Corvette Racing at Le Mans: Six-Hour Update

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Corvette Racing at Le Mans: Six-Hour Update


Both Corvette C7.Rs making progress through first quarter of 24 Hours

LE MANS, France (June 18, 2016) – Corvette Racing has methodically worked its way up the GTE leaderboard following in the first quarter of this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans. The two Konica Minolta/Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C7.Rs were running without issue after six hours in a race the Corvette Racing team has won eight times.

Jordan Taylor had just pitted from sixth in class at the six-hour mark in the No. 64 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R after it started 13th in class. Oliver Gavin started the race, which began in a heavy downpour that forced race officials to run the first 52 minutes behind the safety car. Once the race went green, some quick pitwork and driving by Gavin and Tommy Milner had moved the Corvette well into the top-10.

The trio in the No. 64 Corvette won last year’s GTE Pro race.

Ricky Taylor took over from Jan Magnussen just before six hours in the No. 63 Corvette C7.R and was 10th in class after beginning 14th. Antonio Garcia opened the race in the wet conditions and made up three spots before the driver change to Magnussen.

The next Corvette Racing update from Le Mans will come after the halfway mark.

Corvette Racing at Le Mans: Six-Hour Update


ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 63 KONICA MINOLTA/MOBIL 1/SIRIUS-XM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R:

“It wasn’t the greatest start of the race I’ve had here. In these wet weather conditions, track position is critical, and starting last didn’t help matters. It forces you to do things differently which you normally don’t do. I also did an extra lap on wet tires in the dry compared to the 64 car. The pace of the car isn’t bad, but not nearly as fast as what the leaders are doing. All in all, it’s not an ideal start to the race but with still 18 hours to go I think our car will get better.”

ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 63 KONICA MINOLTA/MOBIL 1/SIRIUS-XM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R:

“The car is quite different from the one we had earlier. It took me a while to get used to it and, by halfway through my second stint I had figured out how to drive to what the car could do, which made the times come down. It took some time, because I have to adopt quite a different driving style than what I’m used to.”

OLIVER GAVIN, NO. 64 KONICA MINOLTA/MOBIL 1/SIRIUS-XM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R:

“It was an eventful start. The rain was pretty heavy behind the safety car at the start. A lot of that calmed down, and by the time the green came out the track was nearly dry at Tertre Rouge. I can understand why the officials wanted to start the race like this for safety’s sake. Knowing that the rest of the race is likely to be dry, why take the risk?

“Once we got on the tire Michelin tires – which we most probably did at the right time – the car was OK. It seemed we were pretty competitive in the changeable conditions. Once it got fully dry, you could see that the cars that had the advantage in practice and qualifying still have the advantage. You have to attack a lot of the time to keep up with any of the Fords or Ferraris. I think we have a pretty good race car for later in the race. Right now, it’s quite edgy and tricky to drive on the way into the corners. Most of that is due to the amount of rain we’ve had that washed away all the rubber we have. We have to wait for the track to come to us, which it should in the night and first thing in the morning. Hopefully our car will be quite good at that point. We just have to see if we’re still in touch and on the lead lap with the fastest cars in our class. We just have to see how things unfold.”

TOMMY MILNER, NO. 64 KONICA MINOLTA/MOBIL 1/SIRIUS-XM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R:

“It was good to get the blood flowing a little bit and back in the car. We were under a slow zone immediately when I left the pitlane for the first time. There was no indication that there was a green flag after we got through the slow zone; there was seven or eight of us in the same boat. Some of the guys behind us got that message and some didn’t. So I lost some time there, which was annoying. It led to a couple of scuffles later in the lap on the track but nothing terrible. The track is rubbering in, which has helped us some. We’re just missing that little bit. The best thing we can do is not make mistakes from here on, conserve the car and see where we stand at the end. The pace we’re seeing now is pretty representative of what the cars can do. On pure pace, we’re not quite there. But we’re enjoying our time.”


Source:
Corvette Racing

Related:
Corvette Racing at Le Mans: 24 Hours of In-Car and Garage Streaming
ACO Reverses Course and Updates BoP Prior to Saturday’s 24 Hours of Le Mans
[VIDEO] Corvette Racing’s Doug Fehan on Why Le Mans is Special

 



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