A return to the podium, hopefully on the top step, is on the mind TF Sport as the Corvette Z06 GT3.R program heads to Fuji Speedway for the Six Hours of Fuji and the next-to-last round for the FIA World Endurance Championship.

Even better is that each lineup features at least one driver who has won a race at the 2.835-mile, 16-turn Fuji Speedway circuit in the past. That’s even more encouraging considering the pace that the TF Sport Corvettes showed a year ago plus the performance of the Corvette at Fuji earlier this year including a race win and pole position in GT World Challenge Asia competition.

The trio of Daniel Juncadella, Jonny Edgar and Ben Keating are third in the Drivers Championship and 29 points out of the points lead. A season-opening victory at Qatar remains the group’s only podium finish of the season, but the pace of the No. 33 Corvette has been strong the last three races.
Experience at Fuji varies between the three teammates. Edgar won’t just make his first start at Fuji he’ll also make his first trip to Japan. Juncadella made his Fuji debut a year ago in a TF Sport Corvette that was running as high as fifth in class before a couple of mechanical issues forced the car’s retirement inside the final hour.

Keating’s past success at Fuji is one that TF Sport hopes will continue for this season. He’s finished on the class podium in each of his three previous race starts, including a win with TF Sport in 2022. His last race at the circuit came two years ago in a Corvette C8.R, and he finished second in the race as part of his GTE Am championship-winning season.

Charlie Eastwood, Rui Andrade and Tom Van Rompuy are back for their second shot at a race win or podium at Fuji in the No. 81 Corvette. Van Rompuy qualified second and led twice in his stint before Andrade continued the strong run at the front.

Eastwood was at wheel late and charging toward a podium or race win when he was hit and spun by a Hypercar with more than hour left. He made up seven spots in that span to fourth at the end. Like Keating, Eastwood has previously won at Fuji with TF Sport but back in 2019. Andrade captured victory in LMP2 in the 2023 race and made his first GT-class start at Fuji last year with TF Sport.

The No. 81 Corvette finished second at Le Mans and third at Sāo Paulo earlier this year, before finishing out of the points last time out at COTA. There’s still positive momentum within the 81 Corvette lineup, as Eastwood and Andrade were part of a third-place class finish at Silverstone in the most recent round of the European Le Mans Series.

The Six Hours of Fuji scheduled for 11 a.m. JST Sunday and 10 p.m. ET Saturday. Full, live television coverage is available on the MotorTrend in the United States. Live-streaming coverage of Free Practice 3, qualifying and the race will be available on the FIA WEC app and the MAX app in the United States.

TF SPORT PRE-EVENT QUOTES

DANI JUNCADELLA, NO. 33 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:

“We’re coming to the last two rounds of the year so it’s going to be key to score some big points. We’re still in the hunt for the championship. We’re a little on the back foot because we are a few points behind in third. But I believe we will have a good chance in Fuji. It was a very strong weekend last year in terms of pace.

We couldn’t maximize it, unfortunately because of an issue on the first pit stop. I love the track, I love the Japanese fans. They’re always very passionate about racing. Let’s see if we can score some big points to be in the hunt for Bahrain.
”
JONNY EDGAR, NO. 33 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:

“It will be my first time in Fuji and first time in Japan. Last year the pace in the Corvette was pretty strong for the team, so that’s a good sign. I’m looking forward to driving the track for the first time. I’ve done it on a simulator before, and it looks like a pretty cool track.
The simulator helps to get a general idea of the flow of a track. Figuring out the bumps, some lines and curbs can take some time. It definitely helped at COTA and after a couple of laps I felt pretty comfortable. Hopefully I can do the same at Fuji as I learn a new track.”

BEN KEATING, NO. 33 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:

“I always enjoy going to Japan and racing at Fuji. I’ve never finished off the podium there, so I’m excited to go back in the Corvette after a year away and three years after winning there with TF Sport. So this is an event that has been very good to me.

Above all the results and success, what makes this event and trip special are the people of Japan and the fans at the racetrack. It’s an incredibly friendly and respectful atmosphere. I hope we can give the ones that are cheering for the Corvette a good result and gain ground in the championship.”

CHARLIE EASTWOOD, NO. 81 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:

“Fuji was an excellent track for us last year. The Corvette felt phenomenal. We’ll be back on the medium tire for this one, which I think suits us a little bit better than the hard. We’re looking for a big result. In the last two races, we really need to finish on a high to put a squeeze on the championship side of things and finish as good as we can.”

TOM VAN ROMPUY, NO. 81 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:

“We had good pace last year, especially in the last sector, and I think our car should be strong in the middle sector as well.
The characteristics of the track suits the Corvette. We were in a good place and in contention last year, so I hope we are in the same position as last year to start the race, and I can only hope for a strong result in Fuji.”

