C8.R CORVETTE RACING AT SEBRING: FIA WEC

Ahead of the 1,000 Miles of Sebring and the kick-off of the FIA World Endurance Championship, Corvette Racing drivers Tommy Milner and Nick Tandy teammates in the No. 64 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R discussed the team’s first venture into a full WEC season and touched on preparation for the Sebring weekend in the GTE Pro class.

FULL TRANSCRIPT:

TOMMY MILNER, NO. 64 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R
YOU’RE STARTING YOUR SEASON AT SEBRING, AS WAS THE CASE FOR YEARS IN ALMS. WHAT’S THE MINDSET GOING INTO THIS EVENT?

“I was a bit surprised at making 125 starts with Corvette that’s more than I would have thought. But along those lines while the team is starting a new endeavor by racing in the WEC, it still feels very much like home. It feels normal in some ways by starting off our championship at Sebring.
It’s the same team, same co-driver as last year with Nick and lots of carry-over, which is the name of the game in many ways for Corvette Racing.

While it is new in the sense of racing in a new championship, the feeling I get from the team is not business as usual because there is a lot more behind the scenes that makes this happen than just that, but it still feels very familiar and very normal, but also very exciting to get started with a new chapter in Corvette Racing’s history.”

THERE HAVE BEEN TWO STAND-ALONE WEC RACES FOR THE C8.R AND BOTH WERE TOUGH RACES, PARTLY BECAUSE OF THE BoP. HOW DO YOU FEEL THAT MIGHT AFFECT THINGS?

“In both of those situations and events for the team, there was some planning to make those events happen but there were add-ons and extras to our calendar. In those situations, and looking specifically at performance, we were hoping for a more competitive situation. Both those races were unique. The COTA race (in 2020) was pretty early on with the C8.R, and last year’s race at Spa was a super cold event.

In this situation for this year and knowing as long as we’ve known that this was the plan to split the two cars, this feels much more like (normal). While this is a new championship in general for Corvette Racing, the experience we have at Le Mans is a part of that. But we do have some new tracks that the team hasn’t been to. We’ll use the DiL (Driver in the Loop simulator) as much as we possibly can for the engineers and us as drivers to get as much time as we possibly can leading up to these events.

We finished last year and started this year knowing what the program is. The BoP process does play a big role at times in the pace, performance and results. For us, it’s probably the best-case scenario in some ways starting at Sebring. We know the racetrack, we know the tires, we know the car. We should be pretty competitive out of the box, I would imagine. If that’s not the case, then we will have some data that us as a team and the WEC can use to hopefully make the racing close and exciting as this class always seems to provide.”

AS IT’S YOUR FIRST WEC SEASON, IS THERE A CIRCUIT YOU’RE LOOKING AT VISITING FOR THE FIRST TIME?

“To be honest, I’m excited about all of it. I’ve never raced at Spa, Monza, Fuji or Bahrain. For many of these races, it will all be new for me. Over my racing career, I’ve been a big fan of and done a lot of sim racing, so I’ve driven all these tracks multiple times in different sims.

I’m excited to have the opportunity to go to these places on our DiL and also in real life. In general, I feel as prepared as I can be for these new tracks. As always, going to these new places in real life, it’s always a little bit different. There are always elevation sensations that you don’t get in the sims. While most of the bumps and things like that are there, the different track surface changes don’t always translate over very well on these sims.

There definitely is a learning curve that will be involved there. We have lots of tools and experience from Nick, our engineers and other drivers that we can pull from to get us all up to speed as quickly as possible. It’s exciting to be part of a World Championship and have a chance to go for a World Championship. It’s exciting to take Corvette Racing and be one of the drivers of the car around the world and showcase this Corvette C8.R especially now with the Corvette street car being available worldwide, it just seems like a perfect fit for this team.”

YOU’LL DO THE 1,000 MILES AT SEBRING AND THE OTHER WEC RACES OUTSIDE OF LE MANS WITH JUST TWO DRIVERS. WILL THAT HAVE AN IMPACT?

