GM Press Release: CORVETTE RACING AT WATKINS GLEN: Full Focus on Sunday’s Six Hours

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Press Release:

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CORVETTE RACING AT WATKINS GLEN: Full Focus on Sunday’s Six Hours
GTLM Championship co-leader Milner leads Corvette C7.R attack in GTLM qualifying

• Corvette Racing a 2014 class-winner at Watkins Glen
• Ricky Taylor second overall in Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette DP
• Chevrolet leads Prototype and GTLM Manufacturer championships

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. (July 2, 2016) – Corvette Racing will take its experience and success in endurance racing into Sunday’s Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen with the two Chevrolet Corvette C7.Rs on the third and fourth rows in the GT Le Mans (GTLM) class of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

Tommy Milner qualified the No. 4 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C7.R in the sixth position Saturday after a lap of 1:42.794 (119.0 mph) at the 3.4-mile, 11-turn road course. This weekend is the first race for the IMSA series on the freshly repaved surface, which combined with improved aero and downforce on the 2016-spec Corvette meant that Milner qualified 1.5 seconds faster than the team’s best effort in time trials two years ago. Last year’s qualifying was rained out.

Jan Magnussen qualified the No. 3/4 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C7.R eighth Saturday with a lap of 1:43.135 (118.6 mph). Two years ago, Magnussen and Antonio Garcia won in class during the team’s maiden race at The Glen and naturally the first here for the Corvette C7.R. This is Corvette Racing’s first race in North America since the 24 Hours of Le Mans two weeks ago and just its third appearance in the Sahlen’s Six Hours.

Gavin and Milner enter the weekend with the lead in the GTLM Driver’s Championship as well as the top spot in class points for the Tequila Patrón North American Endurance Cup. It is a four-event competition made up of the Rolex 24 At Daytona, Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, Sahlen’s Six Hours and the season-ending Petit Le Mans.

Already, Gavin and Milner have won at Daytona and Sebring this year, while Garcia and Magnussen are third in Endurance Cup points on the strength of a runner-up finish at Daytona.

In the Prototype category, Ricky Taylor was the fastest Corvette Daytona Prototype driver with a lap of 1:35.749 (128.0 mph) in the No. 10 Konica Minolta Corvette DP to qualify fourth. He and Jordan Taylor are tied for the Prototype Driver’s Championship lead and have won twice this season. They will reunite with Max Angelelli for Sunday’s race.

Christian Fittipaldi was sixth in Prototype for Action Express Racing in the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Corvette DP that he shares with Joao Barbosa. The pairing is tied with the Taylors in points and won at Watkins Glen in 2013.

Ryan Dalziel was next in the order in the Visit Florida Racing No. 90 VisitFlorida.com Corvette DP, which has won the last two years at The Glen. Dalziel was just ahead of Eric Curran in Action Express Racing’s No. 31 Whelen Engineering/Team Fox Corvette DP.

The Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen is scheduled for 10:10 a.m. ET on Sunday, July 3. It will air live on FOX Sports 1 starting at 10 a.m. ET 1 with audio coverage from IMSA Radio is available on IMSA.com.

CORVETTE RACING QUOTES
TOMMY MILNER, NO. 4 MOBIL 1/SIRIUS-XM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R – QUALIFIED SIXTH IN GTLM: “We’ve been seventh and eighth in practice most of the week and snuck up one position. It’s close between some of us, but there are other cars that have pretty impressive pace. Yes, we look at the lap times but we focus on ourselves mostly to make our car better. We’ve done that mostly this weekend. We didn’t test here so we’ve been trying different things with the setup and found something in the first practice that set us up really well for today and tomorrow. We’re making really good changes, and I think we can make another couple small ones to make the Corvette nicer to drive. I’m happy. I think Oliver is happy, and generally as a team we’re performing well. Our focus is on the race. Strategy, not making mistakes and having a good car for the whole race are massively important.”

JAN MAGNUSSEN, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SIRIUS-XM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R – QUALIFIED EIGHTH IN GTLM: “I think we got all we could out of the car. If we race well and use the right strategy, that can help us tomorrow. On pace, we won’t be able to do much. Qualifying was the first time we’ve been able to be out there by ourselves, do laps and fine-tune your driving. But it was about doing the one fast lap.”

