Press Release:
CORVETTE RACING AT MONTEREY:
Focus Forward to Raceday
GTLM championship-leading team confident in strategy
ahead of Monterey round
MONTEREY, California (Sept. 23, 2017) – Corvette
Racing is confidently looking ahead to raceday following GT Le Mans (GTLM)
qualifying for the America’s Tire 250 at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Following
seventh- and ninth-place efforts Saturday in time trials, the
championship-winning team will bank on strategy and its experience at the
circuit to move up through the field Sunday.
Jan Magnussen led Corvette
Racing’s qualifying effort with a 1:22.789 (97.317 mph) lap in the No. 3 Mobil
1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C7.R. He and Antonio Garcia led the GTLM Driver’s
Championship – as does Chevrolet in the Manufacturer’s standings – on the
strength of three victories this year.
Oliver Gavin was ninth in the No.
4 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C7.R that he shares with Tommy Milner at
1:23.009 (97.059 mph). All four Corvette Racing drivers have won multiple times
at Laguna Seca, and the team has won seven times since 1999.
Corvette
Racing also has proven it can win from anywhere on the grid in Monterey. Only
once has it won from pole position; on the flip side Garcia and Magnussen won in
2013 after starting sixth.
The America’s Tire 250 from Mazda Raceway
Laguna Seca is set for 2:05 p.m. PT on Sunday, Sept. 24. FOX Sports 1 will air
the race live starting at 2 p.m. ET. Live audio coverage from IMSA Radio and a
Corvette Racing In-Car feed will be available on IMSA.com.
JAN MAGNUSSEN,
NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R – QUALIFIED SEVENTH IN GTLM: “The
balance of the car was quite similar to what we had in practice the last two
days. Obviously the new tire and the low fuel was masking a little bit of that.
We’re disappointed to be this far back, but the group right ahead of us is very
close in lap time. We aren’t completely out of it but we will have a race on our
hands, that’s for sure.”
OLIVER GAVIN, NO. 4 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET
CORVETTE C7.R – QUALIFIED NINTH IN GTLM: “So far this weekend we’ve been working
away with Michelin and on the setup of our car. We are getting closer with it,
but for this qualifying session we definitely went with the strategy of thinking
about the race and nothing about where we could be in qualifying. Hopefully,
that is going to pay dividends tomorrow. Starting seventh and ninth is not
ideal, but it is a long race here. We are going to see some pretty big tire
degradation and some big lap time drop-off. This place is aggressive for that.
So we just have to wait and see whether our strategy plays out or that of our
competitors. We are confident in the research we’ve done and what we’ve done so
far. So eyes forward and we will see what tomorrow brings.”
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