Corvette Racing at COTA: Progress Made in GTLM for Corvette C7.Rs

Gavin starts on third row in championship-leading No. 4 Corvette

AUSTIN, Texas (Sept. 16, 2016) – Corvette Racing’s GT Le Mans (GTLM) championship-leading Corvette C7.R will start from the third row of the class in Saturday’s Lone Star Le Mans sports car race at Circuit of The Americas. Oliver Gavin qualified the No. 4 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C7.R sixth Friday for the next-to-last race in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

Gavin and teammate Tommy Milner along with Chevrolet and the No. 4 Corvette lead the Driver’s, Manufacturer’s and Team standings entering a sweltering Texas weekend. Corvette Racing arrived at COTA on a three-race win streak including No. 102 for the iconic American team in the most recent GTLM race at Virginia International Raceway.

Gavin’s best lap in qualifying was a 2:05.190 (97.7 mph) which was less than a half-second to the front row of the class.

Corvette Racing is looking for its second victory at Circuit of The Americas, having won in 2013. A good result Saturday would help the points situation for Gavin and Milner, who lead the GTLM Driver’s Championship by seven points. The No. 4 crew made a significant jump in lap time from the morning session to close the gap to the lead cars in class.

Gavin and Milner have won a class-best four times in GTLM this year, and Corvette Racing has won five times. Magnussen, who qualified eighth Saturday with a 2:05.461 (97.5 mph) lap in the No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C7.R he shares with Antonio Garcia. The duo is coming off the win at VIR, and they were the winning drivers at COTA in 2013.

The two-hour, 40-minute Lone Star Le Mans race for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship from Circuit of The Americas is scheduled for 12:35 p.m. ET on Saturday, Sept. 17 It will air live on FOX Sports 2 starting at 12:30 p.m. ET with IMSA Radio coverage and Chevrolet on-board cameras available on IMSA.com.

OLIVER GAVIN, NO. 4 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R – QUALIFIED SIXTH IN GTLM:

“We went away and thought about it overnight, and the Corvette Racing guys worked on it last night and some more this morning. We were definitely closer to our competition in qualifying, which is good. It seems that as the heat builds we can get closer. It’s not exactly where we want to be, but it’ll be a long race tomorrow in the heat and anything can happen. There was a little bit still in the Corvette that I left on the table. Chuck my engineer told me I needed one- or two-tenths to get up another row and I crazily tried to do it all at Turn 12, but I ran wide there. You live and learn. It’s probably the best the car has felt all weekend in terms of balance and on our Michelin tire. I hope we can race the guys at the front, but it will be tough. It will be hot and brutal, so we’ll see.”

JAN MAGNUSSEN, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R – QUALIFIED EIGHTH IN GTLM:

“It is different than this morning, but it is also a lot warmer now. The track temps are a lot higher, so that will change things. The balance of the Corvette was actually pretty good but there just was not enough overall grip. Unfortunately, I kind of messed up the fast lap with a big lock-up and I couldn’t get the tire going again after. I had a big vibration. Maybe we should have been a little bit better, but it would have been one spot, maybe two spots at best. We are off this weekend. We are going to have to do something in the race to try and turn this around.”

Source:
Corvette Racing

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