Corvette Racing returned to the Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium. The second round of the 2022 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) took place at the famous race circuit in the Ardennes region of Belgium and it was a very challenging race for many reasons. It was the second year running that Corvette Racing was competing in the FIA WEC round at Spa but last year Antonio Garcia and Oliver Gavin were on driving duties and this year it was Nick Tandy and Tommy Milner.
#64 C8.R at La Source Hairpin during the rain
Nick Tandy being an Englishman has lots of experience at Spa and even lists a 24 Hours of Spa victory on his very impressive CV. Tommy Milner had never been to the track let alone driven it before the first practice session on Thursday. His learning curve was as steep as some of the sections of the Spa track.
Nick qualified the #64 Corvette C8.R in third place behind both factory Porsches which was a great result for the team. The plan was that Nick would start the race, hand the car over to Tommy for the middle stint and Nick would return to the hot seat for a final couple of hours. The best-laid plans were thrown into complete disarray thanks to the notorious Ardennes Region weather, but we will get onto that.
The start was great for the Corvette as both Porsches got together at the first corner of the first lap of the six-hour race and the #91 Porsche lost its left rear tire and part of the rim meaning it had to limp around almost a complete lap to pit and replace the wheel. It rejoined in fifth place and that was as good as it got for the #91 Porsche.
#91 Porsche loses its tire AND wheel rim
Lap one was also the first Safety Car intervention – there were ELEVEN Safety Cars or full course yellow periods during the race – as the Iron Dames Ferrari of Christina Nielsen ended up off in the gravel trap at La Source thanks to contact from another car. The #64 Corvette maintained the third place as it lost out to one of the Ferraris in the first corner incident between the Porsches, however, Nick Tandy managed to get by the Ferrari early in his first stint to move up to second in the GTE Pro Class.
Nick was able to stretch his fuel to do one more lap than any of the other cars in class which should have been great news had it not been for an ill-timed Red Flag that was despatched when Tandy was on his in-lap meaning he had to enter a closed pit for emergency fuel. A quirk of the FIA WEC rules meant Tandy was held at the pit lane exit for a whole lap before he was allowed to rejoin putting him a lap behind the other cars in the GTE Pro Class.
After about twenty minutes the Red Flag was lifted and the Safety Car was deployed with it now raining but only on the first half of the track. Corvette changed to wet tires during their pit stop. The Safety Car continued to circulate as the lead Hypercar Toyota #8 stopped on track and since it’s a Hybrid it required a special process to retrieve it.
A second Red Flag because of torrential rain allowed the Corvette to take the wave by the pace car and get the lap it lost back however the C8.R was still disadvantaged as it lost a lot of time relative to the other cars in the GTE Pro Class.
Nick Tandy spent over three hours in the car in his first stint thanks to both of the red flag periods before handing it over to Tommy Milner for one stint. Tommy joined the track in appalling conditions with rain falling heavily – bear in mind he had never raced at Spa before – and completed an almost trouble-free stint (he did run off track at Pouhon on one lap).
Tommy Milner runs wide at Pouhon in the #64 C8.R
With an hour and forty-five minutes to go Tommy Milner pitted handing the #64 C8.R back to Nick. One hour and twenty-two minutes to go and another full course yellow, then back to green to yellow, to green and yellow again all in the space of the next twenty-five minutes! During this time Nick pitted for the final time with just over an hour to go and handed the car back to Tommy to finish off the race. There was then a whole thirty minutes of green flag racing before another car off track caused a final full course yellow. Fourth place was as good as it got for the #64 Corvette Racing C8.R with the #51 Ferrari winning from the #92 Porsche and the #52 Ferrari in third place.
The next race for Corvette Racing will be at Le Mans for the FIA WEC third round of the 2022 championship and both of the Corvette Racing C8.R Corvettes will compete in the GTE Pro Class. Nick Tandy and Tommy Milner in the #64 C8.R will be joined by another Englishman Alexander Sims for the 89th Edition of the 24 Hours. Antonio Garcia, Jordan Taylor, and Nicky Catsburg will race in the #63 Corvette C8.R.
This may be the swansong for the GTE Pro Class as there are currently no plans for the class to exist in 2023. It would be great for Corvette Racing if they could win their class for the ninth time at Le Mans. The race will take place over the weekend of the 11th-12th of June 2022.
