Corvette Racing at Long Beach: Gavin, Magnussen Part of Tight GTLM Fight

0
2116

Corvette Racing at Long Beach: Gavin, Magnussen Part of Tight GTLM Fight


DETROIT (April 15, 2016) – Corvette Racing will go for its 100th victory in program history Saturday from the second and third rows of the GT Le Mans (GTLM) grid as part of the Bubba Burger Sports Car Grand Prix at Long Beach. Oliver Gavin qualified fourth in the No. 4 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R, and Jan Magnussen was right behind in the No. 3 Corvette.

The two Corvette C7.Rs ran 1-2 for the majority of Friday’s qualifying session. Gavin, pole winner in his first race at Long Beach in 2007, set the pace early before finishing the session with a best lap of 1:17.573 (91.331 mph). Magnussen, with two Long Beach pole positions to his credit, posted a quick lap of 1:17.676 (91.120 mph).

Corvette Racing will go for its sixth Long Beach victory in 11 years in Saturday’s 100-minute race. Gavin and Tommy Milner won in 2012 – a season in which they also won the American Le Mans Series’ GT championship – while Magnussen and Antonio Garcia won in 2014; it was the first victory for the Corvette C7.R and the first of four straight wins for the duo.

The driver pairings remain the same for this year’s race. Bill Auberlen (BMW) was Friday’s GTLM pole winner.

The Bubba Burger Sports Car Grand Prix of Long Beach is set for 4:05 p.m. PT on Saturday. It will air live on FOX Sports 2 with tape-delayed broadcasts on FOX Sports 1 at 11 p.m. ET on Saturday and 12:30 p.m. ET on Sunday. Live audio coverage from IMSA Radio is available on IMSA.com.

Corvette Racing at Long Beach: Gavin, Magnussen Part of Tight GTLM FightPhoto Credit: janmagnussen.dk


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

“It was a pretty decent session. It’s warmer than it was this morning, obviously. So the tires came in quicker. We were quick at the beginning of the session, but it just seemed that the BMW and the Porsche came on strong there and we got bumped to fourth. I didn’t string it all together perfectly, but it wasn’t a bad lap. I could have maybe found another tenth here or maybe there, but I don’t think we were ever going have the pace to quite catch the BMW. But fourth is a pretty good spot, and I think we have a chance. We have a pretty good race car. On longer runs, I think we should be in a reasonably good spot. We can attack and build a good race from that spot. So I’m pretty happy. Obviously you would like to be a fit farther forward and in P1, but we always seem to have a very good race car.”

JAN MAGNUSSEN, NO. 3 CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R – QUALIFIED FIFTH IN GTLM:

“It was not a bad qualifying actually. It was just not quite fast enough to be right at the front. We’ll go back and look at the data and see if it is something we can improve for tomorrow. But it is difficult now because we are not on track between now and the race so it can only be small changes. We aren’t a million miles off of what I think we can do. It is just little things. We will try to find them tonight and give it a go tomorrow.”


Source:
CorvetteRacing.com

Related:
Corvette Racing to Take a Third C7.R Chassis to Le Mans
Corvette Racing at Sebring: Second Straight Win for Corvette C7.R to Start 2016
Doug Fehan: “Corvette Racing is the World’s Best GT Racing Team”

 



-