According to our friends at SpeedTV, Corvette Racing will have an official team in the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup Series GT Endurance category, which will put a French-owned C6.Rs on the same track with Corvette Racing's ALMS Corvettes at Sebring in March 2011.
Larbre Competition has been a mainstay in GT competition for more than a decade, having campaigned Dodge Vipers, Ferrari 550 Maranellos, Aston Martin DBR9s and most recently the Saleen S7R, which is taking part in today’s final GT1 race in Le Mans competition.
With the demise of GT1 comes a new opportunity, as the Jack Leconte-owned squad announced plans Saturday of a move to the GT Endurance category for next year with a factory-assisted Corvette C6.R.
The French GT specialists will be Corvette Racing’s official team in the seven-round Intercontinental Le Mans Cup, which kicks off at the Twelve Hours of Sebring in March. Rising French star Julien Canal and Swiss ace Gabriel Gardel will be joined by Patrick Bornhauser at the wheel of the GT2 contender.
Artist's impression of Larbre's new GT2 contender. (Larbre)
“Corvette only has the budget to do the ALMS and Le Mans and Corvette wanted to participate in the ILMC championship,” Leconte explained. “We made an agreement to enter the championship with one car. I’m working on getting a second Corvette for Le Mans and the LMS.”
Larbre will take delivery of Corvette C6.R chassis No. 001, which ran as the No. 3 entry in the American Le Mans Series this year, but with 2011 updates. Pre-season testing will begin in February, where the team will join the factory Pratt & Miller squad at Sebring prior to its race debut at the Twelve Hours in March.
“We chose to follow the ACO in the international great adventure of the ILMC," Leconte said. “For this prestigious new challenge, we are happy to defend the colors of Corvette, a mythical marque all over the world and may be the most popular in Le Mans. We built the honors list of the Larbre team in accumulating a great number of victories with Porsche, Dodge, Ferrari Panoz, Aston Martin and Saleen. I am proud that a new manufacturer trust in us, that’s the most beautiful recognition of our know-how.”
It’s expected that Larbre’s entry will run in the new GT Endurance-Am category, which is open for cars that are at least one year old and piloted by a gentleman driver. If Larbre lodges an entry in this category, it would be not eligible for the ILMC GTE manufacturers’ championship as of right now. However, ACO sports manager Vincent Beaumesnil says they are considering making a possible change to that rule.