Corvette Racing has finally revealed their brand new race car.
There have been talks about it for almost two years, and a lot of rumours and speculations have been floating around – Daytona 24 hours 2020 will be the race debut for the brand new C8.R GTLM racer.
The car was first shown to the public yesterday evening American time, at a special event at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida.
Tommy Milner was the only current Corvette Racing driver present, so it was his #4 that was revealed.
The remaining drivers in the programme are not yet confirmed, although there have been many rumours.
#4 will be primarily grey, while #3 will have the classic yellow Corvette colour, which has been present almost uninterrupted since the C5.R programme started in 1999. There has been a couple of white Corvette racing cars at Le Mans, and a silver one in the FIA WEC, but it’s nice with some fresh colours.
It’s a brand new concept for Corvette, who has always sworn to having the engine out front, but now it’s in the back – or rather mid engined, since it’s moved forward as much as possible, to get a better centre of gravity, and to put a hug diffuser on the rear of the car.
The team has won 107 victories so far – 8 at Le Mans and 99 on American soil. The number 99 has been stuck ever since Long Beach 2018, since neither #3 or #4 has been able to win. That has created a lot of rumours regarding the driver selection onwards, since Chevrolet is spending a lot of money, and haven’t really gotten anywhere for almost 2 years.
Well, they did win the 2018 Championship with Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia, but those two haven’t won since Virginia International Raceway in August 2017!
News regarding driver pairings are expected within a few days.
It’s not yet confirmed if Corvette Racing is going to Le Mans 2020 at all, and if they would be running the old C7.R or the new C8.R. That’s all down to budgets and homologation papers following the FIA WEC standard.
The C7.R will have it’s last outing on American soil next weekend, at the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship finale at Road Atlanta.