After 24 hours of a record amount of caution flags, bi-polar weather, and a fiercely competitive grid, Corvette Racing just missed the podium — missing out on their 8th GTE-class win in 13 years. 22-year-old Jordan Taylor powered the No. 73 Corvette C6.R to the finish, placing fourth, while Oliver Gavin piloted the No. 74 car to a seventh place finish.
Taylor, along with teammates Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen qualified only ninth, while Gavin, Richard Westrbook and Tommy Milner qualified in eighth. The team made up a lot of ground in the morning, and persevered the entire race without any major incident, but the field — which also went on without many issues — was simply too fast this year. Porsche AG Team Manthey took the top two spots in the GTE Pro class this year, with Aston Martin Racing taking third. Corvette Racing was split by the pair of Ferraris, and placed ahead of Team SRT and the pair of Vipers.
Audi Sport Team Joest won the race overall with the No. 02 R18 e-Tron Quattro LMP1 car, while Toyota Racing managed spoiled the German podium sweep with a second-place finish with the No. 08 TS030 Hybrid, with Audi again coming in third with the No. 03 R18 e-Tron Quattro. Another notable is television actor and ALMS racer Patrick Depmsey (Grey’s Anatomy, AKA “Dr. McSteamy”) and his team finished fourth in the GTE Am category with the No. 77 Porsche 997 GT3-RSR.
Regardless of how the race went, this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans will be remembered as the one where Aston Martin Racing GTE Am driver Allan Simonsen lost his life after a fatal crash in the opening minutes of the race.
It is expected that this is the last Le Mans for the C6.R, with the inevitable Corvette C7.R on the horizon. That may even things up a bit.