The FIA World Endurance Championship rolled into the Ardennes region of eastern Belgium with momentum building fast, and there are few circuits on earth better suited for a rising championship fight than the legendary Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps. Stretching 7.004 km (4.352 miles) through dense forest and dramatic elevation changes, Spa remains one of motorsport’s ultimate tests of speed, bravery, and endurance. From the flat-out blasts through Kemmel Straight to the iconic Eau Rouge-Raidillon complex that still leaves drivers holding their breath lap after lap, the historic permanent road course demands absolute precision from today’s LMGT3 and Hypercar machinery. Add in the Ardennes’ famously unpredictable weather conditions, and the challenge becomes even more unforgiving for teams chasing FIA World Endurance Championship glory.
Momentum Building For Corvette Racing
After opening the season with a hard-fought podium at Imola, TF Sport arrived at Spa with confidence growing around the No. 33 Corvette Z06 GT3.R program. The team captured a runner-up finish in the LMGT3 class during the grueling Six Hours of Imola, delivering Corvette its second consecutive season-opening podium in FIA WEC competition. In a championship where execution across six relentless hours can define an entire season, the result immediately positioned TF Sport and Corvette Racing among the early contenders in one of endurance racing’s most competitive GT categories.
Spa Sets The Stage For Le Mans
That momentum now carries directly into one of the most important stretches of the endurance racing calendar. As the second round of the FIA World Endurance Championship season, Spa has long served as the final proving ground before the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Teams use the high-speed Belgian circuit to sharpen setups, validate reliability, and expose weaknesses before arriving at Circuit de la Sarthe. For Corvette Racing and TF Sport, the combination of early-season speed, podium consistency, and growing chemistry with the Corvette Z06 GT3.R creates a compelling storyline as the championship battle intensifies. Now, let’s dive into today’s Corvette Racing coverage!
What’s Inside CorvSport’s Corvette Racing Coverage:
- The Official 6 Hours of Spa Press Release From Corvette Racing: Authored by Ryan Smith
- The Post Race CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R DRIVER QUOTES From Corvette Racing
- Engage With TF Sport: A Picture And Video-rich Facebook Post!
- Bonus Video: The Corvette With A Deadly Sting: Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R | WEC ICONS
1 — The Official 6 Hours of Spa Press Release From Corvette Racing: Authored by Ryan Smith
CORVETTE RACING AT SPA: Double-Points Heading to Le Mans
TF Sport battles through tough LMGT3 battles to finish in top-10
STAVELOT, Belgium (May 9, 2026) – TF Sport’s two Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs finished in the points and grabbed a dose of momentum ahead of the 24 Hours of Le Mans with a pair of top-10 finishes in Saturday’s Six Hours of Spa.
The team’s No. 33 Corvette of Nicky Catsburg, Jonny Edgar and Blake McDonald drove from outside the top-10 to eighth place in LMGT3 at the end of the FIA World Endurance Championship’s wild second round at Spa-Francorchamps. It followed a season-opening, runner-up finish at Imola in the first race together for the trio.
They were just one spot ahead of the Racing Team Turkey by TF Corvette of Charlie Eastwood, Salih Yoluc and Peter Dempsey. Eastwood crossed the finish line fifth in class but the No. 34 had 10 seconds added to its race time for an infringement during the car’s next-to-last pit stop.
The early parts of the race – including the two Corvettes’ starting positions – mirrored the team’s start at Imola in the season’s opening round. Yoluc was the biggest mover as he gained five positions in the opening half-lap to go from 10th to fifth in the No. 34 Corvette. It was even more impressive that Yoluc drove the first stint on used tires as the team played strategy from the very beginning.
Meanwhile McDonald raced his way from 14th and into ninth after his first stop. He climbed as high as sixth before the No. 33 had to serve a drive-through penalty. The two Corvettes made their second stops one lap after each other just prior to the two-mark with Dempsey relieving Yoluc and Edgar taking over for McDonald.
The middle two hours of the race were fairly uneventful as both Corvettes ran in the top-10 and in points-scoring position when a safety car period with a little more than two hours left reset things. All of the LMGT3 cars stopped on the same lap with Eastwood and Catsburg both getting into their respective Corvettes for the final two stints – Eastwood in sixth and Catsburg in ninth. Unfortunately the Racing Team Turkey entry received a 10-second, post-race penalty for an infraction during the stop.
Another safety car neutralized the pack with an hour to go. Eastwood made the No. 34’s last stop with 56 minutes left for tires and fuel from fifth, and Catsburg pitted a lap later for the same with Edgar back in for the final run to the finish.
TF Sport’s next race in the FIA WEC is the 24 Hours of Le Mans on June 13-14.
2 — The Post Race CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R DRIVER QUOTES From Corvette Racing
NICKY CATSBURG, NO. 33 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:
“A short and unexpected stint. I got three track limits on one of the restarts in a row. It’s a bit risky to continue and get another penalty. We already had a penalty early on in the race and didn’t want to get another one. Jonny was the right man for the job. He did great today and at the end. We got away with some unexpected points, I would say, which is good where we had a lot of weight. So to get away with points is good. We just need to focus forward and take it from there.”
