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6 Hours
Routine Race So Far for Corvette Racing; Safety Cars Play Key Role in First Quarter of Race
LE MANS, France, June 13, 2009 – A quartet of Corvettes took control of the GT1 class in the first six hours of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The No. 63 Compuware Corvette C6.R of Jan Magnussen, Johnny O'Connell, and Antonio Garcia has led from the start at 3 p.m., completing 88 laps at the six-hour mark. The No. 64 Compuware Corvette C6.R of Oliver Gavin, Olivier Beretta, and Marcel Fassler was second in the GT1 class, 2 minutes and 6 seconds behind its sister car. The No. 73 and No. 72 Corvette C6.Rs of Luc Alphand Aventures were third and fourth respectively with 86 laps completed.
The first quarter of the race was routine for the Corvette Racing squad, with scheduled pit stops for fuel, tires, and driver changes. Luck was not with the No. 64 Corvette, however. In two full-course caution periods, the safety cars split the factory team cars, twice giving the No. 63 an advantage in track position. (Race officials deploy two safety cars on the immense 8.4-mile circuit; in both instances, the No. 63 was in the queue behind the first car, and the No. 64 in the line behind the second.)
The Corvette Racing team is double-stinting both its Michelin tires and its drivers in this 24-hour endurance race. GT1 pole winner Magnussen started in the No. 63 Corvette and ran to the 1:40 mark. O'Connell replaced Magnussen, and was in turn replaced by Garcia at 3:25. Gavin started in the No. 64 Corvette, and was replaced by Beretta at 1:37. Fassler then took over from Beretta at 3:22 into the race.
The No. 64 Corvette had just made its first fuel stop when the first safety car period began after 42 minutes of racing. The No. 63 was then able to pit under caution and come out behind the first safety car, resulting in a lead of more than a minute. In the ebb and flow of the race over the next three hours, the No. 64 pulled to within 20 seconds of its class-leading teammate. After the second caution period at the 4:38 mark again separated the two Corvettes, the No. 63 emerged with a lead of 2 minutes and 7 seconds when racing resumed.
CORVETTE RACING QUOTES:
Jan Magnussen, No. 63 Compuware Corvette C6.R: “It was okay out there, no real problems to report. The tires became a bit of a handful in the second part of the second stint, upsetting the balance of the car, so the team lowered the rear a bit at the pit stop. We’ll just keep making adjustments as we go and we should have a perfect car by nightfall.”
Johnny O’Connell, No. 63 Compuware Corvette C6.R: “It’s hard work; the 64 Corvette seems to be a bit better than ours. For now we’re sliding at the front and the rear and the engineers are working on this to make our life a bit more comfortable. As for the traffic, the flagging is not as aggressive as it used to be, so sometimes we get caught out by an LMP car, but most of these guys know what they’re doing anyway. There were a few close calls with some GT2 cars, but no real big worries. The main thing now is to make the car more comfortable.”
Antonio Garcia, No. 63 Compuware Corvette C6.R: “It wasn’t too bad, all things considered. It seems we struggle a bit more with the tires than the 64 Corvette, and since we do two stints on the same set I took it easy in the beginning to see what was left in them in the second part. I therefore didn’t overdrive the tires because I didn’t know what to expect in the second stint. Then the safety car came out and I pitted for fuel only just five laps into my second stint, meaning I now had to do two stints and a half on the same set. So I decided to settle for a comfortable rhythm, learning about the car and the tires. Knowing now how they handle, I can start my next stint at a higher, more aggressive rhythm. Traffic is also very bad. Maybe it’s because I was in with all the other third drivers, but some of the GT2 and LMP2 cars are really rather unpredictable in their approach to faster cars.”
Oliver Gavin, No. 64 Compuware Corvette C6.R: "You have to roll with the way the safety cars work at Le Mans. It's such a large track that it requires two safety cars, and it was just pure bad luck that we had pitted and the No. 63 Corvette was just coming in for its pit stop. I had to run over quite a lot of debris, and it was fortunate that I didn't get a puncture. The guys were monitoring the tire pressure sensors, so that's reassuring.
"The first stint was reasonably relaxed. I think Jan and I were both being cautious because we're double-stinting the tires and we wanted to see how they were doing. The car is understeering more than it did in the morning warm-up because the track is quite different now. It looks like we have a very strong and competitive car that can race everyone in the class, including our teammates. I just hope that the safety car doesn't decide the race – I really don't think it will, but stranger things have happened."
