The #33 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R of Nicky Catsburg, Nicolas Varrone and Ben Keating have taken victory in the GTE-Am class at Le Mans.
Having taken the pole in the GTE-Am class thanks to a stellar lap in Hyperpole courtesy of amateur maestro Keating, the #33 crew were much fancied to take a class victory in the 91st running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. However, the #33 crew’s journey to victory was anything but simple.
Despite leading the GTE-Am category after the first hour of running, the #33 Corvette had to replace the right-front damper, dropping it two laps down from the leading pack with 22 hours of the race left to run.
Despite the uphill battle and missing out on a safety car pass around to reclaim their two lap disadvantage, the #33 Corvette charged on. With 19 hours left to run, Varrone was lapping four to five seconds quicker than the class leaders, paving the way for an incredible fight back.
The fight back was exemplified by amateur racer Keating’s triple stint in the night time hours, which laid the foundations for the crew’s rise up the ranks and with six hours left to run, the #33 Corvette was back in the lead of the GTE-Am class.
Back in class-winning contention, the Corvette team stretched their advantage to take the chequered flag two minutes ahead of the second-placed #25 ORT By TF Aston Martin Vantage AMR, with the #86 Porsche 911 RSR – 19 of GR Racing a further 57 seconds back in third.
A fantastic effort by the Corvette Racing team, to overcome the adversity in the early stages of the race!!!
The ninth class victory, what a way to go out!! Awesome
effort…👍👍❤️