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Gavin fifth in No. 4 C7.R as team gears for third VIR win four tries
CORVETTE RACING AT VIR: Front-Row Start for Magnussen, No. 3 Corvette
Gavin fifth in No. 4 C7.R as team gears for third VIR win four tries
ALTON, Va. (August 24, 2019) – Corvette Racing will start from the front row of the GT Le Mans (GTLM) grid Sunday for the Michelin GT Challenge at VIR following Jan Magnussen’s final lap flyer Saturday at Virginia International Raceway in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
Magnussen was second and Oliver Gavin fifth in the pair of Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C7.Rs. Magnussen, in the No. 3 Corvette, set a lap of 1:40.708 (116.892 mph) was only 0.078 seconds off overall pole-winner Laurens Vanthoor. Gavin’s last lap also was his best – 1:41.578 (115.890 mph) – and moved the No. 4 Corvette from seventh to fifth on the grid.
Even more remarkable was a 65-minute engine change before qualifying after the team discovered a potential fuel delivery issues after Saturday morning’s practice.
Sunday’s race is a critical one in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s GTLM title chase. Magnussen and teammate Antonio Garcia stand fourth in Drivers points and remain in the hunt for a third consecutive championship and fourth straight for the Corvette Racing program.
All four Corvette Racing drivers have claimed victories at VIR since the team’s first appearance there in 2012. Gavin and teammate Tommy Milner were winners that year in the GT class of the American Le Mans Series, and they clinched the class title that weekend.
Magnussen and Garcia won in both 2016 and 2017, and they were second last season.
The Michelin GT Challenge at VIR is August 23-25. Sunday’s two-hour, 40-minute race will air live on NBCSN and the NBC Sports App at 1:30 p.m. ET. Live audio coverage will be available on IMSA Radio, Sirius 138, XM 202 and SiriusXM Online 972.
JAN MAGNUSSEN, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R – QUALIFIED SECOND: “That was a super exciting and very tricky with the track drying. There was a full dry line but it was difficult to see where that line was in places. I was careful to work into it a little bit, but there was no holding back. It was absolutely as fast as you could go. There were no places where on-line there were no issues, but because that line was so narrow the slightest mistake would put you in a heap of trouble. So I’m very happy with the result. When you’re seven-hundredths of a second off and you look at the data afterward, you can find that somewhere! So that will irritate me until tomorrow but that’s how it is. We’ll start from the front row and see if we can get something good out of it tomorrow.”
OLIVER GAVIN, NO. 4 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R – QUALIFIED FIFTH: “It’s been a bit of frantic day for us. We had a last-minute engine change before qualifying. It was a great effort by everyone at Corvette Racing to complete that work in just over an hour so we could make qualifying. That was huge. We decided as a team to wait to go out a few minutes into qualifying, which I suppose was a little bit of our undoing and not being up there with Jan closer to the front. I was getting quicker and quicker each lap and basically ran out of time. It’s unfortunate; in these conditions you need every lap. We have saved the tires a little bit, which is a positive. Well done to Jan; that was a hell of a lap there for him at the end. It should be an interesting race tomorrow. It should be dry and we’re in a good spot.”
CORVETTE RACING AT VIRGINIA INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY: By the Numbers
• 1: As in one team, one manufacturer and one model of car for 20 years: Corvette Racing, Chevrolet and the Chevrolet Corvette.
• 2: Overall VIR race wins for Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen – 2016 and 2017
• 2: Generations of Corvette Racing entries at VIR since 2012 – Corvette C6.R (2012-2013) and Corvette C7.R (2014-current).
• 3: Class wins at VIR for Corvette Racing, tied for the most among IMSA entrants. Tommy Milner and Oliver Gavin won in ALMS GT in 2012, and Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen won overall in 2016 and 2017.
• 7: Number of VIR victories for Chevrolet since 2002 covering both ALMS and the Rolex Series.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 223: Event starts by Corvette Racing since 1999.
• 4,208.49: Number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing in its six previous trips to Virginia International Raceway. That represents 1,111 laps or more than 16 trips from Tommy Milner’s home in Ashburn, Virginia to the track.
• 295,850.10: 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.
2019 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship – GTLM Standings (After Eight of 11 Events)
Driver Standings
1. Earl Bamber/Laurens Vanthoor – 248
2. Nick Tandy/Patrick Pilet – 234
3. Richard Westbrook/Ryan Briscoe – 230
4. Antonio Garcia/Jan Magnussen – 229
5. Dirk Mueller – 223
8. Oliver Gavin – 195
11. Tommy Milner – 147
Team Standings
1. No. 912 Porsche GT Team – 248
2. No. 911 Porsche GT Team – 234
3. No. 67 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing – 230
4. No. 3 Corvette Racing – 229
5. No. 66 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing – 223
8. No. 4 Corvette Racing – 195
Manufacturer Standings
1. Porsche – 269
2. Ford – 248
3. Chevrolet – 240
4. BMW – 237
Corvette Racing at Virginia International Raceway
2012
No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 8th in GT (Garcia fastest race lap)
No. 4 Corvette C6.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 1st in GT (Clinched ALMS GT title)
2013
No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 3rd in GT (Clinch GT team, manufacturer titles)
No. 4 Corvette C6.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 6th in GT
2014
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor – 7th in GTLM (Taylor replaced Magnussen – injury)
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 9th in GTLM
2015
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 6th in GTLM
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 8th in GTLM
2016
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 1st in GTLM (Magnussen pole)
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 9th in GTLM (Gavin fastest race lap)
2017
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 1st in GTLM
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 6th in GTLM
2018
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 2nd in GTLM
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 6th in GTLM
Gavin fifth in No. 4 C7.R as team gears for third VIR win four tries
CORVETTE RACING AT VIR: Front-Row Start for Magnussen, No. 3 Corvette
Gavin fifth in No. 4 C7.R as team gears for third VIR win four tries
ALTON, Va. (August 24, 2019) – Corvette Racing will start from the front row of the GT Le Mans (GTLM) grid Sunday for the Michelin GT Challenge at VIR following Jan Magnussen’s final lap flyer Saturday at Virginia International Raceway in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
Magnussen was second and Oliver Gavin fifth in the pair of Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C7.Rs. Magnussen, in the No. 3 Corvette, set a lap of 1:40.708 (116.892 mph) was only 0.078 seconds off overall pole-winner Laurens Vanthoor. Gavin’s last lap also was his best – 1:41.578 (115.890 mph) – and moved the No. 4 Corvette from seventh to fifth on the grid.