Olivier Beretta, No. 64 Compuware Corvette C6.R: "It was a good stint, but I had a lot of traffic at the wrong places, but this is racing. We had really bad luck with the safety car at the beginning of the race – it's like starting the race two minutes after everyone. It's just pure bad luck, and I couldn't believe it, but the race is very long.
"Although it's very warm outside, the GM people have done a wonderful job with the air conditioning. This is my 14th time at Le Mans, and the car is quite comfortable. I was conservative with the Michelin tires on my first stint, and the tires were very consistent in my second stint."
Marcel Fassler, No. 64 Compuware Corvette C6.R: "It was a good run until I went through the gravel in the chicane on the straight in my second stint. Maybe I didn't recognize that the grip level of the tires had started to change by that time. It was a mistake, and a warning for me to keep the car on the track like I did in the beginning and the end of my stint."
12 Hours
LE MANS
, France, June 14, 2009 -- After 12 hours of racing in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Corvette Racing's Corvette C6.Rs were running like clockwork, separated by 1 minute and 59 seconds. At 3 a.m., the No. 63 Compuware Corvette C6.R of Jan Magnussen, Johnny O'Connell and Antonio Garcia maintained its lead in the GT1 class over the No. 64 Compuware Corvette C6.R driven by Oliver Gavin, Olivier Beretta and Marcel Fassler. The class-leading Corvette had completed 177 laps at the halfway point of the race.
As darkness fell on the Circuit de La Sarthe, the rhythm of the race settled into a quiet routine for Corvette Racing, punctuated by 14 pit stops by each of the cars. At the 8:19 mark, the No. 64 Corvette had a tire puncture. Beretta nursed the car to the pits safely, and went on to complete three stints. As a result of Beretta's triple, the two Corvettes are now out of sequence on driver changes.
"Unfortunately I had a puncture and had to really slow down because I didn't want the tire to fail," Beretta said. "I took care of the car, and said to myself, 'Okay, that's the third and last time we've had bad luck in this race.' I didn't give up, and kept pushing. I didn't want to give the car to my teammate with old tires, so I decided to run one more stint. Maybe that will pay off at the end because we will have one less driver change."
Nightfall brought cool temperatures to Le Mans. "We've been working through the transition from 110-degree to 65-degree track temperatures over the last few hours, with pressure adjustments for each new tire set and a tire compound change," said Corvette Racing engineering director Doug Louth. "The car engineers have been spot-on so far keeping up with the track and conditions. The double-stint performance is the best we've ever had, and we are exploiting the tire development done by Michelin over the last few years."
Corvettes are running 1-2-3 in the GT1 class, with the No. 73 Corvette C6.R of Luc Alphand Aventures trailing the leading Corvette by four laps. Luc Alphand's No. 72 Corvette retired in the eighth hour after a shunt in Tertre Rouge, having completed 99 laps.
CORVETTE RACING QUOTES:
Jan Magnussen, No. 63 Compuware Corvette C6.R: "The traffic at night is worse than in previous years. The car is good, but on the medium compound tires it moves around quite a bit. Other than that, no problems to report."
Johnny O'Connell, No. 63 Compuware Corvette C6.R: "This double stint was a bit better. The car's certainly nicer to drive. I was on hard tires, but we should go for mediums for my 3:30 a.m. stint."
Antonio Garcia, No. 63 Compuware Corvette C6.R: "The second stint was much better. The tires were far better and the car was much nicer to drive. The traffic was still difficult at times, but overall it was a much nicer stint, even if it was after midnight."
Oliver Gavin, No. 64 Compuware Corvette C6.R: "It's frustrating, it seems we've got a car now that has a lot of understeer. You can do one good stint on the tires, but having to do two stints, we're compromised in the second stint. Something seems to be vibrating in the front of the car, perhaps the floor under the engine, so the guys are looking at what the next step might be to repair that or adjust around it. It's frustrating that we lost more than two minutes again with a safety car period not going our way. But this race is all about jumping over hurdles and going on to the next thing."
Marcel Fassler, No. 64 Compuware Corvette C6.R: "The night stint was a little more difficult than I expected. Normally I do quite well in the night, but with all of the P1 and P2 cars I had a lot of traffic and was out of my rhythm a little bit. The car is running very well, and my lap times were always below four minutes, so everything is okay."