“It’ll probably be about the same driving as it has been in the past with a little bit of a shorter race. Obviously, Sebring is tough physically and mentally. From my point of view, I’ve found that the more driving you do in a race, the more comfortable you get. You have more time to really understand what the car needs from every lap and every corner to figure out how to get the most out of the car.

Not that I don’t like driving with multiple drivers. For 24-hour races, it’s a necessity. But there have been times at some Sebring races while for 12 hours having only two drivers would be difficult it’s a situation where at the end of the race and when it’s all over, the ones I’ve done quite a bit of the driving, you are tired for sure.
But there is a sense that you had every opportunity to maximize the potential of the car. I’ve always enjoyed the races where, for whatever reason with the way the drivetimes worked out, I drove a lot of the race.

There is a sense of accomplishment at the end of it all where you feel like you’ve had a big role in the performance of the car, and you feel like you get the most out of it. From that point of view, I’m excited about that challenge. There’s nothing extra special; it’s business as usual with what I’ve done in the past with training has always worked well for me. I’m continuing on that path as I always have.
For me, I think the biggest challenge will fundamentally be getting used to new racetracks and getting up to speed. Our competitors will have had quite a bit more experience than I have at these tracks. That, for me, will be the biggest challenge – finding the maximum out of the car and getting the most out of the car on these new tracks.”

NICK TANDY, NO. 64 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R
YOU’RE GOING BACK TO FIA WEC COMPETITION FULL TIME AND HAVING BOTH CORVETTE RACING ON THE GROUND AT SEBRING ALONGSIDE THE IMSA ENTRY.

“The thing I’m looking forward to most is seeing how the different weekend plays out. The fact that we have our first weekend in the WEC as a single-car team, we’re actually sharing the weekend with our teammates, even though they are different race and different category. I’m looking forward to having another car to cheer on in another class and in another race and how the weekend plays out.

It will be the first time that all of our crew that will be working in WEC all year will be split from the IMSA side. The good thing is that we know how to make our No. 64 Corvette go well around Sebring. Yes, the race is a bit less in time than what we are used to with the 12 Hours.

But it’s still an endurance race at Sebring, so this is a good way to start the year. I’m glad we get to start the year in North America. It’s a familiar place to race and get things started. Hopefully, it’s a good start and something we can learn on the way the races are structured, the way we work as a team and take that through the rest of the season.”

HOW IMPORTANT IS A TOOL LIKE THE DRIVER IN THE LOOP SIMULATOR GIVEN NEW TRACKS ON THE CALENDER FOR CORVETTE RACING?

“I’m off to Huntersville (North Carolina) on Wednesday. We have some work to do on not just Sebring but also the upcoming races after that in both IMSA and WEC. Having these tools available to us there are certain things that stay pretty similar with the car and how the setup of the car is from track to track. But there are a lot of things that are track specific.
Going to places like Monza and Fuji, for example. I know from previous experience that these places maybe not Monza because it’s more of a Le Mans-type setup of aero level like at Fuji with a great long straight but also a technical infield, you can run through simulations of aero level and not just figure out what makes the car work but what makes the best lap time.

The trade-off between downforce and drag at certain places like Le Mans and Daytona is pretty simple to work out what makes the lap time. At somewhere like Fuji and Spa to a certain degree, you can trade off some of the cornering ability to make up time on the straight.

The DiL sim that we have for this sort of thing is quite useful. We can test things to see how much time we are giving away in certain areas and how to then tune around it. We like to have two kinds of setups ready to go that we can try in testing. It gives us a head start before we get to the track. Going to new circuits, it will be even more important and play a bigger role than ever.”

IT’S YOUR FIRST FULL WEC SEASON IN QUITE A FEW YEARS. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THAT AND IS IT STRANGE TO NOT DO A FULL IMSA SEASON FOR THE FIRST TIME IN AWHILE?

