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PRESS RELEASE:
LE MANS, France (June 12, 2026) – Friday is the proverbial calm before the story at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. All four Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs are undergoing final pre-race preparations in their garages ahead of the annual French endurance classic.
The Corvette quartet at the twice-around-the-clock classic is the largest group of Corvettes at Le Mans in 10 years. Although the four cars will start in the back half of the LMGT3 grid, optimism exists the group can race toward the front in the 25-car field. Here are a few thoughts from a collection of 12 drivers that will race through daylight, nighttime and daylight again this weekend…
CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R PRE-RACE DRIVER QUOTES
NICKY CATSBURG, NO. 33 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “We made some changes to get away from some of the issues we had Wednesday. Toward the end of the last session, I felt competitive and it felt nice. We had the car balance where we want it to be. If that means we are a bit slower, all we can do is find a nice car to drive and deal with it. I have all the trust in the world in the team and in my engineer Tyler (Neff), who is also my engineer in IMSA. I can interfere but they are always smarter than I am! So I'm just going to drive to create a balance that we all like, and I'm sure we will figure it out."
BEN KEATING, NO. 33 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “It’s my first race of the WEC season and it’s a double-points race. I’d have to look back a really long way to see when the last time someone won the championship but did not win Le Mans. It hasn’t happened in the last five years or so. So if you asked me to choose, I would choose Le Mans. But I also want to win the championship for the 33 car for my co-drivers, for my team, for Corvette. Since I personally no longer have the opportunity to win the championship, I want to win Le Mans. And if we win Le Mans, I think that will put my teammates, my car, my team and my manufacturer all in the best spot to win the championship.”
CHARLIE EASTWOOD, NO. 34 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: ““I’ve seen firsthand the pace that you find year on year. The biggest thing is you don’t actually really know it. If somebody said to me, ‘Where did you find a half-second from Year One to Year Two, and another half-second from Year Two to Three?’ I literally couldn’t tell them. But it’s just something about having a bit more confidence and a bit more understanding of the importance of the exits and these little bits of bumps here and there. And so many people say, ‘Oh yeah, there are tracks with just loads of straights,’ and I think it’s one of the most complex tracks in the world. And to really nail it at a proper level, it takes a lot of knowledge.”
PETER DEMPSEY, NO. 34 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “I’ve loved motorsport with every ounce of my body since the day I was born. My dad owned a racing team for 30 years. I now own a race team myself. I don’t enjoy anything else in life. I try to, but it’s just not the same. It’s a dream opportunity to go to an event like this and see all the different events that take place, with the drivers parade and scrutineering and everything. And to get time to interact with the fans, which I’ve kind of been lucky enough to experience... The first two events, there were fans coming up to me with old pictures of me when I was racing back 15 or 20 years ago and wanted autographs on that. So it’s crazy to think that I’ve been out of a seat for as long as I have. And there are still people there that want my autograph from such a long time ago. So get the chance to interact with the fans that come to these, I love it. I absolutely love that part of it.”
MATT BELL, NO. 13 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “It’s the race. It’s the pinnacle of our sport. Every single series that we take part in, the goal is to win your entry there, and it’s for a reason. Above everything else, it’s the race that I desperately want to win. I’ve stood on the podium one step behind the winner, and it was amazing, but I have more hunger than ever to get on the top step.”
OREY FIDANI, NO. 13 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “Everybody wants to try to win, but let’s try to at least do better than we did last year. You’re always trying to move forward, not backward. We’ll go out there better prepared than even last year and with a better understanding of the whole event and how it works. All that’s left is to try and get further up the order there.”
BEN GREEN, NO. 2 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “For me, Le Mans is a track that you never get to drive at unless you race there. I love learning new tracks. I love going to new environments like this. I actually went to Le Mans in I’d say 2013 or around then for a karting championship world final, and we had our end-of-season dinner in one of the rooms overlooking the start line. And it’s crazy to come back around more than 10 years later after something like that and about to be on track racing in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. It’s a pretty surreal experience.”
