It was a remarkable charge from a ninth-place qualifying effort. Milner picked up two spots at the start and never fell back further than seventh. By the two-and-a-half-hour mark, Gavin was in podium position. He led for the first time about an hour later.
The No. 3 Corvette C7.R of Antonio Garcia, Jan Magnussen and Ryan Briscoe placed eighth in GTLM after a promising start that saw Garcia lead at the end of his opening triple-stint. A quick stop for fuel and tires after the Spaniard’s second stint moved the No. 3 Corvette from fourth to first in class.
After Garcia’s third stint, Magnussen took over in the Corvette but disaster struck almost immediately. The leading group of GTLM cars left the pit lane at nearly the same time. But the pit exit was closed and a pile-up involving a Ferrari, a Porsche and Magnussen resulted in significant left-front damage to the No. 3 Corvette. By the time Magnussen came back around and the crew made its repairs, the car had lost four laps.
The 2015 TUDOR United SportsCar Championship season begins with the Roar Before The 24 on Jan. 9-11, 2015 from Daytona International Raceway. The first race is the Rolex 24 At Daytona on Jan. 24-25, 2015.
ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R
“The car was pretty good. We were sure it would be, and it showed. I was putting a lot of pressure on some cars and there were a lot of really tight moments, especially in traffic. I had to be both careful and aggressive. It was a very smooth first stint. In the second, I started to be more aggressive where I could pass two or three cars and got up to fourth. We had a really good last stop where I stayed in while coming in fourth. We went out in the lead and that was the first time we encountered the red light at the end of the pits. Kyle (Millay, engineer) told me right before we pitted that I needed to be careful with the red light, and I told him that I would take care of getting in the fast lane and he needed to tell me if the light was on or not. It’s very difficult going from the pit box to the fast line and checking your mirror, and on top of that checking to see if the red light is on. I stopped but while I was sitting there I almost got hit by everyone – five or 10 seconds later I could see a big cloud of smoke coming at me. On the third stop we got unlucky because we were leading but was only halfway through a fuel stint.”
JAN MAGNUSSEN, NO. 3 CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R
“Leaving the pits, a bunch of us came out at the exact time so we were going down to the exit at the same time. Kyle (Millay, No. 3 engineer) was telling me over the radio that the pit lane was red so I knew I had to start to slow down. I couldn’t see the Ferrari in front of me because the Porsche was covering him. And then I was going to slow at the same rate as him, and he seemed to be slowing down a little and I just followed him. Apparently he was still doing his belts so he just rammed the Ferrari and stopped right in front of me and kind of jumped sideways. If he had stopped there, it would have been fine and I would have slipped by. But he bounced out to the side in front of me and I collected him in his rear corner and did a lot of damage to the front of our car. It’s so tough.”
OLIVER GAVIN, NO. 4 CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R:
“We had a lot of promise today. We led for some of it, which is good to do. It was nice to be running up front on genuine pace as well, which was good. It just didn’t quite run for us with the cycling of the pit stops and we were maybe missing a little bit of pace toward the end. We just couldn’t quite hold off the Porsche and Viper. But that is what we saw at COTA. That is kind of the story to the end of the season. But I am pleased that we had a strong performance, particularly on our car because it has been a battle this year. I’m pleased for the guys for us to have a clean race with no mechanical issues and a strong race for the No. 4 car and Corvette Racing, so I’m going to take that and carry it to 2015 and look forward and not back.”
TOMMY MILNER, NO. 4 CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R
“The first stint was tough. We had made some changes from warmup. I thought the car felt OK but I had only done four laps and the other guys were a little bit apprehensive. The car was difficult to drive for the first hour but made some tire pressure changes and equalized them as well. It definitely put us in the ballpark as far as balance goes. The car seemed fast. Pace-wise we seemed OK. Then it was about staying out of trouble. Unfortunately we saw our teammates have trouble at the pit exit. We knew that if we could stay away from that, we’d be in OK shape. It was so close in GTLM and everyone was racing hard even though it’s a 10-hour race. Things happen.”
RYAN BRISCOE, NO. 3 CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R
“It was great to come and finish the season with the team. I have had a lot of fun driving with these guys this year. It’s a huge honor to drive the C7.R for Corvette Racing – a great experience. Obviously we wish we could have won the race today. We fought hard but unfortunately had the bodywork to repair early, which got us out of the game. So it was a bummer. I think we were able to shine at times, but at that time we were leading the race, and after that we were out of contention.”
Bondurant School of High Performance Driving
Source:
Corvette Racing
Photo Credit: JanMagnussen.dk
Related:
Corvette Racing at Road Atlanta: Last Chance for a C7.R Championship
Briscoe Back for Corvette Racing at Petit Le Mans
Corvette Racing at COTA: C7.Rs Finish Ninth and Tenth in GTLM
Corvette Racing at VIR: Tough Going for Pair of Chevrolet Corvette C7.Rs
Corvette Racing at Road America: Sixth, Seventh for Chevrolet Corvette C7.Rs
Corvette Racing at Indianapolis: Corvette C7.Rs Place Fourth and Fifth in GTLM
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