“There are mixed kind of feelings. I think all of us are excited to do a World Championship, to do something new and something different. This is exciting.
But we are leaving a lot of people, a lot of tracks and races, and a lot of fans and stuff that we are used to seeing and racing with on a week-to-week basis in IMSA. I will miss going places like Virginia, Watkins Glen and events like this. But we are going for a World Championship and that is something not a lot of people get the chance to go for.

Le Mans is always big, but a full World Endurance Championship season is something else. It was really nice to start the year in Daytona. When you do the IMSA series and then you get to do Le Mans in the same year, that’s a fantastic calendar. To do a full WEC calendar and include Daytona as a single event from our side, it was a really nice thing to do. To have this opportunity to do these races and have the chance to be successful in not just a series but in these big, single events is something that’s always good.

We were lucky to start off at Daytona and we’ve got this full chance at a World Championship, which is the aim of what we are doing. I’m looking forward to it. But I am not looking forward to not looking back to going to Silverstone, though. It used to be a home race in the WEC. I’m a bit sad we don’t go to Silverstone anymore. But I’ll be looking forward to going back to Monza. It’s been since 2017 since the last time I’ve raced there so looking forward to that.”

THERE HAVE BEEN TWO STAND-ALONE WEC RACES FOR THE C8.R AND BOTH WERE TOUGH RACES, PARTLY BECAUSE OF THE BoP. HOW DO YOU FEEL THAT MIGHT AFFECT THINGS?

“Tommy was probably more involved in previous WEC single events. I was part of the team when we did Spa last year. We know that the BoP process from all the series is getting better and better. They have the tools to make this process as fair as possible. Yes, we have run the car in normal configuration at Spa last year. Nothing has really changed since then, and of course we had all the running at Le Mans last year.

We also have the Prologue this year. I hope everything will be a decent window to start with. I have no reason to think they won’t. Of course, the process takes time, but cars evolve and tires evolve, and from track to track it’s different. It’s pretty simple that we make sure our car and everything on our side is 100 percent. You just hope for a fair run at it.”

YOU’LL DO THE 1,000 MILES AT SEBRING AND THE OTHER WEC RACES OUTSIDE OF LE MANS WITH JUST TWO DRIVERS. WILL THAT HAVE AN IMPACT?

“From a strategic point of view, when you have only two drivers you get more time, like in practice. You don’t just have more driving time in practice. With things that you’re testing in free practice, you don’t have to worry about changing drivers as much. There is a strategic advantage to having less drivers a lot of the time. You can get through more work in practice.
Of course, when it comes to the actual racing, we typically do the Six Hours of The Glen regularly with two drivers in GTLM.
That’s been the normal kind of thing. With GTE being nearer to one-hour stints on fuel stops, the four, six, eight-hour races become a bit easier to manage with two drivers. With classes that have maybe 40- or 45-minute fuel stints, you would have more options with more drivers from that point of view.
The 1,000 Miles and even in the eight hours at Bahrain, it’ll be tough. As Tommy says, doing a 12-hour or 24-hour race with three, that’s still a lot of driving time. If we both do three stints in Sebring, it’s still three double-stints, which isn’t out of the ordinary in testing.

A lot of the time when we do long endurance testing, we drive a lot more. If you can get away with having less drivers, then it’s better for the team as a whole. The problem comes if someone has an issue, as I know about from Spa last year.
Doing the Spa 15 Hours with two drivers is quite difficult! Having the extra guy sometimes gives you a bit of safety net if one driver has an issue. Other than that, we’re good to go with two and I think you’ll see all the other teams in GTE Pro doing the same.”

GTD Pro loses a Corvette for the rest of the season as focus shifts toward Corvette Racing’s WEC effort. In addition, there will be no repeat of the incredible battle between the Pfaff Motorsports and KCMG Porsches, as KCMG was a one-off for Daytona.
However, GTD Pro gains a one-off Racers Edge with WTR Acura NSX for Ashton Harrison, making her 12 Hour debut, Kyle Marcelli and Tom Long.

