Charlie Eastwood wins European Le Mans Series Title

Charlie Eastwood wrapped up the LMGT3 title with TF Sport and Corvette with an intense final round of the European Le Mans Series. Going into the weekend there were seven cars with a mathematical chance of clinching the title at the sixth and last round of the series- 4 Hours of Portimão.

Qualifying brought the teams hopes up when TF Sport driver Koizumi topped the timing sheets going 0.006seconds quicker than the field. Eastwood’s teammates had relatively steady and straightfoward stints but Eastwood came under huge pressure. The McLaren of Wayne Boyd, a Templepatrick native, was hunting him down to take the win. Eastwood’s Corvette had a significant drop off in pace making it more difficult to keep the hard-charging Boyd behind.

After 124 racing laps, the two were separated by just 0.346seconds.

"My stint was very stressful as we didn’t seem to have great pace. We had something we were trying to manage, and because of that, it really made things super-difficult for us,” said Eastwood “The pace of the McLaren and Wayne has been unbelievable all year.

“Coming into Turn 5, I could see him behind, and then as I came out, he was getting closer and closer. Fortunately, as the sun started to go down, we gained a little bit of grip. But he was right there for the last 10 or 15 laps. My engineer came on the radio, saying there were six laps to go, and he was literally right behind me and significantly faster.

“I had to stay in front because there was a queue of Ferraris behind and I didn’t know whether they’d let the #50 Richard Mille car through to help them with the title if I fell to second.

“I was all-out to make sure we got it to the line. What an achievement for the whole team. I’m going to remember this one for a while.”

Tom Ferrier Head of TF Sport said “We have big plans with Corvette to keep growing. We are putting together a plan that will see us back in WEC and ELMS with the car next year, and trying to get a second Z06 on the grid in Europe.”