CORVETTE DAYTONA PROTOTYPE QUOTE
RICKY TAYLOR, WAYNE TAYLOR RACING NO. 10 KONICA MINOLTA CORVETTE DP - QUALIFIED FOURTH IN PROTOTYPE: “We had a great car again. Our car at Watkins Glen is always good. We tested here and found some good information on our Corvette and the Continental tires. We were able to use that knowledge today to put ourselves up much higher in the field than we would have otherwise. The P2 cars seem to be in a different class, but we were able to put ourselves with them. It says a lot about our team and how we executed and applied what we learned in qualifying. We were going faster than we expected and burned more fuel than we thought. I maybe missed it a little bit on the last couple of laps but in the end I don’t think the result would have changed.”

 

[catbert]

I believe IMSA is ensuring the this will be the year of Ford vs Ferrari, and the BOP will be used to make certain that will happen. If another brand looks like it will ruin the 50th anniversary recreation of the epic 1964 battle, that brand will be BOPed. So, I won't be watching or attending The VIR and Atlanta races this year.

 

[Tuna]

IMSA did not update the "BoP" settings prior to the Glen - leaving them pretty much what they were before Le Mans, even though it was pretty obvious that the Ford GT and the Ferrari had the upper hand there. The Glen is a shorter track, so the difference in lap times didn't seem too bad and all the full course cautions kept Corvette Racing on the same lap. But, the Fords had the advantage. The BMW performance was close but, in the end, not close enough.

During the race, Gavin was interviewed and commented on how well the C7.R was running and that it was too bad they weren't running for the lead and probably would not all race.

BoP is supposed to stand for "Balance of Performance" and IMSA has telemetry on every car so they can track the differences. IMSA claims that their process is transparent to the competitors and that the competitors are happy with the process. That's a crock of S#$%.

BoP means something else to IMSA - it means balancing the "show" - I think. This year, the Ford GT is the show.

I'll be watching the IMSA website for BoP changes prior to the next race to see how they tweak things because I don't think Chevrolet or Porsche were very "happy" with the way things went at the Glen.

 

[catbert]

They didn't have to change the BOP. It was pretty much where they wanted it, with Ford and Ferarri out front.

I know they have to balance SOMETHING to have a show, but I wish they would balance horsepower and safety only. If HP is roughly even, then design, engineering and driving are the variables that make sense. Now THAT would be a race series.

 

[Tuna]

New BoP Table

IMSA must have got an ear full of complaints about the BoP crap at the Glen. They released a new BoP table for the GTLM cars yesterday - well ahead of any scheduled BoP adjustment timeline - stating that "On occasion, circumstances are presented, either unforeseen or otherwise extraordinary, in which strict application of the RULES may not achieve the Purpose. ....."

Basically, the Vettes and Porsches lose 10 Kg each while the Ford GT adds 15 Kg. The Vette gets a bigger intake restrictor and the GT has its turbo boost restricted for all RPM ranges.

The complete BoP bulletin is available here:

http://competitors.imsa.com/sites/d...wsc_16-31_gtlm_gtd_balance_of_performance.pdf

Full list of bulletins are here:
2016 IMSA Technical Bulletins | Competitors

 

[catbert]

IMSA must have got an ear full of complaints about the BoP crap at the Glen. They released a new BoP table for the GTLM cars yesterday - well ahead of any scheduled BoP adjustment timeline - stating that "On occasion, circumstances are presented, either unforeseen or otherwise extraordinary, in which strict application of the RULES may not achieve the Purpose. ....."

Basically, the Vettes and Porsches lose 10 Kg each while the Ford GT adds 15 Kg. The Vette gets a bigger intake restrictor and the GT has its turbo boost restricted for all RPM ranges.

The complete BoP bulletin is available here:

http://competitors.imsa.com/sites/d...wsc_16-31_gtlm_gtd_balance_of_performance.pdf

Full list of bulletins are here:
2016 IMSA Technical Bulletins | Competitors

I suspect IMSA had a rebellion on their hands. Maybe Corvette and the German brands threatened to park their cars.