Jonny Edgar’s TF Sport team-mates have applauded the British star’s stellar late-race display that culminated in a hard-fought LMGT3 class victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans a week-and-a-half ago – with Nicky Catsburg describing him as ‘man of the match’.
The Tom Ferrier-helmed outfit deployed a different strategy to the majority of its rivals in its tenth participation in the twice-round-the-clock contest. If Edgar was the standout performer of the final phases, then it was the #33 line-up’s Bronze-rated driver, Ben Keating, who did the lion’s share of the early work, as the Texan took the start from 17th on the grid and completed all of his mandatory six hours of driving time within the race’s opening eight hours.
Keating’s ironman effort was all the more remarkable for the fact that it marked the 54-year-old’s first competitive outing since sustaining an elbow injury in March – with the end result representing his third career triumph at La Sarthe.
“You always believe it can happen, absolutely, but you can’t go into a 24-hour race expecting to do well, no matter how good your car or team is,” Keating mused. “You just have to do your job, and the car was in pretty good shape.
“When Nicky and I won in the Corvette in 2023, that was far and away the worst weather conditions I had ever experienced. I think over half the field retired with damage and it was a really difficult race, whereas this has to be the best weather I’ve ever seen at Le Mans in the 12 times I’ve done it.
“That made for really competitive racing, and I think the extreme heat was beneficial for our car, because the Corvette is really good at taking care of its Goodyear tyres. It’s so good to do this with these guys – I enjoy racing with Nicky, and I’m super-proud of Jonny. To win with Corvette again is really special – and it’s even better to have my name on the side!”
Following Keating’s Saturday heroics, Edgar and Catsburg surged to the front of the LMGT3 class battle by the time the sun rose over north-western France on Sunday – although a mid-morning safety car intervention due to Ayhancan Güven’s crash in the Manthey DK Engineering Porsche subsequently wiped out what had been a comfortable advantage.
That was where Edgar came into his own. Suddenly finding himself under pressure from a dual Aston Martin and Lexus threat behind, the 22-year-old Cumbria native – making only his second appearance at Le Mans – drove five consecutive stints over the course of just under four hours to keep TF Sport’s pursuers at bay and take the chequered flag for his maiden victory in the event.
“I knew we had a fighting chance because the car felt really good and we seemed pretty fast,” reflected Edgar, “but in a 24-hour race, you need so much to go right. There are a hundred things that could have gone wrong but we had a pretty perfect race, I would say – no mistakes, no contact and good pit-stops the whole time.
“The biggest thing was straight after the safety car on Sunday morning, which reduced what had been a two-and-a-half-minute lead to just a few seconds. The team calculated that if we could stretch the fuel to do an extra lap every stint from that point on, we’d save a stop, which we knew the Lexus would do, too. I think we had a little bit more pace than the Lexus but they could do an extra lap quite easily, whereas for us, it was difficult.
“That was the trickiest part of the race, but our pace was still really good, and especially on tyre degradation, we seemed better than everyone else, so that’s where we really made the difference.
“The plan wasn’t actually to do five stints at the end – I was going to do three but because of what we were doing with the tyres, it made sense to do four and once I was already in for four, we decided I may as well stay in again, so it went from three stints to five pretty quickly! But I felt good in the car and it was really nice to drive, and I was quite surprised by how easy those five stints were.
“Everyone in the TF Sport team did a great job, our strategy worked perfectly and it was very impressive what Ben did, completing six out of the first eight hours of driving. Even on a normal day, I wouldn’t want to do that, never mind coming back from an injury – that was crazy!”
“For Ben to do all of his driving before Sunday with no mistakes, nine weeks after breaking his elbow, was incredible,” echoed Catsburg, who celebrated his second success at La Sarthe. “Then Jonny – if you ask me, he was man of the match. He was unbeatable, and I feel like this is one of those races that could be career-changing for him.
“If you got to write the story, you would write it this way. We had to come all the way from the back, so it was an incredible result for us. You couldn’t ask for better!”
The tenth triumph for Corvette Racing at Le Mans since its first back in 2001 was also TF Sport’s fourth win in the event, with the sister #34 Racing Team Turkey by TF Z06 LMGT3.R crewed by Charlie Eastwood, Salih Yoluç and Peter Dempsey climbing through the pack to finish sixth after starting plum last on the 25-strong grid following a post-qualifying penalty.
“It’s amazing to be able to help bring home such an important win for Corvette Racing and add to the long legacy Corvette has at Le Mans,” acknowledged Programme Manager, Andrea Hidalgo. “This shows the strength of our Corvette LMGT3 platform and the strength of our customer teams. Congratulations to TF Sport, Nicky, Jonny and Ben on a near-flawless race.”
“What a historic day for General Motors and Corvette Racing,” echoed Mark Reuss, President of the US brand’s parent company. “To earn Corvette Racing’s tenth class victory at Le Mans is a tremendous achievement for our motorsport, design and engineering teams.
“Huge congratulations to Nicky Catsburg, Jonny Edgar and Ben Keating, and our partner TF Sport – they have earned their place in the history books! It’s an incredibly proud moment for all of us and it shows that, working as one team, GM can beat the best in the world.”
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