Bouncing back from the DNF (Did Not Finish) at Le Mans, Oliver Gavin and Olivier Beretta braved the traffic on Lime Rock’s 1.54 mile raceway and scored a victory with a margin of just .384 seconds over the #3 Corvette C6.R. The winning Corvette went 165 laps and finished 8th overall. They led the #3 Corvette C6.R driven by Johnny O’Connell and Jan Magnussen the entire race, although never separating more than a few seconds.
Corvette Racing Program Manager Doug Fehan said “At the end of the day these guys finished a couple of tenths of a second apart, and it’s just incredible to think they can do that race after race,” he said. “Other teams have tried to accomplish that and can’t seem to do it. Today was a testament to the work that Corvette Racing has done.”The #4 Corvette C6.R won the pole on Friday by an even smaller margin of .013 seconds. The starting grid was based on the practice times as rain washed out the official qualifying sessions.
“This is the smallest, narrowest, bumpiest, and craziest track we race on,” said Gavin after notching his 25th career ALMS victory. “When you have the prototypes driving up behind you with a lot of pace on the straights and GT2 cars with great speed in the corners, you have to keep you wits about you all the time. It’s very satisfying to come back to America and get a victory in our first race after Le Mans.” “It was like riding a bicycle in the middle of a highway with trucks and cars all around you,” Beretta explained. “Staying out of trouble was not easy, but (crew chief) Ray Gongla did a terrific job of spotting for me in the pits. It was difficult to stay out of trouble because of the traffic, but both cars are in one piece, and that was the goal.”Beretta extended his record for career ALMS victories with his 33rd win. The “two Ollies” now unofficially lead the GT1 drivers championship by 32 points. Coming up next for Corvette Racing is the Acura Sports Car Challenge at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio on July 21st. Race time is 3:15 p.m. EDT and will be shown tape-delayed on 2 p.m. EDT on Sunday, July 22nd.
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Corvette | Racing | ALMS | Lime Rock
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