(note: after this report was sent out Ford lost position due to a drive time
infraction giving Corvette Racing a 4th place win!)
Press
Release:
CORVETTE RACING AT LE MANS: Hard-Fought, Fifth-Place Finish for No.
63 Corvette
LE MANS, France (June 17, 2018) – In 19 years of competing at
the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Corvette Racing has experienced both disappointment and
achievement. The constant in each case, though, is the drive of those on the
program to give maximum effort each and every appearance.
That was on
display again this year at the 86th running of the French endurance classic.
Corvette Racing showed its mettle in the face of adversity as it fought for a
ninth class victory at Le Mans. It wasn’t meant to be as Antonio Garcia, Jan
Magnussen and Mike Rockenfeller finished fifth in the GTE Pro category with
their No. 63 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C7.R.
“All race long,
the Corvette Racing C7.R teams never gave up,” said Jim Campbell, Chevrolet U.S.
Vice President, Performance Vehicles and Motorsports. “We know all the lows and
highs of Le Mans, including our eight class victories here. We race at Le Mans
to win, and we also race to learn. That is no different this year. The learnings
from Le Mans will help us as we strive to continually improve. We look forward
to getting back on track at Watkins Glen.”
Campbell added: “Our race team
appreciates the support from Corvette owners and fans from all over
world.”
The No. 63 team scraped and clawed for positions the entire 24
hours. Garcia began the race ninth, and the Corvette never fell below that the
entire way. Despite lacking overall pace all three drivers, the crew and race
engineers worked tirelessly to hover around the top-five before the Corvette
settled into fifth place inside the final quarter of the race.
The tale
of the No. 64 Corvette began to unfold early. Gavin fell back to 15th at the
start but rebounded nicely to 12th before experiencing trouble with the
right-front suspension. He handed over to Milner after a double-stint; however
the team brought the Corvette back to the pits and into the garage after Milner
reported severe handling issues.
The stop resulted in four laps lost, but
it didn’t take the fight out of the No. 64 team. From 17th place, the
Gavin/Milner/Fässler trio put in solid stints to go along with excellent stops
and brake changes from the Corvette crew. Well into the third quarter of the
race, however, the No. 64 Corvette began to show signs of an engine overheating
condition that ultimately resulted in the car’s retirement from the race.
There’s little time for rest and recovery. Corvette Racing returns to
competition in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship with the Sahlen’s Six
Hours at The Glen from Watkins Glen International on June 29-July
1.
ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 63 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R: “This
is classic Le Mans. You only want to win! This is the kind of race you either
win or lose. We fought all the way to the end. The level of competition is so
high that you see five, six or seven cars within the final two hours that have a
chance to win. The safety car periods didn’t help us, and that makes the race
even more full-attack. It makes things very intense and hard. We were unlucky
with losing some track position earlier. Once you fall behind and get into slow
zones, it’s difficult to compensate to make up time. Plus with new pit stop and
stint-length rules, there is very limited strategies. But we can be proud of
what we did. Other cars were faster over the race, and all you can do is
congratulate them.”
JAN MAGNUSSEN, NO. 63 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET
CORVETTE C7.R: “It was a tough race against tough competition. The team did a
fantastic job before as well as during the race. The car felt really good from
Sunday morning onwards, but during the night it was tough. It would have been a
different race for us, of course, had the safety car situations panned out
differently, but that’s how it is and there’s nothing you can do about
it.”
MIKE ROCKENFELLER, NO. 63 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R:
“At the end of the day, starting ninth and finishing in fifth in the toughest
GTE Pro class this race has even seen is nothing to be ashamed of. Obviously our
goal was different and at certain stages in the race we were really competitive.
Unfortunately the safety cars split the GTE group in two and basically decided
the race, which is a bummer except of course for the ones that got lucky. It’s
part of the race of course, and it’s happened here before. Apart from that it’s
been a great experience for me to do my first Le Mans with the Corvette team.
I’ve learned a lot and still have a lot to learn about the Corvette. In the end
we did our best, made no mistakes, not on the track nor in the pit, so we have
nothing to be ashamed of.”
OLIVER GAVIN, NO. 64 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM
CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R: “It’s disappointing and unfortunate that we’ve had this
overheating condition. It was fantastic work by the team and crew to get over a
number of hurdles… a suspension problem and some other little issues. But you
see how deep they’ll go and how hard they’ll go to get it back on track to let
us compete. We will learn from all the things that have happened today to come
back stronger and better. Le Mans is a brutally tough race. You sometimes feel
that things just don’t go your way. But there are also many times where things
have gone our way - eight victories and a fantastic win for Tommy and I in 2015.
We were hoping to have another one today but unfortunately not.”
TOMMY
MILNER, NO. 64 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R: “It’s a frustrating end
for us given the time and effort that is put into this one race when it doesn’t
go according to plan. I know it’s frustrating for all of us on the team. Having
the issue we did early in the race set us back, but the car felt really good
during the race and was still able to have some fun with some of the cars around
us. Even so, the result isn’t wasn’t we were expecting. Our Corvette was
competitive at all stages of the race. We’ll learn, improve and be better next
year.”
MARCEL FÄSSLER, NO. 64 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R:
“It was quite tough for everyone working on the team. The Corvette has shown it
is quite reliable and it has shown that for many years. Unfortunately racing can
be hard and tough for anyone at time. It shows again how proud everyone can be
when you are honored to win this race; it shows how much you have to bring
together to be successful. You cannot take things for granted. The race is tough
and the competition is high. You can only win if every part comes together 100
percent. This was not our weekend but I know we will come back stronger next
year.”
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