Corvette Racing will go for its fourth consecutive class victory in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring on Saturday with its two Chevrolet Corvette C7.Rs line astern for the start of Saturday’s second round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
Friday’s GT Le Mans (GTLM) qualifying session at Sebring International Raceway saw defending race winner Antonio Garcia set the pace for Corvette Racing with a 156.588 (115.484 mph) in the No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C7.R that he shares with Jan Magnussen and Mike Rockenfeller – his partners in last year’s triumph.
Tommy Milner will start directly behind Magnussen on the grid in the No. 4 Corvette C7.R after his best lap of 1:56.900 (115.176 mph) in qualifying. He and teammates Oliver Gavin and Marcel Fässler won two years ago at Sebring in the No. 4 Corvette.
With Friday’s qualifying in the books, the stage is set for Corvette Racing to write another chapter in its extensive history at Sebring. The team has won 11 times in class at the 12 Hours – more than any other entrant in race history – including the last three seasons. Each victory was the result of execution and mistake-free races for each of the winning Corvettes to overcome ultimate qualifying pace.
Sebring also is one of three circuits at which Corvette Racing has appeared in its 19-plus seasons, and the program has logged more than 40,000 racing miles over the 3.7-mile, 17-turn road course.
Saturday’s race also will mark Corvette Racing’s 200th event start as it continues to celebrate its 20th season of competition.
The 66th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Advance Auto Parts is the second race of the 2018 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season and begins at 10:40 a.m. ET on Saturday, March 17. It will air on live on FOX Sports 1 starting at 10:30 a.m. ET with additional coverage across FOX Sports 2, FOX Sports Go and IMSA.com. Live audio coverage of practice, qualifying and the race from IMSA Radio is available on IMSA.com.
ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R: – QUALIFIED SEVENTH IN GTLM: “We may have stayed where we have been position-wise, but I think we closed the gap to the front quite a bit. The Corvette seems to be going in the right direction with still some things to come. I think, I hope, we still have tools and ideas to take what we have and continue to improve. In every session we made pretty big changes to try and find the path. I think we did find the right direction. We definitely still need to work and improve the car because it’s not how it should be. But a day like today makes you feel like we might have a chance. Maybe not a chance to win like last year but if we are close enough we can make things happen to get a good result. We need to improve a tiny bit more, close the gap a tiny bit more and see what tomorrow brings.”
TOMMY MILNER, NO. 4 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R – QUALIFIED NINTH IN GTLM: “We have struggled this weekend. Certainly we are using each session to learn something new from our Corvette – trying some new stuff. We are headed in the right direction for sure and making the cars drive nicer and getting closer to a car that we can drive for 12 hours. We are a little bit on the back foot, it seems, with the rest of the field. The best we can do is keep working hard on our car… things like analyzing everything we are doing and getting the best car that we can. In qualifying, that is best car we’ve had all weekend. In practice this morning, the car felt pretty good. We’ve made good gains this weekend. I’m sure we can make a couple more small adjustments for the race, but I think we are in a good place.”
