LAKEVILLE, Conn. (July 5, 2013) – Corvette Racing’s two Compuware Corvette C6.R race cars will roll off the GT grid from the second and third rows for Round 4 of the 2013 American Le Mans Series at Lime Rock Park, airing live at 3 p.m. ET Saturday on ESPN2. Oliver Gavin qualified the No. 4 Compuware Corvette third in class for the American Le Mans Northeast Grand Prix with Antonio Garcia fifth in the No. 3 entry.
Gavin’s best lap Friday was 51.490 seconds in the car he shares with Tommy Milner. Garcia, teaming with Jan Magnussen, turned a 51.357-second lap around the 1.5-mile circuit in northwestern Connecticut. Both cars are in prime position to repeat last year’s performance that saw the velocity yellow Corvettes second and third in the GT class.
The heat Friday bordered on oppressive. Air temperatures hovered near 95 degrees with track readings above 120 degrees. Both crews worked up a sweat throughout the day – especially the No. 3 group, which had to change the car’s gearbox following the day’s first practice.
The efforts of both teams paid off with each of the Corvettes within a half-second of the pole-winning car.
“Today was a mixed bag,” Corvette Racing Program Manager Doug Fehan said. “We had to change the gearbox on the No. 3 Corvette, but both Oliver and Antonio put in solid qualifying efforts. We know the race will be the typical GT slugfest, which is made that much more difficult with the close quarters and short lap around Lime Rock. It will come down to who can execute on the track and in pitlane. If we can do that and run as clean a race as possible, we will be in the hunt at the end of the day.”
OLIVER GAVIN, NO. 4 COMPUWARE CORVETTE C6.R
Qualified third, 51.490 seconds (103.057 mph)
“We found a bit more speed from the practices, and you always push harder in qualifying. I managed to stick a reasonable lap together, and we made a few adjustments with the car that helped us find a little bit more. It’s always a delicate balance here. There is not a huge amount of grip and you’re all the time seesawing from the rear of the car being too loose to the front of the car being too pushy. You try to massage that balance between the two because one end is always breaking free. Very rarely will you get a car that’s really good and stuck and lets you attack every corner with no fear.”
ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 COMPUWARE CORVETTE C6.R
Qualified fifth, 51.537 seconds (102.963 mph)
“We all lost a lot of time from the first session due to the red flags and then we had to change the gearbox. We never got to try anything to improve the car from the first practice. In qualifying, I had no read from the car on new tires and we needed to judge what the car would do on new tires. I think I was pretty close to everyone other than the two leading cars. But after the problems we had this morning, we put in a very good qualifying effort. We are all very close and know how races here work out. We will all be single-file for two hours and 45 minutes, very close to how Laguna Seca was. We need to be spot on pit stops, tire changes and everything. If everything goes smooth, we have the car to be out front at the end.”
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The American Le Mans Northeast Grand Prix starts at 3 pm ET on Saturday, July 6th. The race will air live on ESPN2 while the live stream is available on ESPN3.com starting at 2:45 pm ET.
Source:
CorvetteRacing.com
Related:
Back in the USA: Corvette Racing Readies for Lime Rock
Corvette Racing at Le Mans: Corvettes Complete the 24 Hour Race
Corvette Racing at Le Mans – The Gold Standard in GTE
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