Paul Miller Racing will be on the grid for the first time in 2022, having missed Daytona due to its switch from Lamborghini to BMW. Bryan Sellers, Madison Snow and Erik Johansson will drive the No. 1 BMW M4 GT3 as Sellers and Snow begin their quest for the championship they so narrowly missed last year. The 17-car entry list features a wide range of marques and teams, led by Daytona winners Wright Motorsports with Ryan Hardwick, Zachary Robichon and Jan Heylen.

The 70th running of the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring starts with practice on Thursday, March 17.
The race begins at 10:10 a.m. ET on Saturday, March 19. Peacock will stream flag-to-flag coverage, with USA Network carrying the race from 3:30 p.m. ET through the finish.

History will be in the making for the second consecutive IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race with the 70th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts on March 19. It comes seven weeks following the 60th running of the Rolex 24 At Daytona that opened the 2022 season.

Fifty-three cars are entered an increase of 16 cars from a year ago in the 12-hour race that also serves as the second round of the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup. WeatherTech Championship action at Sebring International Raceway begins Thursday, March 17 with three practice sessions for the five classes. Qualifying is set for Friday, March 18, with the race commencing the morning of Saturday, March 19.

Here’s the information you need to know for the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.

Sebring International Raceway – Sebring, Florida

March 17-19, 2022

Fast Facts

Race Day/Time: Saturday, March 19 – 10:10 a.m. ET

Peacock Streaming Coverage: LIVE – Flag-to-flag beginning at 10 a.m.

NBC Sports Coverage: USA from 3:30-10:30 p.m.

IMSA.com/TVLive Live Qualifying Stream: Friday, March 18 – 9:15 a.m.

IMSA Radio: All sessions live on IMSA.com and RadioLeMans.com; SiriusXM live race coverage begins March 19 at 9:45 a.m. (Sirius channel 216, XM 207, Web/App 992)

Circuit Type: 3.74-mile, 17-turn road course

Race Length: 12 hours

Track Social Media: Twitter/Instagram: @SebringRaceway; Facebook: @SebringInternationalRaceway

Event Hashtags: #IMSA, #Sebring12, #RespectTheBumps

Entry List (Click Here)

WeatherTech Championship Track Records

Qualifying:

DPi: Pipo Derani, Cadillac DPi-V.R, 1:45.354 / 127.797 mph, March 2021

LMP2: Gustavo Menezes, ORECA LMP2, 1:49.645 / 122.796 mph, July 2020

LMP3: Rasmus Lindh, Ligier JS P320, 1:56.001 / 116.067 mph, March 2021

GTD PRO: none (new class in 2022)

GTD: Jack Hawksworth, Lexes RC F GT3, 1:59.247 / 112.908 mph, March 2021

2021 Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts Winners:

DPi: Tristan Vautier/Loic Duval/Sebastien Bourdais, No. 5 Mustang Sampling/JDC-Miller MotorSports Cadillac DPi V.R

LMP2: Ben Keating/Mikkel Jensen/Scott Huffaker, No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA LMP2 07

LMP3: Jonathan Bennett/George Kurtz/Colin Braun, No. 54 CORE autosport Ligier JS P320

GTD PRO: new class in 2022

GTD: Zacharie Robichon/Laurens Vanthoor/Lars Kern, No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R

Storylines

Championship Chases Continue and Start: All five WeatherTech Championship classes will race for the second time this year, but for two classes Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) and Le Mans Prototype 3 (LMP3) this will be the first race of the season that counts toward the season championship.
The other three classes Daytona Prototype international (DPi), GTD PRO and GT Daytona (GTD) each earned championship points in the season opener, the Rolex 24 At Daytona

Jarvis Aims for Grand Slam: Oliver Jarvis, co-driver of the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian Acura ARX-05, is seeking to become the first driver to win all four IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup races in succession. The Brit won the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen and the Motul Petit Le Mans last year driving for Mazda Motorsports. He started 2022 with his new team, Meyer Shank Racing, with the overall victory at the Rolex 24 At Daytona.

