It was almost impossible for Corvette Racing to send cars to Le Mans for today’s run because the team was at Long Beach, California, for last weekend’s ALMS round. The only “Americans” to have made the trip are Level 5 Motorsport who completed 45 laps with one of its two LMP2 prototypes at Long Beach (enough to be officially classified) before the machine was loaded onto a container and flown over to France the following day!

Corvette Racing chose to leave both its cars in the States, yet it is still here at Le Mans where it is working on the car usually run by Larbre Competition.

Fourteen people from Corvette Racing, including the boss Doug Fehan, have come over from the USA for the test, and the team’s engineers and technicians have taken over the Larbre’s C6.R to carry out vital set-up work round the full Le Mans track.

The team’s four ALMS factory drivers will share the car, namely Le Mans regulars Gavin, Magnussen and Berretta, plus Tom Milner who must complete 10 laps in order to be authorised to take part in June’s race, because he hasn’t raced at La Sarthe since 2007 (with Panoz).

Corvette Racing’s record at Le Mans includes five class wins. It was beaten in 2010, however, so the American carmaker is keen to return to its winning ways this time round…

24 Hours of Le Mans, Corvette, Test