Corvette Racing at Long Beach: C7.Rs to Start Fourth and Fifth in GTLM

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Corvette Racing at Long Beach: C7.Rs to Start Fourth and Fifth in GTLM
Photo Credit: Richard Prince for Corvette Racing

Magnussen leads Corvette Racing in qualifying

LONG BEACH, Calif. (April 17, 2015) – Jan Magnussen qualified Corvette Racing’s No. 3 Corvette C7.R in the fourth for the Tequila Patrón Sports Car Showcase following Friday’s qualifying at the Long Beach street circuit. Last year’s pole-winner bettered that time Friday with a 1:17.739 (91.136 mph) in the car he shares with Antonio Garcia; the duo won last year’s Long Beach in GTLM and lead the TUDOR Championship standings with endurance teammate Ryan Briscoe.

Oliver Gavin qualified right behind Magnussen in the No. 4 Corvette with a lap of 1:17.756 (91.116 mph). The No. 4 crew had to change the nose in the practice immediately following qualifying after a collision with a slow prototype. Gavin and Tommy Milner were the 2012 GT class winners at Long Beach in the American Le Mans Series.

The Tequila Patrón Sports Car Showcase at Long Beach, the third race of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship, is set for 4:05 p.m. PT on Saturday, April 18 from the Long Beach street circuit. Live coverage begins at 7:05 p.m. ET on IMSA.com with FOX Sports 1 airing the race at 4 p.m. ET. Flag-to-flag radio coverage will be available via IMSA Radio.

CORVETTE RACING QUOTES

JAN MAGNUSSEN, CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R – QUALIFIED FOURTH IN GTLM

“It was a good lap. This was as fast as we have gone at Long Beach. We improved the car from this last practice to qualifying. It was a good step forward but it wasn’t quite enough in qualifying. We’ll race them tomorrow and see what comes out of that.

“This is more of a sprint race in every sense of the word. It’s one pit stop and the pit stop probably decides who wins. That’s how it usually goes at Long Beach. You need to be in the fight up front for that first pit stop and then you need to nail that pit stop. After that that’s when the real race starts, right after the only pit stop.”

OLIVER GAVIN, NO. 4 CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R – QUALIFIED FIFTH IN GTLM

“The session before was mega frustrating for us in the No. 4 Corvette. There were some crazy things happening. It looked like we were getting a good run on a new tire, and coming out of Turn 6 into Turn 8, I’m behind a DP car and he’s braked pretty much at the normal spot and then just continued to brake into the apex. He pretty much parked at the apex and I ran into the back of him. We did some damage to our car and we spent most of the session trying to fix. We we were able to go back out at the end, but the car wasn’t quite right. Trying to get everything sorted before qualifying… I wasn’t very calm before getting back in. It But Chuck (Houghton, No. 4 Corvette C7.R lead engineer) made a good change before the start of qualifying, and the car felt pretty good. I just didn’t quite execute fully on the lap. I think the car is good enough to be third. I feel a little bit frustrated with myself. Could I have done that if I had had better preparation in the session before? Most probably. But we’re fourth and fifth. The lap times are super close. It’s going to be a real street fight tomorrow. The pit stop is going to vital.”

Tequila Patrón Sports Car Showcase at Long Beach – GT Le Mans (all times PT)

  • Race: 4:05 p.m., Saturday, April 18 (IMSA.com)
  • TV: 4 p.m., Sunday, April 19 (FOX Sports 1)


Source:
Corvette Racing

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