Even more remarkable was a 65-minute engine change before qualifying after the team discovered a potential fuel delivery issues after Saturday morning’s practice.
Sunday’s race is a critical one in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s GTLM title chase. Magnussen and teammate Antonio Garcia stand fourth in Drivers points and remain in the hunt for a third consecutive championship and fourth straight for the Corvette Racing program.
All four Corvette Racing drivers have claimed victories at VIR since the team’s first appearance there in 2012. Gavin and teammate Tommy Milner were winners that year in the GT class of the American Le Mans Series, and they clinched the class title that weekend.
Magnussen and Garcia won in both 2016 and 2017, and they were second last season.
The Michelin GT Challenge at VIR is August 23-25. Sunday’s two-hour, 40-minute race will air live on NBCSN and the NBC Sports App at 1:30 p.m. ET. Live audio coverage will be available on IMSA Radio, Sirius 138, XM 202 and SiriusXM Online 972.
JAN MAGNUSSEN, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R – QUALIFIED SECOND: “That was a super exciting and very tricky with the track drying. There was a full dry line but it was difficult to see where that line was in places. I was careful to work into it a little bit, but there was no holding back. It was absolutely as fast as you could go. There were no places where on-line there were no issues, but because that line was so narrow the slightest mistake would put you in a heap of trouble. So I’m very happy with the result. When you’re seven-hundredths of a second off and you look at the data afterward, you can find that somewhere! So that will irritate me until tomorrow but that’s how it is. We’ll start from the front row and see if we can get something good out of it tomorrow.”
OLIVER GAVIN, NO. 4 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R – QUALIFIED FIFTH: “It’s been a bit of frantic day for us. We had a last-minute engine change before qualifying. It was a great effort by everyone at Corvette Racing to complete that work in just over an hour so we could make qualifying. That was huge. We decided as a team to wait to go out a few minutes into qualifying, which I suppose was a little bit of our undoing and not being up there with Jan closer to the front. I was getting quicker and quicker each lap and basically ran out of time. It’s unfortunate; in these conditions you need every lap. We have saved the tires a little bit, which is a positive. Well done to Jan; that was a hell of a lap there for him at the end. It should be an interesting race tomorrow. It should be dry and we’re in a good spot.”
CORVETTE RACING AT VIRGINIA INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY: By the Numbers
• 1: As in one team, one manufacturer and one model of car for 20 years: Corvette Racing, Chevrolet and the Chevrolet Corvette.
• 2: Overall VIR race wins for Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen – 2016 and 2017
• 2: Generations of Corvette Racing entries at VIR since 2012 – Corvette C6.R (2012-2013) and Corvette C7.R (2014-current).
• 3: Class wins at VIR for Corvette Racing, tied for the most among IMSA entrants. Tommy Milner and Oliver Gavin won in ALMS GT in 2012, and Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen won overall in 2016 and 2017.
• 7: Number of VIR victories for Chevrolet since 2002 covering both ALMS and the Rolex Series.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 223: Event starts by Corvette Racing since 1999.
• 4,208.49: Number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing in its six previous trips to Virginia International Raceway. That represents 1,111 laps or more than 16 trips from Tommy Milner’s home in Ashburn, Virginia to the track.
• 295,850.10: 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.
2019 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship – GTLM Standings (After Eight of 11 Events)
Driver Standings
1. Earl Bamber/Laurens Vanthoor – 248
2. Nick Tandy/Patrick Pilet – 234
3. Richard Westbrook/Ryan Briscoe – 230
4. Antonio Garcia/Jan Magnussen – 229
5. Dirk Mueller – 223
8. Oliver Gavin – 195
11. Tommy Milner – 147
Team Standings
1. No. 912 Porsche GT Team – 248
2. No. 911 Porsche GT Team – 234
3. No. 67 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing – 230
4. No. 3 Corvette Racing – 229
5. No. 66 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing – 223
8. No. 4 Corvette Racing – 195
Manufacturer Standings
1. Porsche – 269
2. Ford – 248
3. Chevrolet – 240
4. BMW – 237
Corvette Racing at Virginia International Raceway
2012
No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 8th in GT (Garcia fastest race lap)
No. 4 Corvette C6.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 1st in GT (Clinched ALMS GT title)
2013
No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 3rd in GT (Clinch GT team, manufacturer titles)
No. 4 Corvette C6.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 6th in GT
2014
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor – 7th in GTLM (Taylor replaced Magnussen – injury)
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 9th in GTLM
2015
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 6th in GTLM
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 8th in GTLM
2016
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 1st in GTLM (Magnussen pole)
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 9th in GTLM (Gavin fastest race lap)
2017
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 1st in GTLM
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 6th in GTLM
2018
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 2nd in GTLM
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 6th in GTLM