Father-and-Son Team: Juan Pablo Montoya, the 2019 Daytona Prototype international (DPi) champion, races for the first time this season in the No. 81 DragonSpeed USA ORECA LMP2 07. He’ll be joined in the lineup by his 16-year-old son, Sebastian, making his WeatherTech Championship debut.

Auberlen’s 500th for BMW: Bill Auberlen, the all-time leading winner in IMSA’s top series with 64 victories, will make his 500th start in a BMW in the race. A three-time winner at Sebring, he’ll share the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 with co-drivers Robby Foley and Michael Dinan.

IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup: The second race of the WeatherTech Championship season also marks the second event counting toward the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup, where separate points are accumulated at different junctures of the endurance races. For Sebring, those junctures are the four-, eight- and 12-hour marks. Leading in each class following the Rolex 24 are: in DPi, the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura; in LMP2, the No. 29 Racing Team Nederland ORECA; in LMP3, the No. 74 Riley Motorsports Ligier JS P320; in GTD PRO, the No. 2 KCMG Mercedes-AMG GT3 (not entered at Sebring); and in GTD, the No. 16 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R.

Who’s Hot?

Jarvis and Whoever’s with Him:
If Oliver Jarvis is to complete his sweep of endurance races, it will be with one driver who helped at Daytona and a newcomer to the Meyer Shank team. Tom Blomqvist is Jarvis’ full-season teammate in the No. 60 Acura. With Rolex 24 teammates Helio Castroneves and Simon Pagenaud unavailable due to a conflict with their IndyCar Series schedule, the team called on former Formula One driver Stoffel Vandoorne to fill in as the third driver for this historic quest.

74 Riley Motorsports LMP3: Coming off a 2021 season that saw the car win five races and the inaugural LMP3 championship, the No. 74 kept the momentum rolling by winning for the second straight year at the Rolex 24. Sebring was one of only two races last season where the Riley effort was not victorious.

9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche: After winning at Sebring and taking the GTD championship in 2021, the No. 9 moved to the GTD PRO class this year and picked up where it left off by capturing the class at the Rolex 24. Drivers Matt Campbell and Mathieu Jaminet, part of that winning effort at Daytona, were also victorious last year at Sebring driving for the No. 79 WeatherTech Porsche team in the GT Le Mans (GTLM) class.

Who’s Good Here?

Can You Say Bourdais: Sebastien Bourdais collected his third Sebring win last year in a masterful drive to the finish with a damaged car. He’s changed teams this year to Chip Ganassi Racing, where he looks to change the fortunes of the team whose lone Sebring triumph came in 2014.

PR1 Mathiasen and Huffaker: PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports is the two-time defending LMP2 champion at Sebring and Scott Huffaker is the driver constant in both wins. Ben Keating and Mikkel Jensen also return from the 2021 winner.

Porsche of the Century: By winning in both GTLM and GTD a year ago at Sebring, the German manufacturer reached 100 class wins at the track, the first coming in 1955. That’s more Sebring wins than all the other current WeatherTech Championship manufacturers combined.

Previous Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts Winners in 2022 Field (40)

