Corvette drivers reflect on pleasure and pain at Lime Rock
The mood in the Corvette Racing team was split between happiness and disappointment following the seventh round of the 11-race IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship at Lime Rock Park.
#3 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C7.R: Antonio Garcia, Jan Magnussen
Michael Tan
The #3 Corvette C7.R drivers Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen finished fourth and ahead of their principal rivals in the GT Le Mans point standings, and Garcia scored a bonus point for fastest lap.
He fought hard with Martin Tomczyk’s BMW M6 in the closing stages, but admitted afterward, he was thinking of the championship battle and didn’t push as hard as he might have done.
“The points situation was in my mind at the end,” he commented. “I fought hard to get by the #24 car but I also knew that wasn’t the car we are fighting in the championship. There were some moments where he cut me off late and almost spun himself out. Luckily nothing happened.
“Their car for sure was out of tires at the end and the car was very wide. The way the strategy worked, we had better tires on lighter fuel. A podium was possible but we did all we could.”
By contrast the #4 Corvette, which Oliver Gavin shares with Tommy Milner, finished only eighth after twice being taken behind the pitwall for repairs. Around 30mins into the race, Milner slapped into the Ford GT of Dirk Muller, spinning around both himself and his rival.
Said Milner: “I’m pretty disappointed to have another race where we don’t finish. It would be nice for us to have a clean race here for once.
“It looked like the Ford checked up earlier than I expected; I tried whatever I could to not hit him but that probably caused more problems. I’m sorry for those guys. I never want to be involved in an accident like that and take somebody else out of the race.
“Looking at the data, I was slower than I had been going in there. But that’s racing. We’re trying to make split-second decisions. Most of the times they are the right ones, but every now and then they’re the wrong ones.”
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