Harry Tincknell put the No. 007 Aston Martin Valkyrie atop the timesheets in Free Practice 3 for the 6 Hours of Fuji, marking the first time the British marque’s V12-powered Hypercar has led an official FIA World Endurance Championship session.

Tincknell’s best effort of 1:29.492 was 0.024 seconds faster than the No. 38 Cadillac V-Series.R in the hands of Earl Bamber.
In the process, the Brit carried through Aston Martin’s strong form from Friday running, during which the Valkyries came in third in both Free Practice sessions.

Saturday, however, marked the first time the British brand topped an official session overall since the Valkyrie made its WEC debut in Qatar earlier this year.

Alex Lynn picked up third in the No. 12 Cadillac, while the second Aston Martin slotted into fourth with Marco Sorensen at the wheel.
The top five was rounded out by the No. 94 Peugeot 9X8 of Stoffel Vandoorne ahead of the No. 20 BMW M Hybrid V8 driven by Sheldon van der Linde and the No. 35 Alpine A424 in the hands of Charles Milesi.

The second Peugeot, driven by Mikkel Jensen, took eighth, with the No. 8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid and No. 83 Ferrari 499P completing the top ten.
Aston Martin also led the way in the LMGT3 category, courtesy of a 1:40.800 set by Zach Robichon aboard the No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Vantage GT3 Evo.
The Canadian’s best lap was just 0.038 seconds faster than James Cottingham aboard the No. 59 United Autosports McLaren 720S GT3 Evo.

Rui Andrade went third in the No. 81 TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, followed by the second United McLaren with Sean Gelael at the wheel.

The 60-minute session ran largely without interruption, with the exception of a Full Course Yellow that was triggered when Ben Tuck’s No. 77 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3 spilled oil on track and stopped at Turn 1.
Qualifying at Fuji is scheduled to begin at 2:20 p.m. local time (1:10 a.m. EST).

The two Corvettes qualified in 6th and 7th places for race Sunday

Barrichello's flyer was the only LMGT3 time sub 1m 40s, but the two United Autosports' McLarens were right there, setting near-identical times. The No. 95 will start on the front row after Sean Gelael's efforts to complete a 1m 40.011s, ahead of the No. 59, which Sebastien Baud pushed to third with a 1m 40.013s.

Heart of Racing's FP3-topping Aston Martin was fourth quickest in Hyperpole. The championship-leading No. 92 Manthey 1st Phorm Porsche claimed fifth, Riccardo Pera handing the team a strong starting position ahead of the other title-contending cars from Vista AF Corse and TF Sport.

TF's No. 33 Z06 Corvette was sixth, marginally quicker than the No. 54 AF Corse Ferrari that was seventh fastest.
The 296 recovered well from an off in the first stage of Qualifying, which saw the Thomas Flohr spin off track and make light contact with the barriers before setting a 1m 41.375s to sneak into the shootout with the 10th fastest time.

Ahead of Hyperpole, the two WRT BMWs faced a challenging qualifying session, failing to secure a spot in the top 10. The Iron Dames Porsche also struggled for pace, Celia Martin qualifying 17th with a 1m 42.284s.

There was one omission from the sessions: the No. 77 Proton Competition Ford Mustang.
The car was unable to participate as it is undergoing an engine change ahead of the race, following the water pressure issue that struck the car in Free Practice 3.

For the second time in three races, TF Sport’s pair of Chevy Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs will start inside the LMGT3 top-10 following Saturday’s qualifying for the FIA World Endurance Championship’s Six Hours of Fuji.

The two yellow Corvettes will start sixth and seventh for the best combined start of the season for TF Sport as both entries hope to continue gaining ground in the class Drivers Championship with two rounds left.

The No. 33 Corvette of Daniel Juncadella, Jonny Edgar and Ben Keating will lead the TF Sport attack at the start of Sunday’s race, one spot and just 0.064 seconds ahead of the No. 81 Z06 GT3.R of Charlie Eastwood, Rui Andrade and Tom Van Rompuy.

Keating and Van Rompuy advanced from the initial 12-minute qualifying session, with Edgar and Andrade piloting the Corvettes in the 10-minute Hyperpole session. Both Corvettes previously made Hyperpole together in July at Sāo Paulo when they started ninth and 10th in class.

The No. 33 Corvette drivers sit third in the LMGT3 championship on the strength of a season-opening win of the season and remain in the hunt with 29 points to the leader and 64 points available in the balance of the season.
The team faced an uphill battle with some lack of pace in practice, but the team’s pre-qualifying adjustment to the Corvette’s setup unlocked enough speed to get on the third row.