Bill Auberlen (3): GTS-2 – 1995; GTS-3 – 1997; GT3 – 1998

Jonathan Bennett (3): PC – 2014, 2016; LMP3 – 2021

Sebastien Bourdais (3): GT2 – 2006; P – 2015; DPi – 2021

Colin Braun (3): PC – 2014, 2016; LMP3 – 2021

Pipo Derani (3): P – 2016, 2018; DP – 2019

Antonio Garcia (3): GT1 – 2009; GTLM – 2015, 2017

Ian James (3): P2 – 2004, 2005; GTD – 2015

Joao Barbosa (2): P2 – 2012; P – 2015

Loic Duval (2): P1 – 2011; DPi – 2021

Mario Farnbacher (2): GTD – 2015, 2017

Scott Huffaker (2): LMP2 – 2020, 2021

Ben Keating (2): GTD – 2017; LMP2 – 2021

Cooper MacNeil (2): GTC – 2013; GTLM – 2021

Earl Bamber (1): GTLM – 2020

Jonathan Bomarito (1): DPi – 2020

Mirko Bortolotti (1): GTD – 2019

Matt Campbell (1): GTLM – 2021

Ryan Dalziel (1): WEC P2 – 2012

Ryan Hardwick (1): GTD – 2020

Jan Heylen (1): GTD – 2020

Mathieu Jaminet (1): GTLM – 2021

Oliver Jarvis (1): P1 – 2013

Mikkel Jensen (1): LMP2 – 2021

Lars Kern (1): GTD – 2021

George Kurtz (1): LMP2 – 2021

Andy Lally (1): GTD – 2014

Corey Lewis (1): GTD – 2018

Alex Lynn (1): P – 2017

Felipe Nasr (1): DP – 2019

John Potter (1): GTD – 2014

Alex Riberas (1): GTD – 2015

Zacharie Robichon (1): GTD – 2021

Mike Rockenfeller (1): GTLM – 2017

Bryan Sellers (1): GTD – 2018

Madison Snow (1): GTD – 2018

Jordan Taylor (1): P – 2017

Ricky Taylor (1): P – 2017

Laurens Vanthoor (1): GTD – 2021

Tristan Vautier (1): DPi – 2021

Richard Westbrook (1): GT – 2013

Previous Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts Pole Winners in 2022 Field (13)

Bill Auberlen (4): GTU – 1994; GTS-3 – 1997; GT3 – 1998; GTLM – 2016

Colin Braun (2): LMPC – 2013; PC – 2016

Antonio Garcia (2): GTLM – 2020, 2021

Tristan Vautier (2): GTD – 2017; P – 2018

Sebastien Bourdais (1): P – 2014

Connor De Phillippi (1): GTLM – 2018

Pipo Derani (1): DPi – 2021

Jan Heylen (1): GTD – 2020

Andy Lally (1): GTC – 2013

Rasmus Lindh (1): LMP3 – 2021

Daniel Serra (1): GTD – 2018

Ricky Taylor (1): DPi – 2020

Steven Thomas (1): LMP2 – 2021

Previous Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts Winning Teams in 2022 Field (16)

Corvette Racing (11): GTS – 2002, 2003, 2004; GT1 – 2006, 2007, 2008 2009; GT – 2013; GTLM – 2015, 2016, 2017

CORE autosport (4): LMPC – 2012; PC – 2014, 2016; LMP3 – 2021

PR1 Mathiasen (4): LMPC – 2013; PC – 2015; LMP2 – 2020, 2021

Action Express/Whelen Engineering Racing (2): P – 2015; DP – 2019

BMW Team RLL (2): GT – 2011, ALMS GT – 2012

Performance Tech (2): PC – 2017; LMP2 – 2019

AF Corse (1): WEC GT – 2012

Chip Ganassi Racing (1): P – 2014

JDC-Miller MotorSports (1): DPi – 2021

Magnus (1): GTD – 2014

Paul Miller Racing (1): GTD – 2018

Pfaff Motorsports (1): GTD – 2021

Riley Motorsports (1): GTD – 2017

Wayne Taylor Racing (1): P – 2017

WeatherTech Racing (1): GTLM – 2021

Wright Motorsports (1): GTD – 2020

Previous Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts Winning Manufacturers in 2022 Field (9)

Porsche – 100

Chevrolet – 40

Ferrari – 37

BMW – 7

Acura – 3

Aston Martin – 3

Cadillac – 3

Lamborghini – 2

Mercedes – 2

Competing at Sebring International Raceway is nothing unusual for C8.R Corvette Racing Competing there in the FIA World Endurance Championship, that’s a different story.

Nevertheless, this is the latest chapter for Corvette Racing as it begins its first full season in the FIA WEC. Tommy Milner and Nick Tandy will team together in the No. 64 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R for all six rounds of the World Championship, starting with the 1,000 Miles of Sebring in the GTE Pro category for factory race teams.

