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|  | | July 27 2014 09:35:53 PM EST | |
| This is the first time Corvette Racing has been to the Indianapolis road coarse. This is also the first year with the new configuration.
With the new BoP changes, qualifying was tough, although all 10 GTLM cars were within 0.859 seconds. The #3 Corvette took P6, and #4 was P10. The #3 was 0.2 seconds from pole.
QUALIFYING QUOTES:
Garcia (#3) stated, "We were two tenths off which I think I proved again that we took 100 percent out of what we had. So we have confidence toward the race. Anything can happen so we might be sixth, but we are only a tenth off second. It's very close out there. There is a lot to be gained or lost in traffic. I think that is where Corvette Racing will gain on everybody, and if we run a smart race we can go for a fifth victory."
Milner (#4) said, "It's first time here for us, and we obviously came here this weekend with some rules changes that were pretty much stacked against us. The No. 3 Corvette C7.R guys have been fast all year, qualifying up front. Now they can do no better than sixth. We are obviously on the back foot there, but I think we just missed it with the setup on our car. We were okay earlier today. We have been struggling all year a little bit with pace in our car. I think we got a little bit off plan with what we kind of set out to do this weekend. It seemed to work but I think it hurt us here in qualifying. It's so close in GTLM that if you have a bad session, that is it and you are at the back. It's not where you want to be, but the car seemed good in practice on old tires compared to our competitors. It seemed like we were quick. At least from last there is nowhere else to go but up. That is what I'm looking forward to tomorrow."
The race was no different. The Corvettes could keep pace with the GTLM pack but didn't have enough to make a pass, particularly without help from traffic.
Speaking of traffic, the #3 Corvette was spun by a GTD class Porsche 30 minutes into the race pushing them from 4th at the time to 10th. This is the 4th race in a row one of the Corvettes have had contact from another car on track.
Several cars did meet some attrition and made some mistakes. This helped the Corvettes and they ultimately finished 4th and 5th.
RACE QUOTES
Antonio Garcia: #3 Corvette C7.R
"Who knows... (without the contact) we may could have fought for the podium at the end. We've been fighting really hard the whole season to be up there. We were not necessarily the fastest but we did it by being smart. Today we had probably the slowest car out there and still managed to place fourth and fifth. I hope there will be a time where there will be a Corvette fight like we had except for P1 and P2. It was fun and really good but would be even better if it was for a win."
Jan Magnussen: #3 Corvette C7.R
"It was such a shame about the contact out there. I'm not sure what happened. I think the guy on the inside lost it and hit me, and spun me around. Up until then, the car was pretty decent. We were fighting with everybody. Traffic was really bad out there. It is really, really hard to do anything other than follow the guy ahead. I don't know if the car got damage, but it seemed we lost a little bit after the contact. We'll have to maximize our points score today. Hopefully we will have a better race at Road America."
Oliver Gavin: #4 Corvette C7.R
"I think we're gaining on the car. Chuck Houghton (No. 4 engineer) worked pretty hard on that overnight. Tommy drove a great first stint. It was pretty crazy there especially when Jan spun around, there was a lot of smoke everywhere and Tommy did a great job of missing that. When I got in, we knew it was going to be tough to the end fighting with Antonio. I had a little bit of a braking issue. I got balked up in traffic too on one lap and Antonio got by. This track makes for hectic and crazy racing. Both our cars finished with plenty of bumps and scraped. We certainly made some progress and it was good to get a good, solid fifth place with no problems. Onward to Road America to see what we can get there."
Tommy Milner: #4 Corvette C7.R
"That was a long stint but a lot of fun. Sometimes you are in the car for a long time, whatever that was, and you are racing nobody or anything, and it is boring. But that was the complete opposite of boring. That was chaos. It was just madness on the race track everywhere...every lap. There may have been three or four laps total that I did that were very calm. But it was a lot of fun. The car felt good, so the guys did a great job getting the car to where it needed to be for the race."
Interesting notes from the weekend:
-Porsche, which was allowed some BoP adjustments in their favor, were unable to make the changes in time for the Indy race, yet were arguably the strongest cars in the race. Despite one of the factory cars having engine failure and DNF.
-Corvette had the 3rd (#4 Gavin) and 8th (#3 Garcia) quickest race laps.
-Ferrari gained the most from the BoP adjustments, going from the slowest at Mosport to pole position at Indy and 2nd quickest race lap at Indy.
GTLM DRIVER/TEAM POINTS AFTER INDY
1. #3 Corvette (219pts)
2. #93 Viper (-13pts)
3. #55 BMW (-22pts)
4. #91 Viper (-24pts)
5. #4 Corvette (-27pts)
VIDEO: Indy Race Broadcast - Commercial Free
The next race is at Road America, Sunday August 10th, 6:30pm ET on FS1.
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