Progress Continues for TF Sport at Sao Paulo

TF Sport’s pair of Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs showed their potential as the team’s FIA World Endurance Championship campaign continued to show improvements heading into the season’s stretch run… and a home race for the Corvette in the United States.

The No. 81 TF Sport trio of Tom Van Rompuy, Rui Andrade and Corvette factory driver Charlie Eastwood placed eighth in the 17-car LMGT3 field at the end of the Six Hours of São Paulo. It was their best result since the season’s second race at Imola. But the Brazil round also showed that podium finishes are likely on the horizon in the team’s first year with the Corvette platform.

Van Rompuy began eighth in LMGT3 but moved up two places in the opening 10 minutes. He was on his way into the top-five before he was hit by one of the GT3-class Porsches moments later and spun off the track. The No. 81 Corvette rejoined in 14th.

That put the No. 82 Z06 GT3.R of Hiroshi Koizumi as the lead Corvette, having moved to ninth from his 13th-place starting spot. Both he and Van Rompuy drove double-stints to start the race with both Corvettes in the top-10 by the time TF Sport made their first driver changes two hours in.

Andrade took over the No. 81 Corvette and was involved in a multi-car battle for fifth place with four cars racing within four seconds of each other. Meanwhile, Sebastien Baud took over the No. 82 Z06 GT3.R, which had to serve a drive-through penalty before the driver swap. Baud showed good pace and made the driver change factory driver Daniel Juncadella to go the rest of the way. Unfortunately on his way out onto the track, a mechanical problem sidelined the Corvette after 133 laps.

That left the No. 81 to battle the balance of the GT3 field. Andrade ran in the top five before handing over to Eastwood to drive nearly two-and-a-half hours to the end. Eastwood continued to contend for a top-five finish before an unfortunate penalty during a full-course caution period near the five-hour mark. He continued to show the potential of the Z06 GT3.R with the sixth-fastest lap of the 49 LMGT3 drivers in the race.

TF Sport’s next race in the FIA WEC is the Lone Star Le Mans from Circuit of The Americas in Austin from August 30-September 1.

TF SPORT POST-EVENT DRIVER QUOTES

CHARLIE EASTWOOD, NO. 81 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R – FINISHED EIGHTH IN LMGT3: “It was a tough race for us. The positive is the pace was really strong. A couple of things didn’t go our way with Tom getting caught up in a racing incident, which really put us on the back foot trying not to go a lap down. A late drive-through really took us out of it. Ultimately we were eight seconds from P4, but that meant P8. It was a super-strong performance with the car. It was really positive but unfortunately a couple things didn’t go our way.”

RUI ANDRADE, NO. 81 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R – FINISHED EIGHTH IN LMGT3: "There are some positives to take from today. We had some contact for Tom early. It was tough to manage my pace in my double-stint. Charlie looked incredibly quick at the end, so the car was definitely strong. If you take out the penalty and the contact, we could have been fighting for the podium. That's the first time this year that we can say that, so that's   a big positive. The Corvette felt good all weekend and had no issues. We've taken some good steps forward. The pit stops were fine and we had no problems there. It's tough to take when it doesn't go your way but we have some positives to look at."

TOM VAN ROMPUY, NO. 81 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R – FINISHED EIGHTH IN LMGT3: "It's true that today we had a strong car. It was in good shape today. But we had the bad luck of one of the Porsches kicking us off the track and had a spin. So we had come all fighting from the back. We got it back to eighth after my double-stint. Then we had a couple of other things like a drive-through for a penalty under full-course yellow. The potential is there, and we showed it today with the Corvette. Everything just needs to fall together and we'll get a good result. Hopefully in the next three races we can put it all together."

DANIEL JUNCADELLA, NO. 82 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: "Unfortunately coming out of the pits, I had a technical issue and the car wasn't able to keep running. We'll have to analyze to see what happened. It's a shame because the car was running really well. Seb was really fast in that stint. It wasn't meant to be this time."

SEBASTIEN BAUD, NO. 82 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: "We started well. It was a good qualifying result of the season for Hiroshi. For myself, I think it was a very good run. The car was good and fast. I liked it a lot. I tried to manage the tires to help with the degradation. The Corvette was good on this track. Unfortunately we had a mechanical problem that stopped us. I'm sorry for Dani because he didn't get to drive today. We'll try and come back stronger for COTA and the home race for Corvette. I hope we finish in the top-five. I really want a podium. The car is strong and the team is strong. We just need a chance to get up there, stay focused and keep pushing."