Corvette Racing final qualifying report

Corvette Racing aims for third GTS Le Mans victory
Thursday night qualifying session used for maximizing race-day setup

LE MANS, France -- The General Motors Chevrolet Corvette C5-R Racing team will start the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans race from the 24th and 26th positions on the 50-car grid, claiming the third and fifth best positions in the GTS field. The Corvette Racing team has never captured a pole position in its previous three years of competition at the Sarthe circuit, yet has won the GTS class for the past two. The team will rely on its time-tested machinery, efficient pit work and an experienced driver lineup in hopes of capturing three Le Mans victories in a row.

"We've been trying to maximize the setup on both our Corvettes to find the best balance of quickness and reliability for the race," said Steve Wesoloski, Corvette Racing's lead chassis engineer. "It seems that we've found a configuration that the drivers in our #53 Corvette are happy with and while our #50 team had a few attempts on qualifying tires, we got involved in a lot of traffic. We know we'll have a battle with the Ferraris and we are all looking forward to Saturday."

Thursday evening's pair of two-hour qualifying sessions represented the final time that teams were able to improve their starting positions for Saturday's race. Both sessions were marked by unclean track conditions and a number of incidents; the Corvettes experienced a few minor challenges with the #53 team changing their gearbox between sessions and the #50 car breaking a header pipe in the second session. Both Corvettes are confident they have found the best possible tire setup for Saturday's race.

Driver Quotes

Andy Pilgrim , #50 Corvette C5-R
"I had about ten timed laps today and five yesterday, which is fine for me in terms of preparedness. I feel ready, despite the fact that it's hard to really equate tonight's track condition with race day; everyone is pushing so hard to qualify and as a result the track is fairly dirty. Despite the broken header pipe on my last run, the car felt fine and I was happy to run 4:01 - 4:02 lap times in heavy traffic."

Ron Fellows , #53 Corvette C5-R driver
"Our engineers had us out chasing a chassis setup and although I was not initially happy with the way the car felt, we're going to be ready. I had possibly a bit too much oversteer on high-speed entry and I had to be a bit careful on a few corners. The track changes throughout the race and regardless of how good the track is right now it's not likely to be like that for 24 hours. Johnny and Franck and I can't wait for Saturday."

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