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CORVETTE
RACING AT WATKINS GLEN:
Third Straight Victory For Garcia, Magnussen
Win equals
GT Le Mans championship leads; Gavin and Milner fourth
after penalty
WATKINS
GLEN, N.Y.
(June 29, 2014) – In its 15 years of existence, Sunday
marked Corvette Racing’s first event at Watkins Glen
International. The team made its debut one to remember
with a dominating GT Le Mans (GTLM) victory in the
Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen for Antonio Garcia and
Jan Magnussen in the No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R.
The duo led
most of the day to earn their third straight class
victory in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship. In
the process, Garcia and Magnussen moved into the lead of
the GTLM driver’s championship, as did Chevrolet in the
manufacturer standings and the No. 3 Corvette C7.R in
team points.
“The
Corvette C7.R team's first race at Watkins Glen was
exciting given the challenging track and intense
competition that kept the pressure on all race,” said
Jim Campbell, Chevrolet U.S. Vice President, Performance
Vehicles and Motorsports. “Antonio and Jan drove a great
race and the crew executed quick pit stops. We are
thankful to come out of The Glen with a GTLM class win
and the class championship lead.”
Garcia and
Magnussen also won the third round of the Tequila Patrón
North American Endurance Cup – a four-race championship
made of the TUDOR series’ four endurance events.
The
Garcia/Magnussen combination led 154 of the 185 GTLM
laps. Magnussen drove the opening stint and took the
lead from the pole-sitting BMW on the first lap. Despite
holding as much as a 30-second lead at various points,
the final minutes were tense ones. A full-course caution
with 25 minutes left brought the Corvette inside its
fuel window for the rest of the race. A final yellow
period just after the restart meant a final-lap dash
that saw Garcia hold off the second-place Viper by 0.185
seconds.
Oliver Gavin
and Tommy Milner finished fourth in their No. 4 Corvette
C7.R after running second to their teammates for most of
the day. A stop-and-go penalty inside the last hour for
what race officials judged to be avoidable contact
halted their podium charge.
The day
wasn’t a complete loss. Gavin and Milner moved into the
lead of the Patrón Endurance Challenge with just the
1,000-mile Petit Le Mans remaining at the end of the
season.
The next
round of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship is the
Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix presented by Hawk
Performance from Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. The
race, which Gavin and Milner won last year as part of
the American Le Mans Series, is set for 2:05 p.m. ET on
Sunday, June 13.
ANTONIO
GARCIA, NO. 3 CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R
“The car was
really good. I was running perfect. Jan (Magnussen) made
perfect start and pulled a gap. Then we got a caution
but we made the gap back up from zero to almost 20
seconds. Whenever I was able to go full-on we went up to
almost a 30-second lead. Strategy-wise we were like two
or three laps short (on fuel) I believe. We decided
because the Viper … maybe they gambled a little bit more
at the beginning so they were out of sequence to stretch
their fuel to start with; they were good to go to the
end. We decided to go too, and it was hard. To go
through traffic, it was really difficult to save fuel.
At the end we would have been OK to the end (without the
last caution). That yellow obviously helped us a little
bit more just in case. We weren’t really on it, but I
believe Corvette Racing again did a perfect race. I
think we led everything but qualifying.”
JAN
MAGNUSSEN, NO. 3 CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R
“I have to
say I am so pleased for how things have gone for the
team this year, with the No. 3 car especially, but how
we have developed a new car and we keep finding better
things to do with it. We are finding better race speed
over one lap over the whole distance and making the
Michelin tires last for the whole stint. We have a
fantastic race car. It’s a very competitive category and
you have to be on your game with everything you do.
There is no room for any mistakes otherwise you lose
it.”
(First race
in the Corvette C7.R at The Glen)
“I have been
here before in other categories, the GRAND-AM GT and
also the GRAND-AM DPs earlier. Driving the Corvette C7.R
around here is just a fantastic feeling. It’s such a
fast race track. It’s almost like there is a part
missing of the corner – normally you would have a big
braking zone downshifts and everything getting the car
ready to rotate and then shoot out the corner. Here that
little bit is gone so basically for every corner you
barely touch the brake, downshift, back to full
throttle. It’s all about the momentum here to build the
speed, and that is where dealing with all the traffic
was very important; you didn’t get bogged down too much
because it would kind of ruin your rhythm. I think both
of us did that really well today.”
OLIVER
GAVIN, NO. 4 CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R
“Certainly
we made a step forward with the car after yesterday
morning. We went back to basics with stuff, we changed a
lot chassis-wise with the car. So was it the perfect
setup? No because it was just really a bit of a stab at
it, but it was good enough to race and be in the hunt. I
genuinely think we should have had a second-place. Tommy
(Milner) did a great job at the start and really got us
in a fantastic position. It looked like we were going to
be able to race cleanly for second.
(Race
impressions)
“On the double stint that I did, the first on the medium
tire was good and I hung with Jan (Magnussen) pretty
much. And then on the harder tire it was trickier. It
made it a lot more difficult. But we were still there
still in second-place looking like we were going to be
able to fight for that and then Tommy (Milner) just got
a crazy decision with the penalty. We went back and
forth for a long time and it’s a great shame that it
ruined our race. We went from second to fourth and I
think we should have really had a second. That would
have been a great result for the team and the guys. They
worked so hard over the whole weekend.”
TOMMY
MILNER, NO. 4 CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R
“First and
foremost, I’m very proud of our guys. After Oliver
(Gavin) and I were not very happy with the car in
practice they put a lot of work into trying to fix the
car and it seems like that we have done that. The car
was certainly quite a bit better in the race. We were
just kind of behind the eight ball – just needed some
more practice time to kind of fine tune it, but I think
we are back in the ballpark again. That is obviously
really encouraging for going forward.
(Race
impressions)
The race was pretty good. I had a really fun start
there. It was just a shame that I got a penalty for
something that I don’t believe should have been a
penalty. Obviously the race control saw it differently.
We can only just move on and kind of put that behind us
and be proud of what we achieved. Obviously a great job
by the No. 3 car guys; they executed very well. Our guys
did as well. We had great pit stops, great strategy
calls… they did everything right. We deserved a podium
today, but we had it taken away.”
DOUG FEHAN,
CORVETTE RACING PROGRAM MANAGER
“Today was
emblematic of one of my key racing axioms – 25 percent
great car, 25 percent great team and 50 percent good
fortune. We had all those in our corner today, backed up
by flawless pit stops and a great strategy by our
engineers. With plenty of power from GM Powertrain, you
add all that up and it’s a victory in our first visit to
Watkins Glen International in the Sahlen’s Six Hours of
the Glen. I couldn’t be more proud of our guys for
standing on that top step. Everyone worked very hard to
earn this one.”
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