Corvette is a Le Mans winner again — and this time in a class Porsche had owned. The No. 33 TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Nicky Catsburg, Jonny Edgar and Ben Keating came from 17th on the LMGT3 grid to win the category at the 24 Hours of Le Mans on Sunday, breaking Manthey Racing's grip on the class and handing the Corvette GT3 its first victory in the French classic.
It was the 10th Le Mans class win for the Corvette Racing program since its first in 2001, and the marque's first triumph at the Sarthe since Catsburg and Keating won the old GTE Am category in 2023.
"What an historic day for General Motors and Corvette Racing at the 24 Hours of Le Mans," said GM President Mark Reuss. "To earn Corvette Racing's 10th class victory at Le Mans is a tremendous achievement for our motorsports, design and engineering teams. It shows that, working as one team, GM can beat the best in the world."
The No. 33 built its win on an early marathon from Keating, who completed his mandatory minimum of six hours in the opening stints before handing to Edgar and Catsburg, who hauled the car to the front as the sun rose. Catsburg led by as much as three minutes before the safety car for Ayhancan Guven's heavy Manthey Porsche crash wiped the margin to seconds.
From there it was Edgar, the Silver-rated driver, who sealed it, reeling off five consecutive stints and almost four hours to the flag. Catsburg had no doubt about who deserved top billing.
"If you asked me, he was man of the match," Catsburg said of Edgar. "He had just crazy pace and he did five stints until the end. What Jonny showed today was incredible. I feel like this is one of those races that could be a career-changing race."
Edgar admitted the long final run was not the plan. "The plan wasn't to do five stints at the end," he said. "I felt good in the car and it was easy to drive, which changes a lot about how much effort is needed to drive. So it went from two stints to five pretty quickly."
For Keating, a third Le Mans class win carried a personal bonus.
"You always believe it can happen," he said. "We had a perfect race — no penalties, no mistakes. The car is in pretty good shape, and that's what you need to do to win this race." With a nod to his dealership, he added: "In 2023 when we won with the Corvette, I didn't have Keating Chevrolet. Now I have Keating Chevrolet so I can put my dealership on it. Hopefully we win on Sunday and sell Corvettes on Monday!"
The No. 33 beat the No. 78 Akkodis ASP Lexus RC F GT3 of Jack Hawksworth, Hadrien David and Tom Van Rompuy, which closed late to within around 20 seconds but could not mount a challenge. The No. 23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage of Jonny Adam, Eduardo Barrichello and Gray Newell completed the class podium. Defending class specialists Manthey endured a wretched run: the points-leading No. 92 Porsche lost four laps early with a broken tie rod, and Guven's No. 91 crashed out.
For Keating, a 12-time Le Mans entrant, it was as clean as the event gets. "This has to be the best weather I've ever seen at Le Mans in the 12 times I've done it," he said. The result puts the customer Corvette program on the Le Mans honour roll alongside its factory forebears.
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