From the start of the event, the No. 81 Corvette showed its strength. Eastwood was second-quickest in the opening free practice, and Andrade set the fastest time in either Corvette in Saturday’s final practice ahead of qualifying.

The strong showings Friday and Saturday bode well for the championship hopes of the No. 81 Corvette trio, which has a second- and third-place finish to its credit this season. Eastwood, Andrade and Van Rompy are 39 points out of the championship lead with 64 points still on the table.

The Six Hours of Fuji scheduled for 11 a.m. JST Sunday and 10 p.m. ET Saturday. Full, live television coverage is available on the FIA WEC app and the MAX app in the United States.

TF SPORT POST-QUALIFYING QUOTES

JONNY EDGAR, NO. 33 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:

“We’re much happier and much better than we expected. Practice was quite difficult. The car felt pretty good, but we were slower than we’d like to be. Ben did a great job to get the car into Hyperpole for me, and I’m happy with P6. I don’t think we expected to be that high really, so it’s definitely good.
Always in the race we have better pace than in qualifying. To qualify P6 is good. It’s the second-best qualifying session of the year and the best we’ve been in a dry qualifying session. It gives me good confidence for tomorrow, and we should have decent pace.”

BEN KEATING, NO. 33 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:

“I’m super proud of this team. This is a team sport, and that was a team job. The car is much better than it has been in practice. It was down to the wire but we got it done when it mattered. I’m really happy with the car and with my laptime.
The only thing that matters is I get it into the top-10. So to be in the top-five is extra special.

“I would have said it would have been a big challenge for us to get us into Hyperpole. I have to hand it to the team. The car is much better than it has been. I think we were second-to-last in every session before now so we weren’t feeling super-confident. But the car is really good right now. The whole team has worked really well to get both cars into Hyperpole.”

RUI ANDRADE, NO. 81 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:

“A very tight qualify. Everyone was very close together, and we knew it was going to be tough. I think I maximized the run, so I’m happy with that. P7 is not too bad. Tomorrow we have a long race in which to recover. I think we have a better racecar than a quality car. There’s a lot to fight for. I’m happy with the car balance and feeling good going into the race.”

TOM VAN ROMPUY, NO. 81 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:

“Very happy with qualifying. From FP3, we continued to improve our car. It feels really solid for both qualifying and the race.
We ended up P4 to get back into Hyperpole, which is really nice. I’m confident we have a good racecar to compete in the race.”

TF Sport Corvette Victorious in LMGT3 After Final Lap Drama, AF Corse Penalty

In the LMGT3 category, Tom van Rompuy, Rui Andrade and Charlie Eastwood came out on top after a dramatic final lap that saw the No. 21 Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 hit with a late-race penalty.
Francois Heriau, Simon Mann and Alessio Rovera appeared on course for their second victory of the season after Rovera rejoined in the class lead following a fuel stop in the closing minutes.

However, the No. 21 car then received a five-second penalty for a pitstop infringement that brought it under threat from TF’s No. 81 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R.

While Rovera initially appeared to have a sufficient margin in hand, the silver Ferrari then slowed dramatically on the final lap, crossing the line just two seconds clear of the chasing Eastwood.

As a result, the No. 81 Corvette was declared the winner with the penalty applied, resulting in a second LMGT3 victory for the Tom Ferrier-led squad after the No. 33 sister car triumphed in the Qatar season opener.

The No. 81 crew does have a potential Sword of Damocles hanging over their heads, as Eastwood remains under investigation for a Turn 13 clash with Augusto Farfus in the final ten minutes of the race.

Farfus, Yasser Shahin and Timur Boguslavskiy completed the class podium with their No. 31 The Bend Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 EVO, with the sister No. 46 car of Ahmad Al Harthy, Valentino Rossi and Kelvin van der Linde coming home in fourth.

Van der Linde came out on top in a fierce late-race battle with the No. 92 Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R of Richard Lietz, with the Austrian rounding out the top-five in the class in the car he shared with Ryan Hardwick and Riccardo Pera.

The second Corvette came in at 8th place and 1 lap down

OYAMA, Japan (September 28, 2025) – TF Sport’s No. 81 Corvette Z06 GT3.R earned a dramatic, late-race victory Sunday in the Six Hours of Fuji for the team’s second LMGT3 triumph of the FIA World Endurance Championship season.

Charlie Eastwood, Rui Andrade and Tom Van Rompuy earned their first win as a trio and their third podium finish of the season.
The three teammates drove their way back from an early-race penalty and took advantage of last-lap trouble for the No. 21 Ferrari.