18 Hours
LE MANS, France, June 14, 2009 -- The battle in GT1 between Corvette Racing's two Corvette C6.Rs has been waged for 18 straight hours in Le Mans. With less than six hours of racing remaining, the margin between the Corvettes closed to 4.87 seconds after both cars had completed their pit stops around the 18-hour mark. Since sunrise, the gap between the leading No. 63 Compuware Corvette C6.R of Magnussen, O'Connell, and Garcia and the pursuing No. 64 Compuware Corvette C6.R of Gavin, Beretta and Fassler scarcely exceeded two minutes except during pit stop exchanges. The Corvettes were 14th and 15th overall respectively in the 55-car field.
Both Corvettes came through the long hours of darkness without incident. Pit stops for fuel, tire, and driver changes were routine; drivers and tires both ran double stints. Although rain was predicted, the sky above the Circuit des 24 Heures had only a light overcast at dawn. In the cool morning air, Oliver Gavin ran the quickest lap of the race in GT1 with a 3:53.416 time in the No. 64 Corvette C6.R after 17 hours of racing.
An extended caution period that began in the 13th hour again affected the contest between the two Corvettes. The No. 63 Corvette gained track position on its sister car
when they were split by the two safety cars.
The No. 73 Corvette C6.R of Luc Alphand Aventures was in position for a podium finish, running third with 254 laps completed.
CORVETTE RACING QUOTES:
Johnny O'Connell, No. 63 Compuware Corvette C6.R: "The tires are getting better and better, and so is the car. It's still hard work out there. I double-stinted again, but I have some serious aches in my leg and feet."
Oliver Gavin, No. 64 Compuware Corvette C6.R: "We made an adjustment and that certainly helped the car. We made up a little time on the No. 63 Corvette, but then the safety car came out and we ended up losing all of the time that we'd made up. So it seems that every few hours we get reset back to two minutes behind the other car and then we have to try to chase them down again.
"When I went out again, it was in the 'happy hour' when the circuit is at its best. It's cool, the circuit is rubbered up, and you can see because it's light. The car was really good, with just some small balance problems in a few areas. We had the medium tires on, and that compound worked really well. I could push hard, and knew that I was catching the No. 63 Corvette. When I refueled and went back out, a lap later they came out right in front of me. I thought finally something was working out for us and we're managing to make some real headway. We have a fast car, and deserve to get a result today. We'll see what happens in the next few hours."
Marcel Fassler, No. 64 Compuware Corvette C6.R: "The car was very good and I could run consistently. There were no problems, and we gained a little on the No. 63 Corvette. I hope there won't be any more safety cars!"
24 Hours
Chevrolet Team Scores Sixth Victory in Legendary Endurance Race
LE MANS, France, June 14, 2009 -- Corvette Racing brought down the curtain on the GT1 era with a victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Johnny O'Connell, Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia scored Corvette Racing's sixth class victory in the world's biggest sports car race with the No. 63 Compuware Corvette C6.R. The winning Corvette completed 342 laps, racing to a six-lap margin of victory over the No. 73 Luc Alphand Aventures Corvette C6.R of Yann Clairay, Julien Jousse and Xavier Maassen. The No. 64 Compuware Corvette C6.R of Oliver Gavin, Olivier Beretta, and Marcel Fassler retired from the lead in the 22nd hour with an apparent gearbox problem.
Today's win was Corvette Racing's 16th podium finish at Le Mans since 2000. It was the fourth Le Mans class win for O'Connell and Magnussen, and the second consecutive Le Mans GT1 victory for Garcia. O'Connell became the first American driver to win four class titles in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
"When you look at the Americans who have won here multiple times, they're all important figures in motorsports history," O'Connell said. "To achieve my fourth win with Corvette Racing, driving a sports car that's an American icon, it's hard to put that into words. There is nothing more difficult and more rewarding than winning here, and sharing it with two awesome drivers like Jan and Antonio."
The two Corvettes waged a fierce battle throughout 22 of the 24 hours, never separated by more than one lap. The pole-winning No. 63 Corvette C6.R led from the start for 18 hours and 52 minutes. Beretta then put the No. 64 Corvette C6.R in front, passing Garcia on a restart following a safety car period. Garcia regained the lead at 19:23 when Beretta pitted; the No. 64 was back at the front following a pit stop for O'Connell to replace Garcia. The 21st hour saw an intense duel between O'Connell and Fassler with the cars dicing around the entire 8.47-mile circuit.
