Press Release:
CORVETTE
RACING AT LAGUNA SECA: Championship Fight Heads West
Program in contention
for third straight IMSA GTLM title with two races to
go
Garcia,
Magnussen arrive in California with Driver Championship lead
All four
Corvette Racing drivers with multiple Laguna Seca victories
Chevrolet still
in race for GTLM Manufacturer’s title
One of three tracks to play host to
Corvette Racing in each of its previous
19 seasons
DETROIT (Sept. 4,
2018) – Corvette Racing begins its final push this weekend
to what it hopes
is another title-winning campaign in the IMSA WeatherTech
SportsCar
Championship. The defending GT Le Mans (GTLM) championship-winning
program
heads west to the Monterey Peninsula and WeatherTech Raceway Laguna
Seca for
Sunday’s America’s Tire 250.
It’s the 10th of 11 IMSA events for Corvette
Racing, which for the first
time this year enters a race leading the Driver
and Team championships.
Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen head the Driver
standings in the No. 3
Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C7.R, with the
No. 3 crew first in Team
points. Garcia, Magnussen and the No. 3 Corvette
team are the defending GTLM
champions.
Corvette Racing’s Oliver Gavin
and Tommy Milner in the No. 4 Mobil
1/SiriusXM Corvette C7.R are fourth in
the Driver Championship and have the
team’s lone victory of the year. In the
Manufacturer standings, Chevrolet
stands second and 12 points out of the
lead.
Corvette Racing will close its season at two tracks where it boasts
tremendous success – Laguna Seca and Road Atlanta. The former has witnessed
seven victories for Corvette Racing since 2004 and is one of three tracks at
which the team has competed in each of its previous 19
seasons.
Garcia and Magnussen are on a run of six consecutive podium
finishes dating
back to Mid-Ohio in early May. They were runners-up at
Watkins Glen,
Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, Lime Rock Park and VIR; they
placed third at
Mid-Ohio and Road America. The duo is eager for their first
victory of the
season, and Monterey would be an appropriate spot. They
scored back-to-back
wins in 2013 and 2014.
Before those consecutive
victories, Gavin and Milner won together at Laguna
Seca in 2012. In fact,
Gavin and Magnussen are tied for second for most
victories at Laguna Seca
with four each.
The America’s Tire 250 is set for 2:05 p.m. PT on Sunday
with live
television coverage on FOX Sports 1. Streaming in-car footage
along with
live audio coverage of practice, qualifying and the race from
IMSA Radio is
available on IMSA.com.
ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 MOBIL
1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R: “Laguna Seca
is always a nice race to go
to. Jan and I have been fortunate to win a few
times there. Let’s see if
this year is the same. We didn’t win last year but
did pretty much lock up
the championship. It’s a lot tighter this year. A
good result for us would
make things easier at Petit Le Mans. For us
Europeans, we feel a little bit
closer to home out there. We always like it,
and the Monterey area is always
very nice. We always have a good crowd and a
great Corvette Corral there.
For sure we know we have a lot of supporters
there.”
JAN MAGNUSSEN,
NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R: “I’ve been
fortunate to race
at Laguna Seca many times. It’s always a good trip and a
good event. It can
be a very tough track to read with the fluctuation in
temperatures and
amount of sand that comes on the surface. But it’s like
many other circuits
in our championship where you are punished if you make a
mistake. Antonio
and I continue to be on a great run of races since Mid-Ohio
but we aren’t
satisfied with podiums. We can’t win this championship without
winning a
race as well. That continues to be our goal.”
OLIVER GAVIN, NO. 4 MOBIL
1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R: “This is a
fantastic race track and one
we always enjoy going to each year. It has a
great series of corners – a
tight and twisty track but a great challenge. We
at Corvette Racing has had
a lot of success there as a program and one we
always look forward to this
race on the calendar because of the event and
the Monterey area. This is the
business end of the season. Championship
points are critical so all the
teams will look to strategize and look to do
what we can to do to get the
best possible result for the championship. We
always go there to win, so
this will be a vital part of how the championship
plays out.”
TOMMY
MILNER, NO. 4 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R: “Our schedule
is
full of classic circuits, and Laguna Seca certainly qualifies. It’s a
great
track and one of the best areas for sports car racing anywhere in the
country. For a couple of reasons, the track can be pretty tricky when it
comes to finding grip. That makes the practice sessions important to make
sure we understand what makes the car work under braking and power-down on
corner exit. The team that can do that quickest stands to have a big
advantage come the race. Oliver and I have been quick the last few events,
but we need to put it all together in the race.”
