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Milner third, Garcia fourth in Corvette C7.Rs ahead of steamy Sahlen’s Six Hours
WATKINS GLEN, New York (June 30, 2018) – Both Tommy Milner and Antonio Garcia made their final laps in Corvette Racing’s Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C7.Rs count Saturday in qualifying for the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen. The Corvette Racing teammates filled out the second row in the GT Le Mans (GTLM) category for Sunday’s round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
Tommy Milner was third-fastest in GTLM with a lap of 1:42.365 (119.572 mph) in the No. 4 Corvette C7.R, which he shares with Oliver Gavin. Milner’s final pass around the 3.4-mile, 11-turn road course moved him from sixth to third and within 0.417 seconds of the class pole-winning entry.
Not long after Milner clicked off his best lap, Antonio Garcia went to fourth in the No. 3 Corvette C7.R with a lap of 1:42.497 (119.418 mph). That came after a spin early in the session for Garcia at the Bus Stop chicane. It left the Corvette with relatively harmless damage, and after some feedback from team engineers and feeling out the handling of the car, Garcia pressed on. Garcia and teammate Jan Magnussen were winners at Watkins Glen in 2014 with the No. 3 Corvette.
Saturday’s results marked Corvette Racing’s best-combined qualifying showing at The Glen since the team made its WGI debut in 2014. The top six GTLM cars were within 0.667 seconds with only 0.25 seconds covering third through sixth.
The on-track competition won’t be the only thing that Corvette Racing will fight Sunday. Record-breaking temperatures will approach 100F, which will put incredible stress on the drivers along with the pit crews and engineers.
The Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen is the start of a critical three-race stretch in four weeks for Corvette Racing, which is seeking to defend its GTLM championships in America’s premier sports car series. Both Corvette C7.Rs will run in a special patriotic livery this weekend ahead of Independence Day. For the past 20 years, Corvette Racing has been proud to field an American team from an American manufacturer with an American sports car.
The Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen will air live at 9:30 a.m. ET on FOX Sports 1 and the FOX Sports Go app. Streaming in-car footage along with live audio coverage of practice, qualifying and the race from IMSA Radio is available on IMSA.com.
Corvette Racing at Watkins Glen: Second-Row Sweep in GTLM Qualifying
TOMMY MILNER, NO. 4 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R – QUALIFIED THIRD IN GTLM:
“That feels like a pole position with how the lap came about there. It was pretty difficult to start with on the run with a little bit of a balance issue. I don’t know if it was knowing it was the last lap, but the balance came to me just a little bit. Maybe it went too far the other way in some sense, but I looked at the lap predictor coming out of the Carousel, and it was good. That gave me a little extra motivation to keep pushing and not make a mistake. We still have some work to do in thinking about the car and making it last in heat. But yes… third place is a great place to start from for us.”
ON LONG RUNS: “The conditions from when we did our long runs in practice was when it was not quite as hot as it will be Sunday, so it’s a bit of an unknown. Looking at our competitors, the two cars ahead of us look quite strong. We have spent a lot of time thinking about long-run pace and getting an idea about where we may stand.”
ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R – QUALIFIED FOURTH IN GTLM:
“That was lucky! I didn’t give up saving the car until I touched the wall. We don’t exactly know what the damage is, but I thought it was game over. But our engineers said everything look good, and it felt OK to me once I was rolling again. It definitely compromised things a little bit because I wasn’t quite as confident and I didn’t want to do that again. But our car is very strong. Being on the second row with both our Corvettes is very decent compared to past years. We will hope for a good race tomorrow. I think we can be strong.”
RACE OUTLOOK: “Other than the off in qualifying, we have run solidly through all our practice plans. The car is good. The conditions we were have been running in are difficult, and the conditions tomorrow will be even worse. We are doing what we need to do to prepare for the race. We are in a good spot for tomorrow.”