Ahead of the March 18 are two days of testing at the 3.7-mile, 17-turn Sebring circuit Saturday and Sunday. It’ll be the first time that the No. 64 mid-engine Corvette will run in a primary yellow livery after two years in silver during the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and last year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.
The No. 64 will run in the same configuration as the last two seasons in IMSA’s GT Le Mans (GTLM) category, as well as GTE Pro at Le Mans last August.

Sebring and Corvette have a rich history going back nearly 25 years, with more than 51,000 miles worth of racing and at least 10 times that in testing and development over the last quarter-century. Part of that total came during the 2019 season when Corvette Racing entered one C7.R in the FIA WEC round at Sebring in a one-off in addition to entries in that year’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.

Both Milner and Tandy are no strangers to competition in the FIA WEC, albeit in differing degrees.
This will be Tandy’s third full-season campaign in the WEC with the British ace claiming a pair of victories and four pole positions in 19 starts.

Milner has two starts in the FIA WEC outside the 24 Hours of Le Mans: 2014 at Circuit of the Americas and 2018 at the Six Hours of Shanghai, each in a Corvette C7.R.

To prepare for its World Championship challenge, Corvette Racing has a full-time crew and engineering team that is dedicated to the full season, all of whom have logged significant time with Corvette Racing in IMSA and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
The lessons learned and data gained at Sebring and the next WEC round at Spa-Francorchamps will go a long way toward Corvette Racing’s return to the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June.

The 1,000 Miles of Sebring for the FIA World Endurance Championship is scheduled for noon ET on Friday, March 18 from Sebring International Raceway. Qualifying is set for 7 p.m. ET on Thursday, March 17.

TOMMY MILNER, NO. 64 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R:

“I’m really excited about our full-season run in the WEC. Something about each event is exciting. They’re all new tracks for me outside of Sebring and Le Mans. I’ve raced in Europe and Japan before, but not the tracks on our calendar. So starting that off at Sebring is a cool throw-back to how it used to be for us in the American Le Mans Series.
Once we get to Sebring, I’m sure it will feel different. It will be a different path for us. For personally,
I’m excited to do this and race in a new championship on some new racetracks.
It’s a great chance to show off the mid-engine Corvette to fans all around the world.”

NICK TANDY, NO. 64 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R:

“In our usual season, Sebring is our second event, which is kind of normal. But for the WEC, it’s the start of our season.
We plan to take the whole Prologue event as a testing event, but this is the start of the WEC season. Sebring is a bit like Daytona.

You look at it, and it feels familiar with how the structure of your season is playing out. Everything beyond that is different.
There is something exciting about doing something different like this.
One of the things I’m really looking forward to in seeing how it’s going to work, we’ll have our entire Corvette Racing family together, racing in two events separately for the first time.

I’m really glad that the first time we split off as single-car entries, we’re actually all going to be there together. That’s very cool. It’s not a situation where what we do with one car will necessarily help the other, but at the same time we’ll have multiple sets of eyes on two sets of situations that are happening on the same track throughout the weekend. Corvettes will be on track a lot over the two days.

Hopefully that will be a benefit; I can’t think of a way it’s a determent. It is interesting to start our full-season begins at Sebring again and not Daytona.
It’s for a very good reason: the fact that we’re doing something new and different in going for a World Championship, and the good thing is that it starts in North America.”

IMSA has established the starting Balance of Performance for the remainder of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season ahead of next weekend’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.

Released on Wednesday, the tables are reflective of changes since last year’s season-ending Motul Petit Le Mans, with the Rolex 24 at Daytona having its own unique BoP.

No performance-related changes have been made to the DPi ranks since the ten-hour enduro at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, with all of the changes in the common GTD Pro/GTD BoP.

The Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 has been given a 20 kg weight break and increased turboboost at lower RPMs compared to its previous Evo configuration, while the BMW M4 GT3 and Chevy Corvette C8.R GTD will each weigh in at 1315 kg and 1340 kg, respectively.