DOUG FEHAN, CORVETTE
RACING PROGRAM MANAGER: “As a steamy summer draws to a
close, there is no
place better to race than the Monterey Peninsula and
WeatherTech Raceway
Laguna Seca. It’s the perfect track for a race with a
lot at stake in the
GTLM championship. We have a great history here - seven
wins in 19
appearances. While we may not have the fastest car, we’ve shown
throughout
the last couple of years that our vehicle engineering, our
on-track
strategic decisions and our driver lineup is more than capable
overcoming
most challenges we have faced. It’s a big reason why we have
Antonio and Jan
leading the Driver’s Championship with two races left and
Oliver and Tommy
always running toward the front. We hope that continues in
Monterey.”
Press Release:
CORVETTE RACING AT LAGUNA SECA:
By the Numbers
DETROIT (Sept. 5, 2018) – There are only three tracks at
which Corvette
Racing has competed in each of its 20 seasons. One of those
is WeatherTech
Raceway Laguna Seca, site of this weekend’s America’s Tire
250 for the IMSA
WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. During the last 19
years, the team has
amassed an impressive record of victories and miles on
the California coast,
as you can see below…
1: As in one team, one
manufacturer and one model of car for 20 years:
Corvette Racing, Chevrolet
and the Chevrolet Corvette.
2: Double-podium finishes this season for
Corvette Racing: Canadian Tire
Motorsport Park and Road America.
3:
Generations of Corvette Racing entries at Laguna Seca since 1999 –
Corvette
C5-R (1999-04) Corvette C6.R (2005-2013) and Corvette C7.R
(2014-current).
3: Consecutive wins for Corvette Racing at Laguna Seca
from 2012-14.
3: Pole positions and fastest race laps at Laguna Seca by Jan
Magnussen in
Corvette Racing entries.
4: Career victories at Laguna Seca
for Oliver Gavin and Jan Magnussen. All
four of Gavin’s have come with
Corvette Racing.
6: Consecutive GTLM podium finishes for Antonio Garcia and
Jan Magnussen in
the No. 3 Corvette – Mid-Ohio (third), Watkins Glen
(second), Canadian Tire
Motorsport Park (second), Lime Rock Park (second),
Road America (third) and
VIR (second).
7: Number of Laguna Seca victories
for Corvette Racing dating back to 2004.
8: As in Chevrolet’s small-block V8.
More than 100 million units have been
sold worldwide and is the most
successful engine in American motorsports.
9: Laguna Seca victories for
Corvette Racing from the current driving
lineup – Oliver Gavin (four), Jan
Magnussen and Antonio Garcia (two) and
Tommy Milner (one).
11: Drivers
who have competed for Corvette Racing at Laguna Seca. Of those,
seven went
on to win at Monterey.
11: Victories at Laguna Seca for Chevrolet in IMSA
competition.
12: Manufacturer Championships for Chevrolet and Corvette Racing
since 2001.
16: Number of GT Le Mans wins in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar
Championship
for Corvette Racing since the start of 2014. That’s the most of
any
manufacturer and team in GTLM.
24: Tracks at which Corvette Racing
has won races – Baltimore, COTA,
Canadian Tire Motorsport Park/Mosport,
Daytona, Detroit, Houston, Laguna
Seca, Le Mans, Lime Rock, Long Beach,
Miami, Mid-Ohio, Portland, Road
America, Road Atlanta, Sebring, Sonoma, St.
Petersburg, Texas, Trois
Rivieres, Utah, VIR, Washington DC and Watkins
Glen.
28: Number of drivers for Corvette Racing since 1999.
107: Victories
worldwide for Corvette Racing – 99 in North America and eight
at Le
Mans.
210: Event starts by Corvette Racing since 1999 following the most
recent
race at VIR.
11334.24: Number of racing miles completed by
Corvette Racing in its 19
previous trips to Laguna Seca. That represents
5,147 laps or nearly 667
trips along historic 17-Mile Drive on the Monterey
Peninsula.
279,324.46: Total number of racing miles completed by Corvette
Racing since
its inception. To put that in perspective Apollo 13 – the
longest manned
spaceflight in history – covered “just” 248,655
miles.
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