Top 10 Corvette Winning Moments at Le Mans 24 Hour

John Fitch & Bob Grossman, Corvette C1, Le Mans 1960 — photo Bernard Cahier

Le Mans 24 Hour: No Corvettes racing this year, but it’s as good a time as any to celebrate their 13 incredible wins

The 2020 Le Mans 24 hour will not feature Corvettes when the lockdown-bashed and delayed race finally happens. But did you know that Corvette has won its class at that classic race no less than thirteen times over the past sixty years?

So, what better way to pacify all those ‘Vette fans miffed by this horrible year’s unwelcome Le Mans 24 Hour pause than to look back at the brand’s incredible history in that epic race? It’s near impossible to rank those ten best Corvette moments in any other way than chronologically, so let’s just start at the beginning…

1. 1960 — Le Mans Veni, Vidi, Vici

The Corvette first arrived at Le Mans with a bang, when a quartet of 4.6-liter V8 C1s were entered into the 1960 24-hour. John Fitch and Bob Grossman not only emerged a brilliant eighth overall in their Briggs Cunningham-entered Coupé, but they grabbed the GT5.0 class win too.

Fred Gamble and Leon Lilley’s Camoradi-entered Coupé made the finish, but was unclassified. Two more Cunningham entires for Dick Thompson and Fred Windridge caught fire at 20 hours, and Briggs Cunningham himself, and Bill Kimberley’s car crashed out at 3 hours.

Corvettes raced Le Mans sporadically after that, with the next attempt coming in the form of a Dana Chevrolet-entered Stingray for Bob Bondurant and Dick Gullstrand in ’67. They retired when their 7-liter V8 broke at a clearly unlucky 13 hours.

Scuderia Filipinetti entered two C3s in ’68, but neither Henri Greder and Umberto Maglioli, nor Jean-Michel Giorgi and Sylvain Garant made the finish. Nor did Greder and F1 driver Reine Wisell go the distance in ’69.