Ryan Smith
LE MANS, France (June 12, 2026) – Friday is the proverbial calm before the story at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. All four Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs are undergoing final pre-race preparations in their garages ahead of the annual French endurance classic.
The Corvette quartet at the twice-around-the-clock classic is the largest group of Corvettes at Le Mans in 10 years. Although the four cars will start in the back half of the LMGT3 grid, optimism exists the group can race toward the front in the 25-car field. Here are a few thoughts from a collection of 12 drivers that will race through daylight, nighttime and daylight again this weekend…
CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R PRE-RACE DRIVER QUOTES
NICKY CATSBURG, NO. 33 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “We made some changes to get away from some of the issues we had Wednesday. Toward the end of the last session, I felt competitive and it felt nice. We had the car balance where we want it to be. If that means we are a bit slower, all we can do is find a nice car to drive and deal with it. I have all the trust in the world in the team and in my engineer Tyler (Neff), who is also my engineer in IMSA. I can interfere but they are always smarter than I am! So I'm just going to drive to create a balance that we all like, and I'm sure we will figure it out."
BEN KEATING, NO. 33 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “It’s my first race of the WEC season and it’s a double-points race. I’d have to look back a really long way to see when the last time someone won the championship but did not win Le Mans. It hasn’t happened in the last five years or so. So if you asked me to choose, I would choose Le Mans. But I also want to win the championship for the 33 car for my co-drivers, for my team, for Corvette. Since I personally no longer have the opportunity to win the championship, I want to win Le Mans. And if we win Le Mans, I think that will put my teammates, my car, my team and my manufacturer all in the best spot to win the championship.”
CHARLIE EASTWOOD, NO. 34 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: ““I’ve seen firsthand the pace that you find year on year. The biggest thing is you don’t actually really know it. If somebody said to me, ‘Where did you find a half-second from Year One to Year Two, and another half-second from Year Two to Three?’ I literally couldn’t tell them. But it’s just something about having a bit more confidence and a bit more understanding of the importance of the exits and these little bits of bumps here and there. And so many people say, ‘Oh yeah, there are tracks with just loads of straights,’ and I think it’s one of the most complex tracks in the world. And to really nail it at a proper level, it takes a lot of knowledge.”
PETER DEMPSEY, NO. 34 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “I’ve loved motorsport with every ounce of my body since the day I was born. My dad owned a racing team for 30 years. I now own a race team myself. I don’t enjoy anything else in life. I try to, but it’s just not the same. It’s a dream opportunity to go to an event like this and see all the different events that take place, with the drivers parade and scrutineering and everything. And to get time to interact with the fans, which I’ve kind of been lucky enough to experience... The first two events, there were fans coming up to me with old pictures of me when I was racing back 15 or 20 years ago and wanted autographs on that. So it’s crazy to think that I’ve been out of a seat for as long as I have. And there are still people there that want my autograph from such a long time ago. So get the chance to interact with the fans that come to these, I love it. I absolutely love that part of it.”
MATT BELL, NO. 13 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “It’s the race. It’s the pinnacle of our sport. Every single series that we take part in, the goal is to win your entry there, and it’s for a reason. Above everything else, it’s the race that I desperately want to win. I’ve stood on the podium one step behind the winner, and it was amazing, but I have more hunger than ever to get on the top step.”
OREY FIDANI, NO. 13 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “Everybody wants to try to win, but let’s try to at least do better than we did last year. You’re always trying to move forward, not backward. We’ll go out there better prepared than even last year and with a better understanding of the whole event and how it works. All that’s left is to try and get further up the order there.”
BEN GREEN, NO. 2 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “For me, Le Mans is a track that you never get to drive at unless you race there. I love learning new tracks. I love going to new environments like this. I actually went to Le Mans in I’d say 2013 or around then for a karting championship world final, and we had our end-of-season dinner in one of the rooms overlooking the start line. And it’s crazy to come back around more than 10 years later after something like that and about to be on track racing in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. It’s a pretty surreal experience.”
Ryan Smith