All 34 cars in the two GTE classes at this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans will race with Michelin. Michelin Racing USA will take a look at all six manufacturers entered and their lineups. Here is a look at Corvette Racing, which is set for its 20th consecutive appearance in the race.

CORVETTE RACING

Quick overview: A legendary appearance for Corvette Racing beckons. The team is set for its 20th consecutive Le Mans start, an apparent record for one team. It has eight prior class wins and nearly 100,000 race miles completed. This year is the sixth straight appearance for the Corvette C7.R. The team completed its annual pre-Le Mans test at Road America in mixed conditions.

Changes from 2018: There are some slight tweaks. For the Test Day, the car ran slightly lighter than last year. Also, Corvette will have had experience with its WEC specification MICHELIN® tires this year in IMSA. Last year, Le Mans marked the first time Corvette utilized its the WEC spec-tires. The exact same driver lineup returns to the pair of C7.Rs.

Test day recap: The two cars were first and third, but times aren’t as important as running cleanly and consistently. With 166 laps and more than 1,400 miles completed on a day with great weather, that was mission accomplished. Corvette’s full post-test release is linked here.

Quotes of note:

Antonio Garcia: “Knowledge of the Michelin WEC tire is a big thing, and we learned a lot at Sebring in the FIA WEC race. Knowing that, we were able to focus a lot on that.”

Oliver Gavin: “We seem to have a better understanding of this Michelin tire, and we can take that knowledge into Le Mans and try to use it wisely in our test weekend and preparations for the race.”

Mike Rockenfeller: “The Corvette C7.R is the exact same car from last year. In the end, we tried to establish a base setup. We did a little bit of tuning but not much – normal stuff like camber and dampers. Then we really tried to learn about the compounds we have available from Michelin. We tried to learn in which temperature window to use which tire. I was in that program, so that was quite nice!

2019 LINEUP

63 Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia/Mike Rockenfeller
64 Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner/Marcel Fassler

2018 GTE-PRO RESULTS

63 Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia/Mike Rockenfeller, 4th GTE Pro
64 Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner/Marcel Fassler, 15th GTE Pro