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Magnussen third, Gavin fifth in tight GT Le Mans battle
BOWMANVILLE, Ontario, Canada (July 7, 2018) – Corvette Racing will start third and fifth with its pair of Chevrolet Corvette C7.Rs for the Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park following an incredibly close GT Le Mans qualifying session Saturday.
The reigning GT Le Mans (GTLM) championship-winning program will go for its 12th class victory at the historic 2.459-mile, 10-turn layout Sunday. It will mark Corvette Racing’s fifth event in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship this season.
Jan Magnussen qualified third in the No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C7.R that he will share with Antonio Garcia. Magnussen, who has five of his six CTMP victories with Corvette Racing, set a best time of 1:13.934 (119.733 mph) and finished within 0.417 seconds of pole-winner Nick Tandy.
Magnussen and Garcia are coming off a runner-up GTLM finish at Watkins Glen a week ago. They won together at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in 2014 during the first year of the Corvette C7.R.
Oliver Gavin was fifth in the No. 4 Chevrolet Corvette at 1:14.080 (119.465 mph) that he drives with Tommy Milner. Gavin sought his fourth career pole at CTMP. He and Milner won together at the track in 2013 in the final year of the Corvette C6.R.
Saturday’s qualifying results should put both Corvette Racing entries in good shape to improve their championship standings. Garcia and Magnussen sit third and only four points from first place while Gavin and Milner are 10 points back in sixth place. The Manufacturer Championship is just as close with Chevrolet only five points out of the lead.
The Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix begins at 2:05 p.m. ET. Same-day television coverage will air at 4 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1 with the FOX Sports Go app showing the race live. Streaming in-car footage along with live audio coverage of practice, qualifying and the race from IMSA Radio is available on IMSA.com.
JAN MAGNUSSEN, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R – QUALIFIED THIRD IN GTLM:
“I’m quite happy. This is as fast as we have ever been here, so obviously we have made good progress. It’s super-tight, with the exception of the pole-sitter; he was three-tenths ahead and everyone else is just about the same. Third is a good starting point for the race. Hopefully we can have a good start and make something happen. I was very happy with the car. I did more laps in qualifying than ideally I like to because I knew I was just on the other side of the peak of the tire. I could still kind of massage a little bit to improve a little. But I’m happy with P3 and all the work the guys have done on the car – Kyle (Millay, engineer), Dan (Binks, crew chief) and the rest of the crew. We’ll go to the race and see if we can get the most points.”
OLIVER GAVIN, NO. 4 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R – QUALIFIED FIFTH IN GTLM:
“Right at the start, it looked like we had a good car. Tire performance was there almost immediately, but I think I might have gone a bit too hard on the tire too soon. We may also have missed it slightly on the pressures as well, so everything maybe grew a bit too quickly in terms of tire pressure and how the tire performed. There was a small communication on the radio on some bits and pieces, so it wasn’t a completely clean and straightforward qualifying session. But it was very close. We’ll work hard at it and look at the data to try and tune up the car a little more. We are definitely close and in the hunt. It’s a real battle. If you take the pole-winning car away, you see that everyone else is pretty well right there together. So that’s encouraging. It will come down to execution, and that’s what this team is so good at.”