Eastwood took the checkered flag second in LMGT3, but the Ferrari was assessed a five-second, post-race penalty of its own on the final lap. Both cars had to stop for a splash of fuel inside the final six minutes, but the TF Sport Corvette came in a lap later critical as Eastwood went from eight seconds behind to well within the five-second margin he needed for victory.

TF Sport’s No. 33 Corvette won the opening race of the season in Qatar, and the team also won with one of its Corvettes in the European Le Mans Series earlier this year… coincidentally one driven by Eastwood and Andrade.
It also was the second win at Fuji this year for the Z06 GT3.R as Johor Motorsports Racing took a victory earlier this year in GT World Challenge Asia.

Unofficially, the No. 81 Corvette team moved into third place in the LMGT3 Drivers and Teams championships, 24 points out of first place with 39 total points available in the eight-hour season finale in Bahrain.

No. 33 TF Sport Corvette teammates Daniel Juncadella, Jonny Edgar and Ben Keating are fourth in points with their eighth-place finish Sunday for their third points-paying finish in four races.

Multiple safety car periods scrambled the race at various points, which presented a number of different strategies throughout the LMGT3 field. After Van Rompuy and Keating drove opening stints in their Corvettes on the same starting tires, TF Sport decided to split its strategy, with the No. 33 running four spots better at the halfway point.

Eastwood was one of the first Pro-rated drivers into the race just ahead of the four-hour mark, with the goal of making it to the end with a final splash.
Meanwhile, Juncadella got in the No. 33 with 1:45 left from second place but with one stop to the end.

The No. 81 strategy played out as the winning one at the end. Eastwood stopped from the lead with 63 minutes to go and again with four minutes remaining to set the stage for the late-race dramatics.
TF Sport and the Corvette Z06 GT3.R will close the FIA WEC season at the Eight Hours of Bahrain on Saturday, November 8.

TF SPORT POST-EVENT QUOTES

CHARLIE EASTWOOD, NO. 81 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:

(Were you made aware of the scenario to the 21?) “No, not till the very last lap.
To be honest, I felt like I was getting a bit annoying on the radio because I was asking all the time what was going on.
For a long time, I didn’t have a clue.
Half the grid was on a split strategy, and we were at one point seventh on that alternate strategy. We sort of chipped away closer to the front. We knew that we were able to go the longest on fuel, but it was going to be nip-and-tuck. It kind of depended so much on how the battles were behind.

There was quite a small gap once we came out of the pits, but we had superb pace at the end of the stint. It was a perfect pit stop and took the least amount of fuel, I think we ended with 8 or 10 mega-joules in the car, bearing in mind that it’s only about a half-second on the actual fill.

So it was perfect by the team. I came around on the second-to-last lap, and they mentioned the gap was 7.2 seconds, but there was a five-second time penalty. So I figured I may as well keep pushing here and see how we get on. We could see the Ferrari ahead didn’t quite have enough fuel. I could see it coming closer and closer in the last lap.

“To take the win was unbelievable. Right place, right time, but also you have to execute and everything went right in the last couple of hours. We’ve been pretty unlucky the last couple of years, to say the least, so it’s great to get my first win with these guys (Andrade and Van Rompuy) in WEC and my first win in the championship since moving to Corvette. I’m super pleased.”

RUI ANDRADE, NO. 81 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:

“The car felt very strong in my stint. In FP3 and qualifying, we were very happy with the car balance. We knew that qualifying for sure isn’t our strong spot, but we knew the Corvette would be quite strong for the race. It was quite tricky as all the LMGT3 cars were quite close together. It was really hard to know where we were going to be, and even in the race it was hard to know where we would end up because different strategies by different teams were being played out.

But we kept our heads down and kept pushing. The safety cars definitely threw a lot into the race because we weren’t sure what the best strategy would be. Even until the end, we weren’t sure if it would work out. But the team did an amazing job.
My teammates were faultless all race long. Thankfully, we had the right strategy and a little bit of luck at the end. I’m very happy to get our first win together in the WEC.
Since last year we’ve been trying and we’ve been close a few times. It’s a very special moment for all of us.”

TOM VAN ROMPUY, NO. 81 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:

“It started a bit on the back foot because I caused a penalty for releasing early from a FCY. But luckily that was negated by lots of VSCs and safety cars. From that point, we knew we had a strong racecar on race pace.
So we kept on giving our best.
Also, the team, I have to thank today for all their effort for doing really great pit stops and strategy.
At some point it was a gamble, but today it paid out. It’s my first win in WEC, so I’m super proud to achieve this with these guys at TF Sport.
I’m super happy.”

