The British sportscar outfit has partnered with the General Motors brand for the new LMGT3 class of the World Endurance Championship and will field two examples of Corvette Z06 GT3.R for factory drivers Daniel Juncadella and Charlie Eastwood.
TF Sport’s current deal with Corvette only encompasses the WEC, but team boss Tom Ferrier has revealed that he would like to expand the partnership to other races in the coming years.
High up on his list are the Nurburgring 24 Hours and the Spa 24 Hours, two races Corvette has been absent from since 2011.
Although Corvette cars were only sporadically used by teams at the Nordschleife in late 2000s and early 2010s, the C6.R was once a popular choice in the Belgian enduro and scored two outright victories in 2007 and ‘09 with the Carsport team.
“I think as a team we would love to do the big blue riband GT3 events [like] Spa 24 [and] Nurburgring, but not in 2024, will be more '25,” Ferrier told Autosport.
Ferrier, whose TF Sport team previously competed in a wide variety of championships and enduros with Aston Martin, explained that a 2024 entry at Nurburgring and Spa is not possible due to the delivery schedule of the third Z06 GT3.R.
“For us, in the next year, we only have two cars to start the season,” he said.
“So predominantly WEC and then we are expecting the third car in summer time, trying to do some one-off races in different championships and some testing on the drivers for the following year.
“Then the plan is to have another two in 2024 [for 2025 seasons]. So possibly ELMS, GT World Challenge and Asian Le Mans. Then there will be another two [cars], and then we will have loads of them!”
The Z06 GT3.R that was unveiled to the world in Daytona at the start of the year is the first car from Corvette that has been designed specifically for FIA’s GT3 regulations, and replaces the C8.R as the marque’s flagship race car.
Corvette will run a factory-supported programme with the Z06 GT3.R in IMSA SportsCar Championship’s GTD Pro class next year, and will also back TF Sport’s WEC programme.
Beyond additional customer entries in IMSA’s GTD category and SRO-run championships, the General Motors brand is yet to announce plans regarding where else its Z06 GT3.R could race in 2024.
But Corvette remains open to having a presence in big GT3 enduros, with General Motors’ sportscar racing manager Laura Wontrop Klauser leaving it up to customer teams to decide where they want to field the marque’s new GT3 racer.
“We will see what our customers want to do,” Klauser told Autosport. “So we have our IMSA customers figured out, we have our WEC customer and then we are going to have our SRO North America customer that will take delivery of our cars that will race in '24.
“There will be deliveries happening later in '24 as well for '25 seasons and it's gonna come down to who wants to take the cars where and when they receive it."
Asked if a Corvette effort in the legendary Nordschleife race would be possible, Klauser said: “We are not against anything.
“We work with our customers where it makes sense, just making sure we have enough support from a parts and a car's perspective and looking at what else they might be needing to do that, and if they feel like they need any more support and working through all this.”
