ULTIMATE CORVETTE

Four Corvettes, One Effort: Corvette Racing Returns to Le Mans

Corvette Racing arrives at Le Mans with four Z06 GT3.Rs, four international teams and one shared goal: another class victory in France. From TF Sport and Pratt Miller to DXDT and 13 Autosport, here’s how Corvette’s largest Le Mans effort in a decade is taking shape.

WRITTEN BY

Scott Kolecki

The streets of Le Mans have once again been filled with race cars, team transporters, engineers, drivers, and fans, and this year, Corvette has arrived in France with its largest presence at the 24 Hours in a decade. Four Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs will start the 94th running of the French endurance classic on Saturday, giving the Bowtie brand one of the strongest numerical lineups in the 25-car LMGT3 field.

This is not the familiar two-car factory assault that defined Corvette Racing’s greatest years at Le Mans. The yellow Pratt Miller entries that carried America’s sports car to nine class victories are not competing as separate cars this weekend, nor is DXDT Racing entered under its own banner. Instead, the 2026 lineup represents the global customer-racing program that Corvette and Pratt Miller have spent the past several years building around the Z06 GT3.R.

TF Sport sits at the center of that effort. The British organization is fielding its two full-season FIA World Endurance Championship Corvettes, operating a third entry with Johor Motorsports Racing and supporting the North American-based 13 Autosport team. GM and Corvette Racing personnel are also embedded across the program, with the crews sharing data, engineering resources, equipment, and spare parts along the same section of pit lane.

Corvette wasted little time showing its potential during Sunday’s official Le Mans Test Day, placing three Z06 GT3.Rs among the eight fastest LMGT3 entries. Jonny Edgar put TF Sport’s No. 33 third in class with a 3:56.885 lap, while Matt Bell followed just 0.031 second behind in 13 Autosport’s Canadian-liveried No. 13. Charlie Eastwood added the seventh-fastest time aboard the No. 34, giving Corvette three cars within half a second of the class-leading pace. Test Day never tells the entire story, but the early speed provided an encouraging start to race week.
Corvette wasted little time showing its potential during Sunday’s official Le Mans Test Day, placing three Z06 GT3.Rs among the eight fastest LMGT3 entries. Jonny Edgar put TF Sport’s No. 33 third in class with a 3:56.885 lap, while Matt Bell followed just 0.031 second behind in 13 Autosport’s Canadian-liveried No. 13. Charlie Eastwood added the seventh-fastest time aboard the No. 34, giving Corvette three cars within half a second of the class-leading pace. Test Day never tells the entire story, but the early speed provided an encouraging start to race week. (Image credit: Chevrolet)

Pratt Miller remains an essential part of the story. The Michigan organization co-developed the Z06 GT3.R with GM Motorsports Competition Engineering, builds the race cars, and provides the engineering foundation behind the global customer program. DXDT is represented indirectly through Charlie Eastwood and Salih Yoluc, who race the No. 36 Corvette in IMSA endurance competition and will share TF Sport’s No. 34 at Le Mans. The entry list may show TF Sport and 13 Autosport, but the combined effort draws upon experience gathered by Corvette teams racing in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia.

That cooperation was evident during Sunday’s official Test Day, when all four Corvettes completed two three-hour sessions on the 8.48-mile Circuit de la Sarthe. Three of the four finished inside the top eight in LMGT3, and two were separated by only 0.031 seconds.

Jonny Edgar led the Corvette contingent in the No. 33 TF Sport entry with a 3:56.885 lap, third-fastest in class and just 0.239 seconds behind the day’s quickest LMGT3 car. Matt Bell followed with a 3:56.916 in the red No. 13 from 13 Autosport. Charlie Eastwood placed the No. 34 Racing Team Turkey by TF Corvette seventh, leaving three Z06 GT3.Rs within roughly half a second of the class benchmark.

Test Day times at Le Mans never tell the whole story. Teams work through fuel loads, driver acclimation, tire programs, aerodynamic settings, and race simulations, while nobody is eager to reveal everything before qualifying. Still, the early pace showed that the Corvette has straight-line speed and a workable baseline. Lars Kern and Salih Yoluc were tied at the top of the LMGT3 speed traps, while Ben Keating was only fractionally behind in the No. 33.