DANI JUNCADELLA, NO. 33 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:

“It was a positive race until the last two hours where seven or eight cars took a gamble to stop behind the safety car. It worked for them but didn’t work for us. We ended up P8 when we should have been in the top-three. It’s a shame.

On the other hand, we had a good weekend where we improved consistently. We’re still missing pace overall and some balance in the car. It’s probably not the best weekend for that, but we will get there. The championship now is very difficult for Bahrain, but we will be rid of all our success weight. Hopefully we can have a clean weekend there, so let’s see.”

JONNY EDGAR, NO. 33 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:

“That was a pretty good stint. I think our race pace definitely was better than what we expected after practice. I’m pretty happy with that. Some cars had a little bit more pace, but I think we did a good job on strategy. I managed to overtake a few cars on track, and on strategy we managed to jump a few others, which was good to get in clean air and push a bit. So the team did a good job on the stop and strategy to get a few places.”

BEN KEATING, NO. 33 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:

“It was a lot of fun in my stint. There was a lot going on out there. We had a lot of different cars that were on completely different strategies.
I think the second safety car helped everybody else and did not help us. We were on a fuel mileage strategy and felt we were going to have one less stop than everyone else. I had a good start and a good couple of stints.

We didn’t take tires for my second stint and some of the other competitors did, so that was a big difference late.”

Last 8 minutes of the race

Simon Mann has shed light on the AF Corse Ferrari team’s dramatic defeat for LMGT3 honors in Sunday’s FIA World Endurance Championship race at Fuji, as a slow final lap for Alessio Rovera handed victory to Corvette and TF Sport.

The No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 shared by Mann, Rovera and Francois Heriau appeared on course for victory heading into the closing stages of what turned out to be a fuel-saving contest after the third and final safety car period of the race.

That was even the case after the No. 21 crew was handed a five-second penalty for a pit stop infringement, specifically for having a mechanic remaining in the working area while the car left its pit box at its penultimate pit stop in Hour 4.

However, a limping Rovera saw a seven-second lead over Charlie Eastwood’s No. 81 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R heading into the final lap cut to just two at the checkered flag, which meant Eastwood and his co-drivers Rui Andrade and Tom van Rompuy ended up taking the class victory by a margin of some three seconds.

Explaining Rovera’s slow last lap, Mann told Sportscar365: “I believe there was a miscalculation with the energy [at the final pit stop], so we had to do a massive lift-and-coast to be able to make it to the end.”
Second place still means that Mann, Rovera and Heriau have closed to within 11 points of championship-leading Manthey Porsche trio Riccardo Pera, Richard Lietz and Ryan Hardwick ahead of November’s finale in Bahrain.

“In the end the pace was not so bad, we just struggled to overtake and follow,” said Mann.
“During my stint, I didn’t think we were in contention, but the team did a great job with the strategy, which put us in contention.
“It’s a shame not to close out the win, because those extra points would have helped the championship.
But Bahrain is a long race with no points, so we’ll keep pushing and try to score as many points as we can there.”

Rovera and Eastwood were among a group of cars to commit to an early final full service pit stop and later make an additional splash of fuel at the end of the race, which turned out to be the winning strategy, putting them ahead of Lietz’s Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R the leading car on the alternative strategy.

Reflecting on his pursuit of Rovera at the end of the race, Eastwood admitted he didn’t realize until the “very last lap” that there was a possibility of jumping ahead of the Ferrari to score TF Sport’s second win of the season.
“I was probably getting a bit annoying over the radio because I was asking all the time, ‘
What is going on?’,” joked Eastwood. “For a long time, I didn’t really have a clue, and half the grid was on a different strategy.

“We knew we could go the longest on fuel, but it was still going to be nip and tuck, and it depended so much on how the battles were going behind. I knew there was a small gap to Lietz once we came out of the pits.
“But we had perfect pace at the end of the stint, and the final pit stop was perfect:
I think we ended up with eight or ten megajoules [of energy] in the car at the end, which is half a second on the actual refuel time.

“On the second to last lap, they mentioned the gap was 7.2 seconds, but that [Rovera] had a five-second penalty, and I thought I may as well keep pushing, and we saw that the Ferrari maybe didn’t have enough fuel.”

Eastwood was involved in late contact with the Team WRT BMW of Augusto Farfus at Turn 13, which briefly put the No. 81 crew’s win into doubt until the stewards determined that no further action would be taken.

Explaining the incident, which was not caught by TV cameras, Eastwood recalled: “Essentially, I got around the outside of the No. 31 [BMW] at Turn 13, and he just drove me off the track for the fourth time. That’s fine, we beat them in the end!”