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|  | | April 24 2015 06:16:03 PM EST | Chris Draper |
| Long Beach is always a high risk race, but this 100 minute sprint provides the same points reward as the 24 and 12 hour races.
Corvette has traditionally never been the quickest cars at Long Beach, but have won many times before. In 2014 the #3 Corvette drove away with a win by getting by a slower prototype car at the start and created a gap between the rest of the field. In 2015 IMSA changed the rules and not have the prototypes and GTs start separately. This did not favor the Corvettes and allowed the faster Ferrari and BMWs to pull away from the rest of the GT pack.
The #4 Corvette, driven by Oliver Gavin at the time, was spun by one of the Porsches near the start of the race. No major damage was done to the car, but crucial time was lost and the #4 was never able to regain any higher than 7th place.
The #3 Corvette, driven by Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia ran a flawless race and were able to come home with a 3rd place podium finish, despite their lack of pace to the front runners.
ANTONIO GARCIA
"We had a very clean run. The pace we showed is what we had. Jan had on to the lead cars in the initial 40 minutes. I could see at the end of his stint he was starting to struggle, and I knew I had to go 20 minutes longer in my stint. After a great pit stop by the Corvette Racing crew - the driver change and the service went really smooth - I found myself in third position and could challenge the second-place BMW. For about 10 laps I had the pace but I think I probably killed my tires trying to overtake him. I suffered with understeer and decided there was still a long way to go and I couldn't really follow them. From that point on, we had to think about the championship, too. Coming out with third-place is good for Chevrolet and Corvette Racing in the championship. We just need to carry on and keep that momentum that we have."
JAN MAGNUSSEN
"For the pace we had today, a podium is absolutely a fantastic result. It's good points. We didn't really have enough to go for a win. To come through third today though is a great finish for Chevrolet and the team for the championship. I was quite happy with the car. It got pretty slippery in my stint. Maybe we were running a little higher tire pressures. It was pretty hard to hold off the Porsche. He took four new tires for the race… took a penalty for it but still caught me up and gave me a hard time. I didn't really have the speed to stay with the BMWs and Ferrari."
OLIVER GAVIN
"I was on the inside and we all ran out of room. Our race was shaped by the contact with the Porsche and being turned around. It was very disappointing. Once again we had a good car and a very fast car. It's just immensely frustrating again. But we will move on to Laguna Seca and try to gain some positive momentum."
TOMMY MILNER
"This is one of those races where you need to race hard right from the start, and we did that although maybe a little too hard, unfortunately. That's just racing at Long Beach. You have to race hard here. You dont want to make contact. But the car had just superficial damage. We can change that, move on to Laguna Seca and get a better result there."
VIDEO: 2015 Long Beach - Qualifying
VIDEO: 2015 Long Beach - Race
PHOTOS: Photo Gallery of the 2015 LBGP Weekend |
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