Jordan Taylor says the possibility of running the 24 Hours of Le Mans without a brake change has been a “strong topic” within the C8.R Corvette Racing camp following last year’s GTE class-winning Aston Martin Vantage GTEs were able to go the entire race on a single set of brake discs and pads.

The savings of one to two minutes in the pit lane, especially if the race features few to no safety cars, could play a key impact in the tightly-fought GTE-Pro ranks, according to Taylor.

Taylor & co-drivers Antonio Garcia and Nicky Catsburg won this year’s Rolex 24 at Daytona without having to change brakes, which has led to the Pratt & Miller-run squad to investigate a similar strategy for the Chevy Corvette C8.R’s Le Mans debut.
“It’s definitely a strong topic,” Taylor said.
“Obviously, it’s been something we’ve been working on with this car since it came out last year at Daytona.
“This year at Daytona we won the race and I don’t think we did a brake change there.

“That gave us the confidence over 24 hours that we would need. Obviously this track is a bit different, but with our limited running in the test day we didn’t get as many miles as we wanted to.
“I don’t think we have the numbers yet to really understand if we can make it yet.

“We’ll try to see throughout today’s practice and qualifying and tomorrow as well, and try to accumulate some miles and some hours on the brakes to get the wear numbers and understand if it’s a possibility for us.”
Taylor said drivers can find ways of saving brakes with certain methods, with right-foot brakers like himself able to better take advantage of it more so than someone like co-driver Catsburg, who is a left-foot braker.

“Usually the high wear comes from a left-foot braker having some overlap when they go a little on throttle and brake at the same time, it spikes the temperatures,” he explained.
“The problem with this style of race as opposed to Daytona is you have to be flat out the whole time.
At Daytona if you give up some pace to save brakes you know you can get a yellow and gather that time back.
“At Le Mans, you give up that time, and you run the risk of losing a minute or two.


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