Press Release:
Halfway through the Rolex 24 At Daytona, Corvette
Racing’s No. 4 Chevrolet Corvette C7.Rs remained in the thick of the Rolex
24
IMSA WEATHERTECH SPORTSCAR CHAMPIONSHIP
ROLEX 24 AT
DAYTONA
CORVETTE RACING DRIVER QUOTES – Halfway Update
JANUARY 27,
2019
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.(Jan. 27, 2019) – Halfway through the Rolex
24 At Daytona, Corvette Racing’s No. 4 Chevrolet Corvette C7.Rs remained in the
thick of a back-and-forth battle for the lead in the GT Le Mans (GTLM) category
of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
Oliver Gavin ran in
the top-five in class in the No. 4 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette as the
opening round of the 2019 season moved into its second half. It put Corvette
Racing in solid position to challenge for a fourth Rolex 24 victory and third
since 2015.
The No. 4 Corvette C7.R of Gavin, Tommy Milner and Marcel
Fässler found itself in contention from the get-go after starting ninth in
class. Gavin moved up to fourth before handing over to Milner near the two-hour
mark, and the No. 4 Corvette raced its way to the lead a little more than an
hour later. All three drivers spent time in the lead of the
class.
The trio of Antonio Garcia, Jan Magnussen and Mike
Rockenfeller also led multiple times in the opening half of the race. It was a
remarkable achievement for the No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C7.R
following a pit-lane collision with the sister car near the two-hour mark.
Timely caution periods and solid strategy not only made up laps, but they also
helped Garcia move back into the lead less than 10 hours
later.
Unfortunately, the No. 3 Corvette suffered an electrical issue
that impacted the digital dash around the track. As a result, the car-to-pits
telemetry was compromised including fuel monitoring. That issue reared its head
just before halfway as Garcia ran out of fuel on the backstretch of the
3.56-mile circuit.
Once back in the pitlane Garcia handed over to
Rockenfeller, who re-entered eighth in class.
OLIVER GAVIN, NO. 4 MOBIL
1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R: “The first set of tires I had in that last
stint didn’t perform just as I wanted to. But Chuck (Houghton, engineer) worked
on the car and on the tire, and our C7.R was significantly better that second
stint. I was battling hard with the BMW and the Ford, which was nice. I think we
are on par with the Ferrari, but the Porsche is very quick. I have to say they
will mostly likely be our biggest rivals the rest of the way. A lot can happen
and there’s a long way to go. Let’s see how things turn out. Tommy is back in
right now and is doing a great job, as did Marcel before me.”
(Seeing the
No. 3 Corvette back on the lead lap) “I was beating myself up pretty bad about
what happened at that early pitstop on the first driver change. I’m very, very
happy that they’ve managed to get back up and are on parity with us. Now we can
race hard and fair. I’m sure they are chomping at the bit to get by us and back
to the front. We’ll be racing our Corvettes clean and fair.”
JAN
MAGNUSSEN, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R: “It’s great our
Corvette is back on the lead lap. We do have a lot of issues, though. I don’t
know where they are coming from and I don’t know what it is. We have a dash that
isn’t working correctly and isn’t giving correct information. We don’t always
have the rear-view camera and radar. It’s very tricky. Once I get into pace
mode, I couldn’t get out of it; I had to power down the car and restart it
twice. I’m happy we’re back in it and hopefully we can sort out these little
bugs. We are good and we are fast. So we’re in it with a shot.”
ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R:
“We’ve been fighting the whole race. There were some issues with the electronics
where we lost some telemetry. We couldn’t even get information to the engineers…
things like fuel. Nothing seemed to be working. That made things a lot more
complicated. Even with all that, we made it back to the lead. That was a great
feeling to be back up there and fighting for it. But we got to a point where we
were guessing where we were on fuel. Maybe we could have gone a lap or two
shorter but we come here to win and go 100 percent. It’s a shame. We’re several
laps down so we are hoping for rain and a lot of yellows.”
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