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CORVETTE RACING AT LE MANS: Halfway Update
Corvette C7.Rs maintain top-10 positions in GTE Pro class
LE MANS, France (June 19, 2016) – At the halfway point of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Corvette Racing’s pair of Konica Minolta/Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C7.Rs remained comfortably in the top-10 of a highly competitive GTE Pro class. Through 12 hours, both Corvettes continued to run trouble-free in a race that saw a handful of its top competitors fall by the wayside.
Leading the charge was the No. 64 Corvette of Oliver Gavin, Tommy Milner and Jordan Taylor – last year’s GTE Pro winners at Le Mans. Milner finished a triple stint on his Michelin tires and ran fifth after starting the race from the 13th position. Gavin drove the opening two stints with the race’s first 52 minutes behind the safety car due to heavy rain.
The No. 64 Corvette moved into the top 10 in the opening hour. During the second quarter of the race, problems delayed or caused the retirements of multiple GTE Pro entries while the tried-and-tested Corvette continued to put down laps.
In the No. 63 Corvette C7.R, drivers Antonio Garcia, Jan Magnussen and Ricky Taylor cycled through their second shifts with Garcia laying down the car’s fastest laps of the race in the seventh hour. Magnussen weathered some tire pickup in his first stint and traffic on his second before handing off to Taylor midway through the 11th hour in ninth place.
Garcia had started the race from 14th in class and made up three spots before the driver change to Magnussen.
The next Corvette Racing update from Le Mans will come after the 18-hour mark.
ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 63 KONICA MINOLTA/MOBIL 1/SIRIUS-XM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R: "The car was feeling a bit better again. With the cool air the times came down quite a bit. We just have to stay focused and keep putting down laps."
JAN MAGNUSSEN, NO. 63 KONICA MINOLTA/MOBIL 1/SIRIUS-XM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R: "I had a lot of pickup on my first set of tires. The second was a bit better, but then I hit lots of traffic. I just couldn’t stitch a good lap together. For now, we’re too far off the pace compared to the leaders, so we’re just doing laps."
RICKY TAYLOR, NO. 63 KONICA MINOLTA/MOBIL 1/SIRIUS-XM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R: "It’s always a bit awkward the first time you get in the car in the race. The car didn’t immediately feel great, a little nervous even. But it got better and better throughout my stint, and was at its best in the second half of my second stint, which is encouraging. There’s still a long way to go and I guess that’s our strength in this race: the combination of Corvette’s reliability and the way the team connects all the time."
TOMMY MILNER, NO. 64 KONICA MINOLTA/MOBIL 1/SIRIUS-XM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R: "We’re doing everything that we need to do. Maybe I was unlucky getting caught up in traffic in some wrong spots and being near LMP cars that hit each other. Maybe I could have given myself a little more of a gap from them, but it’s hard to slow yourself down. The car is good. We tried a triple stint there, and the car liked that. The tires held in great. We’re still figuring out what the car needs. The brakes are good. We just have to keep making laps and keeping it out of the pits. Hopefully as time goes on, some other guys will have issues and we can keep moving up. It’s still pretty busy out there. It seems like there are a lot of LMP2 cars. They’re not awful, but I’m trying to be as nice as I can to them so they’ll be nice to me in return."
JORDAN TAYLOR, NO. 64 KONICA MINOLTA/MOBIL 1/SIRIUS-XM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R: "I’d say it was a semi-eventful first stint. It was good to get into a rhythm in the Corvette around Le Mans again with a good two-hour stint. We were just kind of making our way through traffic and click off laps at this point. Pretty much all we can do at this point is focus on what we have and make it to the finish."
Corvette Racing 24 Hours of Le Mans Record
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Corvette C7.Rs maintain top-10 positions in GTE Pro class
LE MANS, France (June 19, 2016) – At the halfway point of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Corvette Racing’s pair of Konica Minolta/Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C7.Rs remained comfortably in the top-10 of a highly competitive GTE Pro class. Through 12 hours, both Corvettes continued to run trouble-free in a race that saw a handful of its top competitors fall by the wayside.
Leading the charge was the No. 64 Corvette of Oliver Gavin, Tommy Milner and Jordan Taylor – last year’s GTE Pro winners at Le Mans. Milner finished a triple stint on his Michelin tires and ran fifth after starting the race from the 13th position. Gavin drove the opening two stints with the race’s first 52 minutes behind the safety car due to heavy rain.
The No. 64 Corvette moved into the top 10 in the opening hour. During the second quarter of the race, problems delayed or caused the retirements of multiple GTE Pro entries while the tried-and-tested Corvette continued to put down laps.
In the No. 63 Corvette C7.R, drivers Antonio Garcia, Jan Magnussen and Ricky Taylor cycled through their second shifts with Garcia laying down the car’s fastest laps of the race in the seventh hour. Magnussen weathered some tire pickup in his first stint and traffic on his second before handing off to Taylor midway through the 11th hour in ninth place.
Garcia had started the race from 14th in class and made up three spots before the driver change to Magnussen.
The next Corvette Racing update from Le Mans will come after the 18-hour mark.
ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 63 KONICA MINOLTA/MOBIL 1/SIRIUS-XM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R: "The car was feeling a bit better again. With the cool air the times came down quite a bit. We just have to stay focused and keep putting down laps."