JONNY EDGAR, NO. 33 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:
“It was quite a fun last stint with the safety car restarts. It was hard to make positions as I had some understeer following cars because we had some damage to a diveplane. In the end we seemed quite OK. The car was better at the end than the middle which is good. I enjoyed driving at the end full-push for the last 30 minutes trying to hold on to positions and trying to make some up. Happy to score points with the pace we had. We did a good job to finish eighth because it could have very easily been zero. So I’m happy.”
(Opening stint) “It didn’t feel too bad. Our car doesn’t have quite as much as pace Imola so it’s been a more difficult race. It was quite a lonely stint. I only saw one other my car in my class so I was trying to make no mistakes and no penalties to keep the car in one piece. We were hoping for a safety car to pack the field up, which we got. I think this track is hard with the Hypercar and GT3 speed difference in some places. There also are some places where there’s a lot of gravel on the track so you can’t go side by side. It was easy to lose a lot of time if you got overtaken in the wrong place. Some of the Hypercars are very aggressive, especially when they are close to each other and fighting for position.”
BLAKE McDONALD, NO. 33 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:
“I got off to a half-decent start and then was in a fight with one of the Mercs and the Porsche for a good portion of it. Track limits was a tough thing to manage and ended up getting five, and that was just enough to get us a penalty so that dropped us back. An anti-stall issue kicked in at one point and lost us a couple of spots but nowhere near as much time as the drive-through. It definitely wasn’t we wanted to do but it was a ton of fun though. The car turned out to be pretty decent and pretty competitive against some of the others.”
(On Hypercar traffic) “The majority of the time it isn’t an issue at all. It’s maybe one of out of 10 times that puts you in a (bad) situation where you are super compromised. Here some of the speed differentials mean you just get swamped from the cars you’re competing against. One of the track limits was exactly that when I got pushed into the marbles by a Hypercar then was side by side with one of the McLarens in Blanchimont and got a track limits there. The majority of the time it’s pretty easy because most of them are very respectful in how they do it and make it super easy by just waiting for a straight and checking out. Then none of us lose too much time, but here and there they are a little aggressive.”
CHARLIE EASTWOOD, NO. 34 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:
“It didn’t feel like an uneventful run! It was just busy at the front the whole time and kind of always in a bit of a train. It seemed harder than probably everyone expected to pass but I was able to manage with the sort of front gap. Unfortunately we got the pitstop infringement which we couldn’t serve because everyone boxed under VSC and had to take it at the end of the race to drop us to P9. That was a shame, for sure. A P5 or P4 would have been a decent result. All in all, we executed a pretty solid weekend. The Corvette was fast and now we get ready for the big one.”
(On the final hour) “Eau Rouge is just one of those corners. I think it’s because all the GTs were in a train battling and all the Hypercars were in a train battling, so that’s when you’re always going to get caught up. To be honest a lot of the GTs defend quite heavily when they are on defense against another GT car, and that’s when crashes happen.”
SALIH YOLUC, NO. 34 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:
“I think the start was just being opportunistic with what was going on ahead of me. I found some space to move up the order. And it felt nice in the car as well. The traffic wasn’t too bad. The Hypercars were behaving much better today, if I’m honest, than Imola. We didn’t have any issues in the traffic. The issue was much more the tire deg than anything. I don’t think we have the ultimate pace of the cars in front of us like the Ford and Ferrari who are in another league. We did our best. There is just no grip there. Ten laps are OK but the rest are quite a lot of trying to survive.”
PETER DEMPSEY, NO. 34 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:
“It was pretty good. Obviously I was lacking a lot of laps since Thursday; missing FP3 hurt us a little bit in race laps for me and Charlie. But we gained with Salih getting those laps in. It took me a little while setting into a rhythm. The first stint was me making a few mistakes but once I settled in the pace was pretty good. Then a big improvement in the second stint and stayed in the same position and status quo with where we were. I was able to hand off the car off to Charlie with no damage, which was the plan.”
3 — Engage With TF Sport: A Picture And Video-rich Facebook Post!
Corvette Racing fans, this is your chance to engage directly with TF Sport. Simply click the “f” to be taken straight to the Facebook post, full of cool pictures and videos!
4 — Bonus Video: The Corvette With A Deadly Sting: Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R | WEC ICONS
♦ Video Preview From FIA WEC:
“Welcome to a new WEC Icons episode!
In this video, we break down the technical DNA of Corvette’s LMGT3 contender in the FIA World Endurance Championship. From its engine architecture and chassis fundamentals to aerodynamics, balance, and endurance-focused setup, discover how Corvette has adapted its racing heritage to meet the demands of the WEC.
The official YouTube channel of the FIA World Endurance Championship.
The FIA World Endurance Championship is the world’s premier international sportscar championship, contested over eight rounds across North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. With multiple cars across two categories (Hypercar and LMGT3) all on track at the same time, the WEC is a sports car extravaganza that offers action, overtakes, excitement and entertainment for fans worldwide.
Watch all the WEC action live on FIAWEC.tv
2026 Calendar:
Qatar 1812KM – March 28
6 Hours of Imola – April 19
TotalEnergies 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps – May 9
24 Hours of Le Mans – June 13-14
Rolex 6 Hours of Sao Paulo – July 12
Lone Star Le Mans Cota – September 6
6 Hours of Fuji – September 27
Bapco Energies 8 Hours of Bahrain – November 7”
The Corvette With A Deadly Sting: Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R | WEC ICONS
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