Jan Magnussen paced Corvette Racing’s qualifying efforts Friday at Circuit of The Americas with the sixth-best time in the GT Le Mans (GTLM) class of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship at Circuit of The Americas.
Ahead of Saturday’s Advance Auto Parts Sportscar Showdown, Magnussen set a best lap of 2:03.030 in the No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C7.R that he shares with Antonio Garcia. Magnussen’s starting position may not look promising but the gap to the head of the GTLM field is – just 0.197 seconds.
The entire GTLM category is separated by just 0.926 seconds. Tommy Milner, in the No. 4 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Corvette C7.R, was eighth in class and within 0.729 seconds of the front row in class. He will drive with Oliver Gavin.
Corvette Racing won at COTA in class during 2013, and it has two victories in the first three IMSA events of 2017. Garcia and Magnussen won at Sebring (with Mike Rockenfeller) and sit second in GTLM points. Gavin and Milner were winners last month at Long Beach and are the defending series champions in class.
Chevrolet ranks second in the GTLM Manufacturer’s championship and is one point from the lead heading into Saturday’s race.
The Advance Auto Parts Sportscar Showdown at Circuit of The Americas is set for 1:35 p.m. CT on Saturday, May 6. FOX Sports 1 will have television coverage beginning at 7 p.m. ET with live audio coverage from IMSA Radio available on IMSA.com.
JAN MAGNUSSEN, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R – QUALIFIED SIXTH IN GTLM: “Sixth is nothing to celebrate but the gap to the front is a lot less than what I feared we would be looking at here. Obviously it’s going to be a super-close race. All the cars are getting lap times in different places. But at the end, everyone is about the same. For the race, it should be interesting. Strategy will play a large role. I need to do my very best to hand over Antonio a 100 percent-ready race car. ”
Where Are You Making Your Time: “It’s difficult to say. We have been working on the setup of the Corvette in all three practices. We made some good steps in the right direction. I think especially here, the two cars have gone different directions on setup and we took the best of both to make it work. I was very happy with the No. 3 Corvette. I tried to make another late run but halfway through I could see I wasn’t going to improve. The tires had peaked. Overall I’m very happy. Sixth is where I thought we were going to be regardless, but the gap to the front is a lot less that I had thought.”
TOMMY MILNER, NO. 4 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R – QUALIFIED EIGHTH IN GTLM: “I’d rather be further up the grid but we just missed a little bit with the setup. We had a little too much understeer. I really only had a lap to get it done, which I didn’t know until that lap! It was an OK lap; you do tend to learn every lap you run so that’s good. We have a good handle on the car direction in which to go. The No. 4 Corvette is in the window… we just need to get it a little bit better balance-wise. Considering this track has never been great to us, I feel pretty good that we can make a couple of small changes to get us closer. Jan (Magnussen) had a good qualifying run and was within two-tenths of pole. That bodes well for the pace our two Corvettes. Every year here seems be close and competitive; we’ll make a couple changes be ready to go racing tomorrow.”