TF Sport’s No. 33 Corvette Z06 GT3.R emerged as the quickest of the four Corvettes during Sunday’s Le Mans Test Day, with Jonny Edgar recording a 3:56.885 lap—third-fastest in LMGT3 and just 0.239 seconds off the class benchmark. Edgar shares the car with 2023 Le Mans class winner Nicky Catsburg and the returning Ben Keating, giving TF Sport a lineup rich in both outright speed and endurance experience. The early pace guarantees nothing over 24 hours, but it confirms that the No. 33 enters race week as one of Corvette’s strongest contenders in the pursuit of its tenth Le Mans class victory. (Image credit: Luc Warnotte)

The No. 33 may be Corvette’s most complete bid for victory. Nicky Catsburg returns to a Corvette at Le Mans for the first time since helping deliver the program’s ninth class win in 2023. Jonny Edgar has already demonstrated his pace, and Ben Keating is back after missing the first two WEC rounds while recovering from elbow surgery following a mountain-bike accident.

Keating’s return adds another layer to the weekend. He arrived late at scrutineering after two canceled flights, then completed multiple runs and a full stint during Test Day. His endurance may still be tested over 24 hours, but the car has already scored a runner-up finish at Imola with substitute Blake McDonald and enters Le Mans fourth in the LMGT3 championship. With double points available, a clean race could dramatically reshape the title picture.

The No. 34 carries a different kind of urgency. Eastwood, Yoluc, and Peter Dempsey scored their first championship points of the season with a ninth-place finish at Spa, but the results have not yet reflected the group’s potential. Eastwood finished on the Le Mans podium last year and has repeatedly proven himself in long-distance competition. Yoluc is an experienced Bronze-rated driver and a former Le Mans class winner, while Dempsey adds another steady hand to a lineup built for consistency rather than outright qualifying theatrics.

For Corvette followers in the United States, the DXDT connection gives the No. 34 an added point of familiarity. Eastwood and Yoluc have both contributed to DXDT’s IMSA Corvette program, carrying lessons from Daytona, Sebring, and other North American endurance races into TF Sport’s European operation. That cross-pollination is exactly what Chevrolet envisioned when the Z06 GT3.R replaced the single factory-centered model with a customer platform capable of competing worldwide.

TF Sport’s No. 2 Corvette Z06 GT3.R sweeps through the streets of Le Mans carrying one of the newest stories in Corvette’s four-car 2026 campaign. The entry was secured through TF Sport’s 2025 European Le Mans Series championship and combines the British team’s experience with personnel from Johor Motorsports Racing. Prince Jefri Ibrahim and Ben Green will make their Le Mans debuts alongside Lorcan Hanafin, the trio’s only driver with previous race experience at the Circuit de la Sarthe. For JMR, the dark-blue Corvette represents the fulfillment of a seven-year ambition to compete in endurance racing’s most celebrated event.
TF Sport’s No. 2 Corvette Z06 GT3.R sweeps through the streets of Le Mans carrying one of the newest stories in Corvette’s four-car 2026 campaign. The entry was secured through TF Sport’s 2025 European Le Mans Series championship and combines the British team’s experience with personnel from Johor Motorsports Racing. Prince Jefri Ibrahim and Ben Green will make their Le Mans debuts alongside Lorcan Hanafin, the trio’s only driver with previous race experience at the Circuit de la Sarthe. For JMR, the dark-blue Corvette represents the fulfillment of a seven-year ambition to compete in endurance racing’s most celebrated event. (Image credit: Chevrolet)

The No. 2 Corvette is the newest and least experienced of the four. TF Sport earned the automatic invitation by winning the 2025 European Le Mans Series LMGT3 championship, but the Le Mans entry is being run jointly with Johor Motorsports Racing. Roughly 70 percent of the crew comes from JMR and 30 percent from TF Sport, with the organizations sharing management, equipment, and technical support.