JAN MAGNUSSEN, NO. 63 KONICA MINOLTA/MOBIL 1/SIRIUS-XM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R: "I had a lot of pickup on my first set of tires. The second was a bit better, but then I hit lots of traffic. I just couldn’t stitch a good lap together. For now, we’re too far off the pace compared to the leaders, so we’re just doing laps."
RICKY TAYLOR, NO. 63 KONICA MINOLTA/MOBIL 1/SIRIUS-XM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R: "It’s always a bit awkward the first time you get in the car in the race. The car didn’t immediately feel great, a little nervous even. But it got better and better throughout my stint, and was at its best in the second half of my second stint, which is encouraging. There’s still a long way to go and I guess that’s our strength in this race: the combination of Corvette’s reliability and the way the team connects all the time."
TOMMY MILNER, NO. 64 KONICA MINOLTA/MOBIL 1/SIRIUS-XM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R: "We’re doing everything that we need to do. Maybe I was unlucky getting caught up in traffic in some wrong spots and being near LMP cars that hit each other. Maybe I could have given myself a little more of a gap from them, but it’s hard to slow yourself down. The car is good. We tried a triple stint there, and the car liked that. The tires held in great. We’re still figuring out what the car needs. The brakes are good. We just have to keep making laps and keeping it out of the pits. Hopefully as time goes on, some other guys will have issues and we can keep moving up. It’s still pretty busy out there. It seems like there are a lot of LMP2 cars. They’re not awful, but I’m trying to be as nice as I can to them so they’ll be nice to me in return."
JORDAN TAYLOR, NO. 64 KONICA MINOLTA/MOBIL 1/SIRIUS-XM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R: "I’d say it was a semi-eventful first stint. It was good to get into a rhythm in the Corvette around Le Mans again with a good two-hour stint. We were just kind of making our way through traffic and click off laps at this point. Pretty much all we can do at this point is focus on what we have and make it to the finish."
Corvette Racing 24 Hours of Le Mans Record
| Year | Finish | Class | Car | Drivers |
| 2000 | 3rd | GTS | Corvette C5-R | Pilgrim/Collins/Freon |
| 4th | GTS | Corvette C5-R | Fellows/Kneifel/Bell | |
| 2001 | 1st | GTS | Corvette C5-R | Fellows/O’Connell/Pruett |
| 2nd | GTS | Corvette C5-R | Pilgrim/Collins/Freon | |
| 2002 | 1st | GTS | Corvette C5-R | Fellows/O’Connell/Gavin |
| 2nd | GTS | Corvette C5-R | Pilgrim/Collins/Freon | |
| 2003 | 2nd | GTS | Corvette C5-R | Gavin/Collins/Pilgrim |
| 3rd | GTS | Corvette C5-R | Fellows/O’Connell/Freon | |
| 2004 | 1st | GTS | Corvette C5-R | Gavin/Beretta/Magnussen |
| 2nd | GTS | Corvette C5-R | Fellows/O’Connell/ Papis | |
| 2005 | 1st | GT1 | Corvette C6.R | Beretta/Gavin/Magnussen |
| 2nd | GT1 | Corvette C6.R | Fellows/O’Connell/Papis | |
| 2006 | 1st | GT1 | Corvette C6.R | Beretta/Gavin/Magnussen |
| 7th | GT1 | Corvette C6.R | Fellows/O’Connell/Papis | |
| 2007 | 2nd | GT1 | Corvette C6.R | Fellows/O’Connell/Magnussen |
| 14th | GT1 | Corvette C6.R | Beretta/Gavin/Papis | |
| 2008 | 2nd | GT1 | Corvette C6.R | Fellows/O’Connell/Magnussen |
| 3rd | GT1 | Corvette C6.R | Beretta/Gavin/Papis | |
| 2009 | 1st | GT1 | Corvette C6.R | O’Connell/Magnussen/Garcia |
| 4th | GT1 | Corvette C6.R | Gavin/Beretta/Fassler | |
| 2010 | 10th (DNF) | GT2 | Corvette C6.R | Gavin/Beretta/Collard |
| 12th (DNF) | GT2 | Corvette C6.R | O’Connell/Magnussen/Garcia | |
| 2011 | 1st | GTE Pro | Corvette C6.R | Beretta/Milner/Garcia |
| 14th (DNF) | GTE Pro | Corvette C6.R | Gavin/Magnussen/Westbrook | |
| 2012 | 5th | GTE Pro | Corvette C6.R | Garcia/Magnussen/Taylor |
| 6th | GTE Pro | Corvette C6.R | Gavin/Milner/Westbrook | |
| 2013 | 4th | GTE Pro | Corvette C6.R | Garcia/Magnussen/Taylor |
| 7th | GTE Pro | Corvette C6.R | Gavin/Milner/Westbrook | |
| 2014 | 2nd | GTE Pro | Corvette C7.R | Garcia/Magnussen/Taylor |
| 4th | GTE Pro | Corvette C7.R | Gavin/Milner/Westbrook | |
| 2015 | DNS | GTE Pro | Corvette C7.R | Garcia/Magnussen/Briscoe |
| 1st | GTE Pro | Corvette C7.R | Gavin/Milner/Taylor | |
| Totals | 8 wins | 16 starts |
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