A bump in the road to Le Mans
The # 50 Team Larbre C7.R qualified 2nd in class. Building up to Le Mans, they wanted to prove themselves at the historic Spa Francorchamps circuit in Belgium. Now it looks like a struggle just to get there.
Paolo Ruberti, had taken over for Gianluca Roda at the first driver change.
On lap 60 in the Stavelot corner the # 50 was accidently bumped by an LMP2 car. The Corvette slid hard into the tyre wall. Damage to the left rear was beyond repair, even with 4 hours to go in the 6 hour race. We figure the frame somehow got bent.
C7.R – 002 was looking good before the crash
Now the race is on to rebuild the car in time for Le Mans. Fortunately Larbre has a close working relationship with the Pratt & Miller boys who re-built this very same chassis 002 following Jan Magnussen’s off-track incident in practice at VIR last August.
Jonny Bens, Corvette expert, pro photographer and friend from Belgium was on the scene. Read more here....
Jonny shot several close-up photos of the car that Wayne Ellwood downsized to medium-rez. They are copyrighted and not for distribution. For those interested, please e-mail jhyde@nyc.rr.com
The # 98 Aston Martin Vantage V8 won GTLM E driven by Paul Dalla Lana, Pedro Lamy and Mathias Lauda vs Porsche, Ferrari and the # 50 Larbre Corvette.
The # 7 Audi E-tron LMP1 finished first overall in a close race with the Porsche 919 that finished 2nd and 3rd.
The WEC next heads to testing and the big race at Le Mans on June 11-14.