Prince Jefri Ibrahim and Ben Green are making their Le Mans debuts, while Lorcan Hanafin was added to the lineup only days before the event as a replacement for Afiq Ikhwan Yazid. Hanafin raced at Le Mans in 2025 and has previous experience in the Corvette, making him the only driver in the No. 2 with prior knowledge of both the circuit and the car. The entry finished 23rd on Test Day, but its weekend is less about a single lap and more about shortening the learning curve before Saturday afternoon.

The fourth Corvette belongs to 13 Autosport, the renamed successor to the AWA-supported operation that raced here last year. Orey Fidani earned the invitation by winning his second consecutive IMSA Bob Akin Award, and he returns with Matt Bell and Lars Kern after the trio finished 10th in its 2025 Le Mans debut.

Draped in a striking red-and-white Canadian livery, 13 Autosport’s No. 13 Corvette Z06 GT3.R returns to Le Mans with Orey Fidani, Matt Bell and Lars Kern sharing the cockpit for a second consecutive year. Formerly competing as AWA, the team earned its return invitation after Fidani captured a second straight IMSA Bob Akin Award. The same trio finished 10th in LMGT3 during its 2025 Le Mans debut and now returns with a year of hard-earned experience at the Circuit de la Sarthe. Bell’s fourth-fastest class time during Test Day further demonstrated that the Canadian Corvette has the speed to become a serious contender.
Draped in a striking red-and-white Canadian livery, 13 Autosport’s No. 13 Corvette Z06 GT3.R returns to Le Mans with Orey Fidani, Matt Bell and Lars Kern sharing the cockpit for a second consecutive year. Formerly competing as AWA, the team earned its return invitation after Fidani captured a second straight IMSA Bob Akin Award. The same trio finished 10th in LMGT3 during its 2025 Le Mans debut and now returns with a year of hard-earned experience at the Circuit de la Sarthe. Bell’s fourth-fastest class time during Test Day further demonstrated that the Canadian Corvette has the speed to become a serious contender.

Their red Canadian Corvette was already one of the visual standouts of race week, but this is a far more experienced group than the one that arrived twelve months ago. Bell’s Test Day speed confirmed the car’s potential. Fidani and Kern have also spoken openly about lessons learned from slow zones, traffic procedures, and penalties—small details that can erase minutes and destroy a race long before mechanical reliability becomes a factor.

All four Corvette crews will face a crowded and highly competitive LMGT3 field. Corvette is the second-most represented marque in the class behind Ferrari, and the opposition includes entries from Aston Martin, BMW, Ford, Lexus, McLaren, Mercedes-AMG, and Porsche. The Z06 GT3.R brings a production-derived aluminum chassis and a 5.5-liter flat-plane-crank V8 that shares extensive content with the road-going Z06, but Le Mans will ultimately reward execution: staying out of trouble, controlling brake and tire wear, avoiding penalties and keeping the car on the lead lap through the night.

Corvette arrives with nine class victories at Le Mans, including the final GTE-Am win in 2023, and the GT3-spec car earned its first Le Mans podium with a third-place finish last season. Four entries increase the opportunities, but they also demonstrate how much the program has changed. What was once a single American factory team has become a coordinated international network, linked by one car, shared engineering, and a common objective.

The opening sessions begin on Wednesday, followed by qualifying and Hyperpole on Thursday. The 24 Hours of Le Mans starts Saturday, June 13, at 4:00 p.m. in France—10:00 a.m. Eastern and 9:00 a.m. Central—and runs through the same time on Sunday.

How to Watch or Listen

This weekend, Corvette Racing returns to Le Mans with four Z06 GT3.Rs and one goal: conquer the world’s greatest endurance race. Let’s go racing.
This weekend, Corvette Racing returns to Le Mans with four Z06 GT3.Rs and one goal: conquer the world’s greatest endurance race. Let’s go racing.

U.S. television coverage will air on truTV, with streaming available through HBO Max. FIAWEC+ will carry live and on-demand coverage of race-week sessions in supported territories, although regional restrictions may apply. Live timing is available through the official FIA World Endurance Championship platforms.

Radio Le Mans will provide live English-language audio throughout the event. SiriusXM will also carry Le Mans coverage beginning Saturday morning at 8:30 a.m. Eastern on channel 202 and channel 965 through the SiriusXM app.