Corvette Racing at Indianapolis: Looking to Kiss the Bricks For First Time

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Corvette Racing at Indianapolis: Looking to Kiss the Bricks For First Time

DETROIT (July 22, 2014) – There is no shortage of Chevrolet racing history at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It dates all the back to 1920 with Gaston Chevrolet’s victory in the Indy 500. More than 90 years later, a new page will go into the history book with Corvette Racing’s first race at the famed circuit. The team’s two Chevrolet Corvette C7.Rs will race alongside four Corvette Daytona Prototypes in Friday’s Brickyard Grand Prix for the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship.

The inaugural season of the TUDOR Championship has been a good one so far for Chevrolet and the Corvette brand. Chevy leads both the Prototype engine manufacturer championship and the auto manufacturer standings in GT Le Mans (GTLM).

Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen ride a four-race win streak with their No. 3 Corvette C7.R into Indianapolis. The duo hasn’t lost since the Long Beach round in April and have surged into the lead of the class’ driver’s championship. They won the American Le Mans Series’ GT championship in 2013.

Garcia has raced once at Indianapolis – 2012 for Spirit of Daytona Racing in a Corvette DP where he finished ninth in class with Richard Westbrook. Magnussen, with experience in nearly every major championship around the world including Formula One, has not been to Indy before… much less raced there. Taking their Corvette to a new venue worked out well earlier when they won in team’s first visit to Watkins Glen last month.

In the No. 4 Corvette C7.R, Tommy Milner has experience racing at Indianapolis during the 2004 Formula BMW season. Teammate Oliver Gavin has not raced there in his storied career. The Gavin/Milner pairing stand fourth in GTLM points and come to the Brickyard in search of their first victory of the season. Their Corvette has suffered from a chassis imbalance that the team worked to remedy following the last TUDOR Championship race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.

Live television coverage of the Brickyard Grand Prix starts at 5:30 p.m. ET, Friday on FOX Sports 1.

ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R

“It’s a new track for most of us, and it’s new for GTLM. We need to work on learning the track layout and how the surface will work with our car and gathering as much information and data as possible to prepare and have a good car right away. The first session is going to be a time to learn and retrieve as much information as possible to go forward from then on. It will be a time where track time is important. The way you anticipate and work your way to a setup has to be spot-on. It isn’t that different than what we faced at Watkins Glen. We came in with a good, basic setup to start with but we had to work a lot to get the car really good from practice to the race. The entire team worked hard to make that possible and we expect the same for Indy.”

JAN MAGNUSSEN, NO. 3 CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R

“It will be a new track for me. Being such a short weekend, there is a lot of pressure to make the most of things, get in there and get to know the track. It will be good to go to Indy. I’ve never been, even as a spectator, so it will be a really cool experience. . When you’ve been driving for as long as I have, you don’t get to go to a lot of new places. You usually always have some experience in one car or another. So that will be nice. If we can carry on how we have so far with our Corvette, it will be a fantastic first weekend.”

OLIVER GAVIN, NO. 4 CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R

“I was at Indianapolis a couple of years ago for a GRAND-AM race and got to drive the track briefly in a safety car but I didn’t run there at all. I believe the circuit has been modified a little bit since then. It’s an amazing place with so much history. It has that coliseum feel and should be interesting for us to go there. I don’t know how the circuit will suit our form of racing. But it will be good to go there. This is obviously something that Corvette Racing has been keen to do since the two series came together. We are getting to go to these great tracks and places like Daytona, Watkins Glen and now Indy. That’s only good for everybody in the series. Everyone is excited.”

TOMMY MILNER, NO. 4 CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R

“For us to go for the first time with our Corvettes to Indianapolis is pretty special. It’s a great facility with a lot of history. Hopefully we can build some history of our own there. In my case, I’ve raced there before so some of the layout is similar so it’s not all new to me although a lot of it is. It will be the first time there for all of us in the GTLM class so we’re all going in kind of blind. These days with all the simulations that we have all the engineering programs that we and everyone else in our class has, we should have a setup that is pretty close and then it will be up to us drivers. It will take us a little longer to fine-tune our driving lines and brake points. But it’s a fun challenge and a phenomenal race track. The history there is incredible.”

DOUG FEHAN, CORVETTE RACING PROGRAM MANAGER

“There aren’t many race circuits in the world with a history as deep as Indianapolis. For more than 100 years, it has been a focal point of the American racing landscape. Having the opportunity to bring the Chevrolet Corvette C7.R – in its first season – to race in front of such a knowledgeable and passionate fans and Corvette owners is a tremendous opportunity. Chevrolet has a prodigious history at IMS. We are excited to write a new chapter in Indianapolis and Corvette Racing history!” 


TUDOR Championship – GTLM Standings

Driver Standings

  1. Antonio Garcia/Jan Magnussen – 190
  2. T2 – Bill Auberlen/Andy Priaulx – 171 / Dominik Farnbacher/Marc Goossens – 171
  3. Jonathan Bomarito/Kuno Wittmer – 170
  4. T4 – Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 165 / Richard Lietz/Nick Tandy – 165
  5. John Edwards/Dirk Muller – 161

Team Standings

  1. No. 3 Corvette Racing – 190
  2. T2 – No. 55 BMW Team RLL – 171 / No. 91 SRT Motorsports – 140
  3. No. 93 SRT Motorsports – 170
  4. T4 – No. 911 Porsche North America – 165 / No. 4 Corvette Racing – 165

Manufacturer Standings

  1. Chevrolet – 194
  2. Porsche – 186
  3. BMW – 184
  4. SRT – 180
  5. Ferrari – 162


Brickyard Grand Prix – TUDOR Championship (all times ET)

  • TUDOR Championship Practice 1: 10:45 a.m., Thursday, July 24
  • TUDOR Championship Practice 2: 1:45 p.m., Thursday, July 24
  • GTLM Qualifying: 4:20 p.m., Thursday, July 24
  • TUDOR Championship Warmup: 2 p.m., Friday, July 25
  • Brickyard Grand Prix: 5:45 p.m., Friday, July 25

Brickyard Grand Prix: Watch It (all times ET)

  • Qualifying: 4:00 p.m. ET (IMSA.com), Thursday, July 24
  • Race: 5:30 p.m. ET (Live, FOX Sports 1), Friday, July 25



Source:
CorvetteRacing.com

Related:
Corvette Racing in Canada: Garcia, Magnussen Earn Hard-Fought GTLM Win
[VIDEO] Corvette Racing at the 2014 24 Hours of Le Mans
Corvette Racing at Watkins Glen: Third Straight Victory For Garcia, Magnussen
Corvette Racing at Le Mans: Runner-Up Finish for Corvette C7.R
Corvette Racing at Laguna Seca: Second Straight Win for Magnussen, Garcia

 



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