TF Sport looking for season’s best FIA WEC result in series’ lone American stop

The squad has previous success at COTA with a GTE-Am class win in the last FIA WEC event at the track in 2020. Corvette factory driver Charlie Eastwood was part of the winning lineup and was part of the program’s first test with the Corvette Z06 GT3.R roughly a year ago.

Eastwood will continue in the No. 81 Corvette alongside full-season teammates Tom Van Rompuy and Rui Andrade – each of which will compete at COTA for the first time. So will all three members of the No. 82 Z06 GT3.R lineup: while Hiroshi Koizumi, Sebastien Baud and factory driver Daniel Juncadella, who also tested the Corvette for the first at COTA last August.

The Lone Star Le Mans is scheduled for 1 p.m. CT on Sunday, September 1. MotorTrend TV will air live television coverage with streaming coverage on the FIA WEC app and the MAX app in the U.S. Radio Le Mans also will stream audio coverage of Saturday’s final practice and qualifying, plus Sunday’s race.

TF SPORT PRE-EVENT DRIVER QUOTES

CHARLIE EASTWOOD, NO. 81 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: "In general it's a fantastic track. It’s undergone some repaving so it will be interesting to see what happens with that. I have fond memories of COTA. The last time we were there in WEC we won the race, which was a great result. It also was the very first place I got to drive the Z06 GT3.R a year ago in the heat of the summer, which is what we're going to have. I think it will suit the car very well. Degradation will be a key – in the middle of summer in Austin it's not going to be cool at all – so managing that from the outset will be important. I'm looking forward to it. Brazil wasn't a great result but we showed some strong pace, which at the minute is what we need to show. We've got a bit of confidence going in.

"The three sectors are three different racetracks, for sure. The first is super-high speed. You really have to have a good aero platform to get through. It's still seven corners but they're almost all high-speed so you need a good car under you. The middle sector is super-tricky with really long apexes and really late apexes. Then going to the final sector you still need a really good car under you. There is a lot of speed so the deg will be high. It's a really tricky track to get it fully hooked up. It's a super-long lap with a lot of high-speed corners with a lot of corners... it'll test both the car and the drivers. Hopefully we can put everything together for a good result."

RUI ANDRADE, NO. 81 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “I’m very excited to race in COTA for the first time. The track is incredible and to race a Corvette in the USA is such an amazing opportunity. The season hasn’t been easy for us but we are taking steps forward, and in Brazil we saw some good steps in performance. I can’t wait to hit the track and give it our all to try and chase some trophies.”

DANIEL JUNCADELLA, NO. 82 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: "COTA will be quite a special event for me. I've never raced at COTA but I did my first test there in a Corvette GT3 last August. So it's cool to close out my first proper year of driving Corvettes at COTA. With it being the home WEC race for the Corvette should be a good event. The track is cool. Watching on TV, you always think it's not super-exciting because there is so much asphalt runoffs there. But when I drove there last year, I was quite impressed by the combination of high-speed corners, the fast changes of direction and elevation. It's quite interesting and I really enjoyed it, even though I only drove maybe 20 or 25 laps. So it should be cool. It will be difficult to manage the heat so that will play a big role in terms of strategy and how we manage the tires. These are a couple of good ingredients to make the race quite exciting for everybody. Hopefully we can navigate those and get our best result for the season."