[VIDEO] Corvette Racing’s Beretta Penalized for Blocking at Lime Rock

It seems that Corvette Racing can’t get a break this season and the cloud of bad luck followed the team to Connecticut this Saturday for the Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park. Olivier Beretta was assessed a stop-and-go penalty for blocking during a heated battle with the two BMWs which surprised many watchers including the SPEED commentators. For a minute it appeared that Beretta would refuse to come in, but eventually he let the BMWs go past and entered Pit road on his third circuit following the call.

The BMWs did appear to have a bit more top-end speed, but the tight confines of Lime Rock Park do not provide many areas suitable to passing. But that doesn’t mean you just roll over when you got a competitor on your rear. To press the point, one of the BMWs made contact with the C6.R several times and Olivier’s post stint interview reflects what the team thinks was a bad call.

“Well it’s a tough race and the competition is very hard. At Corvette Racing we were doing well, we were fast. I get the penalty and I don’t understand because he bumped me three times. It should have been the opposite way but this is the race and there is still long to go. Its just racing and a little bit unfair.”

After the stop and go penalty, the #4 Corvette C6.R would go a lap down and eventually finished the race in 5th place in the GT class.

As for the #3 Corvette, things went much worse for them. During Johnny O’Connell’s stint, he first made contact with Jaime Melo of the #62 Risi Ferrari which resulted in a crash and DNF for the GT points leader. A little over ten laps later, contact was made with the #88 GTC Porsche with caused structural damage to the left rear suspension and knocked the team out of the race.

The battle for GT class supremacy continues in two weeks with Corvette Racing running the C6.Rs in the ALMS at Mid-Ohio on August 7th.

Sponsored By:

Bondurant School of High Performance Driving

Source:
SPEED

Related:
Corvettes Qualify Fourth and Sixth in Rainy Lime Rock
Corvette Racing: Links for ALMS Lime Rock
Corvette Racing at Lime Rock: Into the Arena