Four-Car TF Sport Corvette Effort Like a “Big Family”

TF Sport boss Tom Ferrier has described his outfit’s expanded four-car Corvette effort for this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans as a “big family” as it joins forces with Johor Motorsports JMR for the FIA World Endurance Championship blue riband.

Corvette is the second-best represented marque in this year’s LMGT3 field after Ferrari with four examples of the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R competing under the auspices of TF, which runs the brand’s two-car full-season WEC effort.

For a second successive season, TF will assist with the running of the 13 Autosport entry, which claimed its place on the grid by virtue of Orey Fidani winning the Bob Akin award in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship last year.

In addition, Malaysian squad JMR — which joined the Corvette family last season with a full GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS campaign — has in effect taken over the auto-invite earned by TF for its LMGT3 success in the European Le Mans Series.

Ferrier explained that the No. 2 JMR Corvette, shared by Prince Jefri Ibrahim, Ben Green and last-minute addition Lorcan Hanafin, is crewed mostly by the team’s own staff but with a greater proportion of TF staff than the 13 Autosport entry.

“We are pretty involved [with JMR] like we are with 13 Autosport,” said Ferrier. “We are all together in the pit lane, sharing equipment, spares, management.

“There’s a roughly 70-30 split on the No. 2 car between the JMR guys and our guys. It’s been nice working with them. It is really good for Corvette to have all their crews and main players involved in Le Mans.

“It’s obviously their first time here, so there’s a bit to learn, but it’s been very smooth for us so far. We haven’t tested with them, 13 Autosport did a test at Aragon a few weeks ago, which we attended, but the first time with all four together will be Sunday.”

Ferrier added that his outfit can benefit from JMR’s experience running the Corvette in Asia and in events such as the Suzuka 1000km and the Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour.

“We do it across the GM program,” said Ferrier. “It’s a kind of a shared data and engineering set. GM have brought a lot of people here with Corvette Racing, it’s a big happy family.

“We’ll try and learn as much as we can in as little time as we can, really.”

Corvette as a whole is still aiming for a first class win at Le Mans since its triumph in the final year of the GTE-Am class in 2023, although TF’s No. 81 entry was able to finish on the LMGT3 class podium in last year’s event.

Ben Keating is poised to return from injury to join regular WEC co-drivers Nicky Catsburg and Jonny Edgar in the No. 33 car, while Charlie Eastwood, Peter Dempsey and Salih Yoluc share the Racing Team Turkey by TF-branded No. 34 machine.

Given the team’s record of success in the past with Aston Martin machinery and more recently in the LMP2 Pro-Am division, Ferrier sees no reason why it can’t claim a first win since joining forces with Corvette in its tenth year of participation at La Sarthe.

“Never say never,” he said. “We should be at the sharp end at some point, and the rest of it, who knows? We’ll get to the finish first and then see what we get out of it.

“We finished third last year with the No. 81 car and I think we’ll be stronger this year, so why not [aim for victory]? But there’s a long way to go and a lot to still happen.”