but was back into the fray in thirty minutes. Now six laps behind the class leading car, Gavin began the chase with a vengance. Within just a few laps, he had clocked a lap at 3:59.356 - faster than his pole-winning qualifying time.
A final stroke of bad luck hit the team at 9:42 a.m., when Gavin had to pull off track by the Mulsane corner. Unable to return to the pits and victim of an apparent engine failure, course marshalls pushed the Corvette behind the barriers to end its run in France. "We had the fastest car for 18 hours, but unfortunately it wasn't enough. It's frustrating that we get so far into it, we prove that we have the speed and the pace to win the race," Gavin said.
While hoping for a class win in the 24-hour race, Corvette Racing program manager, will settle for what was accomplished.
"There are different ways to make history, and today's result certainly wasn't what we set out to accomplish. At the end of the day, you have to look at what you did accomplish and the goals that you had set," he said.
"The Corvettes qualifying first and second in an extremely competitive class validated all of the time spent designing and developing the GT2 Corvette C6.R," he noted. "Second, we demonstrated the value of safety engineering being transferred from production to racing. The No. 63 Corvette had a huge impact, but Emmanuel walked away and is feeling fine. That's a testament to the product relevance of the Corvette Racing program."
"So now we go back, we work harder, we improve ourselves, and we look forward to coming back next to achieve our goal of winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans," Fehan added. "We never give up at Corvette Racing."
The team will return to the USA to continue in the American Le Mans Series, whose next event is at Miller Motorsports Park in Utah, on Sunday, July 11.
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