In a bid to fast-track the development of the racing C8s, Corvette Racing entered a car in the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) event, the Six Hours of COTA. COTA stands for the “Circuit of The Americas”, a top-class racing circuit in Austin, Texas which also hosts the US F1 Grand Prix. This FIA WEC class of racing runs under a different set of rules to the IMSA GTLM class which is Corvette Racing’s targeted class of competition.
This third C8 racing Corvette has been developed to run in the WEC GTE Pro category as the No. 63 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R. The two drivers of the car are experienced Corvette Racing drivers, Jan Magnussen, a multiple race and championship winner for the team, and Mike Rockenfeller who, in the past, has also been a race winner for Corvette Racing. These two drivers are both understandably very excited to return to Corvette Racing with its new C8.R race cars.
The WEC international championship runs under a set of “handicap” rules to equalise the different types of cars, by adjusting the weight and power levels. Ballasting can adjust the weights, while air restrictors and maximum turbo-boost ratios are used for balancing the power levels. This system is called “Balance of Performance” or BoP.
Unfortunately, the C8.R has entered the field with a conservative, automatically calculated BoP, which has left it non-competative against its rivals. During the race, the car was losing 4mph to rivals in straight-line speed and 50 seconds of time per stint. Only a battery problem in one of the rival Porsches prevented the C8.R from finishing last in its class.
The BoP can normally only be changed after two races, so as things stand, the C8.R can expect to again be non-competitive at its next race, proposed as the Sebring 1000 Miles. In order to compete on some sort of equal terms with its rivals, the C8.R needs an exemption to adjust its BoP without waiting to complete the two races. The team would really like to actually “race” their rivals rather than being blown away by them during the race.
As a contrast, in the first IMSA series race, the C8R was very competitive against its rivals, which included basically the same cars it races in WEC events. The positive out of the weekend’s racing was that the car ran the race trouble free and collected plenty of important data to continue the car’s development.
In another positive for Corvette, a Corvette Corral of some 200 registered Corvettes dwarfed the other manufacturers’ car corrals. The support of the #63 Corvette by the fans was quite outstanding. Let’s hope for both the drivers and the fans’ sake the BoP can be adjusted in time for the race at Sebring on the weekend of 18-21 March. The other two C8.Rs will race at the same meeting in the IMSA Championship race.