As was the case in the season-opening Rolex 24, the nationally homologated Corvette will run with a 15 mm gurney, along with a 41 mm air restrictor opening.

The Lexus RC F GT3 will have slightly more power with a 1 mm larger air restrictor, while the McLaren 720S GT3 has faced a slight boost reduction across all RPM levels.
Finally, the Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo has been handed a 10 kg weight break compared to its configuration from last year’s season finale.
IMSA reserves the right to make BoP changes throughout the season although any adjustments during Sebring race week are unlikely

The No. 64 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R is the same chassis that was involved in last year’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race-ending accident for Jordan Taylor at Motul Petit Le Mans, with all components from the firewall-forward replaced, according to the team’s WEC car chief Tim Kavanagh.

The car’s rebuild was completed shortly after January’s Rolex 24 at Daytona and did not take part in any on-track testing prior to last weekend’s Prologue, which saw Tommy Milner record the second-quickest time in GTE-Pro.

There were two practice sessions yesterday for WEC 1,000 mile Sebring race

For second practice :

LMGTE Pro

Michael Christensen leads the LMGTE Pro class after setting the best time of 1m58.488s in the No.92 Porsche 911 RSR
Corvette Racing second as Nick Tandy posts a 1m58.580 to get within 0.092s of the Porsche
A 1m58.889s lap by Richard Lietz ensures that the top three in class are separated by less than 0.5s
AF Corse Ferraris placed fourth and fifth in LMGTE Pro as No.51 488 GTE Evo laps narrowly quicker than the sister No.52 car

Here are results from the next practices for both IMSA and WEC

Notice the #64 C8.R in WEC is running 3 seconds a lap faster than the #3 GTD-Pro in IMSA
Same day, track and about 1 hour apart

Does this prove that Weathertech who owns that IMSA series and has two cars in the same class as the C8.Rs
is in fact hitting it with BoP on purpose to slow it down and not win races ?

Easy to see comparing the two groups that the #3 C8.R is way behind the leading cars in that class

Second IMSA practice session and C8.R still not doing very well

After qualifying here is how they will start the 1,000 mile WEC Sebring race tomorrow, Friday

C8.R Corvette Racing’s Nick Tandy qualified third in GTE Pro on Thursday ahead of the team’s first full-season race in the FIA World Endurance Championship. Tandy piloted the No. 64 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R to a lap of 1:57.696 (114.394 mph) around Sebring International Raceway.

Tandy’s time was 0.463 seconds off Michael Christensen’s pole-winning time. Tandy will start Friday’s 1,000 Miles of Sebring – the season-opening race for the WEC – and share duties with Tommy Milner.

Optimism has been high in the Corvette Racing WEC garage since last weekend’s Prologue test days, which saw the Corvette match the pace of the other GTE Pro manufacturer teams.
That continued during Wednesday and Thursday’s official practices, with the yellow Corvette running second or third across the sessions.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise.
Sebring and Corvette have a rich history going back nearly 25 years, with more than 51,000 miles worth of racing and more than that in testing and development over the last quarter-century. Part of that total came during the 2019 season when Corvette Racing entered one C7.R in the FIA WEC round at Sebring in a one-off in addition to entries in that year’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.

The 1,000 Miles of Sebring for the FIA World Endurance Championship is scheduled for noon ET on Friday.
The race will air live on MotorTrend with live streaming coverage of the race and qualifying on the MotorTrend app.
Radio Le Mans will broadcast the race, qualifying and all practice sessions.

NICK TANDY, NO. 64 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R QUALIFIED THIRD IN GTE PRO:

“It pretty much ran as expected. It looked during the course of the week that the Porsche is pretty quick on a single lap, and so they were.

What I’m pleased with about that session is that it’s the first time we’ve run in full qualifying trim and ran a program on how we strategize a 10-minute WEC qualifying session. We pretty much nailed everything.
The changes to the car were really good.
It’s really reactive, which is promising and makes us look forward to the race that much more.
With the red flag early, I think we maximized everything potential, laps and track position. It was good teamwork.”