(originally published at www.racer.com)
Many months of work between Michigan-based Pratt & Miller Engineering, which builds and run the factory Corvette C7.Rs, GM Racing, and renowned European sports car team Larbre Competition, will see a continuation of their relationship with the shipment of at least one new C7.R to their base in France.
Team owner Jack Leconte made great use of PME’s Corvette C6.R chassis through the 2013 season, earning considerable success–including a class win at Le Mans–before transitioning to the P2 category in 2014 with a Judd V8-powered Morgan.
“We had to stop running GTE-Am last year because the ACO were not happy with the C7 homologation, so we instead run the Morgan in LMP2 with my friend Jacques Nicolet, and we continued talking to Corvette Racing about 2015,” Leconte told RACER. “For 2015, they complete everything with the C7, and we don’t want an empty chair – we don’t have any yellow cars (Corvettes) racing outside the USA, so this is very exciting. Our partners had very good memories with the C6, and so we reset with the C7 and we have very good support from GM Racing to go back to the WEC championship and Le Mans in the GTE-Am category.”
Rumors of Leconte and Corvette Racing reassuming their relationship have been circulating for quite some time, and it’s believed the actual paperwork and business transactions were finally completed within the last few days. With the program apparently moving in the right direction, Leconte says their full plans for 2015 are now set.
“You will have confirmation tomorrow from the WEC and Le Mans about the entries, and you will have good news a yellow car is inside,” he said of Thursday’s press conference where the FIA and ACO will set the field for the upcoming season. “We will probably go to test the car in March in Sebring, and then it will become very busy for us after the championship starts.”
