Le Mans 24 Hours - Scrutineering 12

Corps de Corvette

There’s a neat synergy about the combined Corvette effort here this year with a pair of factory 2012 spec Vettes in GTE Pro and a pair of 2011 spec cars for Larbre Competition in GTE Am.

Jean-Philippe Belloc: “GTE-Am is a very different challenge, the car needs to be set-up to be comfortable for the gentleman drivers and not for the Pro, it needs to be as easy to drive as possible and that means making compromises.

“I am sharing the car again with Christophe (Bourret) and Pascal (Gibon) though last year of course it was the Porsche (the trio finished second to the team’s Corvette in GTE Am).  In some ways the consistency is a very good thing but in others it does make things more tricky, they have a little more experience and are a little less likely to take direction or advice from a Pro now!

“The Corvette is very fast, and very strong but there is a very narrow ‘sweet spot’ for improvements with se-up.  The good thing though is that Larbre are an excellent team and we have superb support from the Corvette factory."

From the factory team there was a reduced complement at Scrutineering; Richard Westbrook and Jordan Taylor having faced delay and frustration on their trip back from Grand-Am duty – the pair were at the track on Monday morning though having paid their traditional apologetic dues to Doug Fehan, and completed the formalities without issue. 

“Everything we touched or sat on turned to (expletive deleted) over that tripo,” said a frustrated but now relieved Richard Westbrook.

Back to scrutineering though and Tommy Milner had this to say about the 2012 Corvette:“It is a step forward for sure, more comfortable to drive, a very good thing here of course and certainly quicker.  The 2011 car was perhaps a little off the ultimate pace and to make up the difference we had to push the envelope pretty often, We’re still at 100% with the new car of course but the need to push it beyond the edge is less of a necessity to keep on the pace now.

“The class battle here though looks fantastic, almost every car is in contention for the win so while there might be fewer cars in the class overall there’s no less competition for the leading places. I’m really looking forward to it.”

From a man who has won the race once to a man who has been there and done that more often, Oliver Gavin (left) though hasn’t lost a single iota of enthusiasm for Le Mans:

“I absolutely love it and still have a massive passion for this place, and this race.  You never lose the butterflies, that feeling in the stomach when you get here, you see the place and drive in to the circuit for the first time.  It all gets it pumping.

GT is going to be super, super close this year, We all know that we have some of the best racing in the race but with the race at the front likely to not be as close for the full distance hopefully the fans will see more of the wheel to wheel, door to door racing that we put in.”