AUSTIN, Texas (Sept.18, 2015) – Antonio Garcia led Corvette Racing’s qualifying effort at Circuit of The Americas on Friday as the No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R will start on the second row of the GT Le Mans (GTLM) grid for Saturday’s Lone Star Le Mans race in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship.
Garcia, who drives with Jan Magnussen, set a time of 2:04.651 (98.194 mph) to qualify fourth in class. Garcia and Magnussen stand second in GTLM points and won at the track in 2013 as part of the American Le Mans Series GT class.
Garcia and Magnussen are five points out of the championship lead, having opened the season with victories at the Rolex 24 At Daytona and the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh from Florida. Garcia was 0.255 seconds off Patrick Pilet’s pole-winning time.
Tommy Milner set a best lap of 2:05.245 (97.728 mph) in the No. 4 Corvette C7.R he drives with Oliver Gavin. The duo won their class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans this year with Jordan Taylor; with the FIA World Endurance Championship racing on the weekend with the TUDOR Championship, there are frequent reminders of Corvette Racing’s eighth class victory at Le Mans.
The Lone Star Le Mans race for the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship is set for 11:35 a.m. CT on Saturday. It will air live on FOX Sports 2 and again at 1:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, Sept. 20 on FOX Sports 1. Flag-to-flag radio coverage also will be available via IMSA Radio.
ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R:
“It’s hard to know what kind of pace we really have. At Road America, we qualified toward the front but in race pace we were nowhere close to our competitors. I don’t know if that will happen to do. But for sure we are doing as much as we can and learning as much as we can. There is the tire, the car and temperature – all things to consider. There had to be an enormous change in temperature from the morning. The car didn’t feel that great compared to this morning considering the grip we had. But apparently we weren’t that slow. We just need to keep focusing and get the most out of it.”
TOMMY MILNER, NO. 4 CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R – QUALIFIED SEVENTH:
“We’ve definitely improved the car over the weekend. These are the worst track conditions we’ve had, and you could feel that in the grip level. Balance-wise, the car was the best it’s been. We came from a place that wasn’t very good to place where our Corvette is nicer to drive. We’re still obviously down a bit. Antonio had a good lap. I think because we’ve been making changes quite a bit, we left some on the race track. I didn’t get the best out of the tire for sure. It’s frustrating that we’ve been off the pace this weekend, but our guys have been working as hard as they can to improve things. I’m feeling better about the race now.”
Source:
Corvette Racing
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