Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen retained their Driver’s Championship lead in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s GT Le Mans (GTLM) class Sunday with a fourth-place finish in the Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.
The duo and their No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C7.R improved three spots during the race from their seventh-place starting position thanks to another round of solid strategy and execution by the Corvette Racing crew and engineers. The result also kept Chevrolet in the Manufacturer’s Championship lead and the No. 3 Corvette first in Team points.
Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner were classified eighth in class after the No. 4 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C7.R was involved in heavy crash late the event. Milner went hard into the outside tires but walked away uninjured as the safety features in the Corvette did their job. He was evaluated and released from the infield medical center shortly thereafter.
Magnussen drove the opening hour in the No. 3 Corvette with he and Gavin line astern for their first stints. After a fairly uneventful opening hour and 50 minutes, the race’s first full course caution period gave way to a heavy shower on the back part of the 2.459-mile, 10-turn circuit. Garcia and Milner – by now in for double-stints to the end of the race – stayed out on dry tires, as did the rest of the GTLM field.
The track remained damp on the far side of the track for the better part of 20 minutes before the No. 4 Corvette’s incident with Milner running seventh and Garcia fifth. Another downpour with five minutes left caused another accident for a prototype car and a third full-course caution. The race ended under yellow.
The next event for Corvette Racing is the Northeast Grand Prix from Lime Rock Park on Saturday, July 22. The GT-only race is set for 3:05 p.m. ET with FOX Sports 2 airing the race live at 3 p.m. ET. Live audio coverage will be available from IMSA Radio via IMSA.com.
ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R – FOURTH IN GTLM: “There was the potential for third place, but on the other hand I’m glad we made it to the end without damage. It was very tricky and conditions were dreadful in the rain. With all the traffic and people going at it, it was difficult to stay on track. It’s a bit disappointing because we could have both Fords behind us, but that is racing. It’s a shame the No. 4 Corvette wasn’t there at the end. I’m glad Tommy is OK, though. We again proved that even though we had the slowest car we scored good points. We need to keep going, analyze our performance and find ways to improve. Let’s see if we can do that and come up with another win.”
JAN MAGNUSSEN, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R – FOURTH IN GTLM: “My stint was pretty uneventful apart from trying to navigate through traffic. The car is about what it was in qualifying with the same kind of balance. We may have been a little faster than the Fords but there was no way around them. It’s difficult; any time you get close to anyone here, you start losing performance. Hopefully our guys can come up with some interesting strategy and keep us ahead of the Fords.”
OLIVER GAVIN, NO. 4 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R – EIGHTH IN GTLM: “It’s disappointing to end like that. It was a nasty accident for Tommy. I’m very glad he is OK. Corvette Racing and Chevrolet focus so much on drive safety. Tommy couldn’t have been in a better and safer car than our Corvette. It’s a testament to the build of the C7.R and the chassis on the production car that Tommy was able to walk away.
“My stint at the start of the race OK… a bit of a challenge. It soon became clear that it would be our two Corvettes and the two Fords racing together. Jan and I tried to find a way through before they dove in early for the pits. Our car for my last 10 to 15 laps was very loose. When you add on the tires I did in qualifying with the ones I did in the race, the tires were well beyond their stint in life. I was trying to get it through to the end of the stint for Tommy. We were just flat out not fast enough.”
TOMMY MILNER, NO. 4 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R – EIGHTH IN GTLM: “This is never the way we’d like to end a race. I looked at the replay and it appears that the contact was due to three cars trying to occupy a space that was made for two cars. The competition in this series is very tight and, unfortunately, it is inevitable that these things will happen. The good news is that no one was injured. Corvette Racing will repair our Corvette C7.R in time for the next race, and we look forward to what we hope will be a better outcome.”