"It was a great race, but a shame that the No. 64 Corvette was not there at the finish," said Garcia. "We raced really, really hard for 22 hours. We were racing fair, and we were all going 100 percent. The full stint I did fighting with Olly after the safety car came in was great."
At 21:36, Fassler radioed the crew that he was experiencing shifting problems. The gearbox problem intensified, and the car was stranded near the pit lane entrance when it lost drive to the rear wheels. In contrast, the No. 63 Corvette had a trouble-free run throughout the grueling 24-hour race, making 32 pit stops and never going into the garage for repairs. O'Connell and Garcia drove the closing stints in the race when Magnussen became ill.
"It was a good fight," said Fassler. "Sure it was difficult to race your teammate hard, but when we went out of the chicane he was really fair and he left me space. I enjoyed leading the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and I came very close to reaching one of the goals I want to achieve in my life. I was only two hours away, but suddenly I smelled some gearbox oil. Then something broke quickly before I could get back to the pits. I was very disappointed for the whole team and my teammates. All of them did a really good job. There were no mistakes, and they deserved a victory as well. In the end, it's important for Corvette Racing that they have a Le Mans win with the No. 63 Corvette, and I have to congratulate them because it was a tough fight."
This race marked the end of the GT1 era for Corvette Racing that began in 1999. Since then, Corvette Racing has become America's premier production sports car team, winning 77 races and eight consecutive American Le Mans Series championships.
"When you look at all aspects of the close of the GT1 category as we know it today, it is an unequivocal testament to the commitment of a corporation that recognizes the value of motorsports from a marketing and technological perspective," said Corvette Racing program manager Doug Fehan. "It's also representative of all the people who have been here since the beginning, who dedicated themselves to taking Corvette forward. At the end of the day, today's victory is emblematic of what American teamwork and American spirit is about."
Corvette Racing will make the move to the GT2 category in its next event, the Acura Sports Car Challenge at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio, on August 6-8. The two-hour, 45-minute race is scheduled to start at 2:10 p.m. ET on Saturday, August 8. The race will be televised same-day tape-delayed on NBC at 4 p.m. ET.
CORVETTE RACING QUOTES:
Jan Magnussen, No. 63 Compuware Corvette C6.R: "Four Le Mans wins feels absolutely great. My role in this one was for only half the race. I really have to thank Johnny and Antonio for working so hard during the last half of the race. Also a special mention to my crew chief Dan Binks. Standing on the victory podium at Le Mans is just amazing, and I hope that we can carry on."
Johnny O'Connell, No. 63 Compuware Corvette C6.R: "Winning at Le Mans is hard because it's all about pushing as hard as you can while being perfect with your technique and taking care of the car. I think the three of us did that, even when we were wiped out and tired. The guys in the No. 64 Corvette might have had a little more mid-corner grip than us, so we had to push every minute. When you do that, sometimes you make mistakes, but the No. 63 finished the race as pretty as it started it.
Antonio Garcia, No. 63 Compuware Corvette C6.R: "I'll tell you tomorrow when I wake up what it means to win Le Mans twice. This is my third 24-hour race win a row -- I won Le Mans last year and Daytona 24 this year. I cannot ask for anything else. Corvette Racing gave me a car and a crew that worked perfectly, and I really appreciate it. During the night and this morning, I was up to my best. That's what a proper team needs to be -- everyone giving 100 percent."
Oliver Gavin, No. 64 Compuware Corvette C6.R: "It didn't seem to matter what we did today, it was something just ready to trip us up, whether it was punctures or safety cars or this gearbox problem. I think that Olivier, Marcel and myself had driven well throughout the race, and it was going to be extremely close at the finish. It was going to come down two cars racing at the end of the race, which is quite unusual here at Le Mans. I really thought we had a great shot at it today, after we kept clawing back and finally pulled away, but then the final card played by Lady Luck was all bad luck. It's desperately disappointing."
Olivier Beretta, No. 64 Compuware Corvette C6.R: "The car was good, then I had a puncture and my car was starting to be difficult, so they called me in and changed the tire. On the restart, I made the pass on the No. 63 Corvette before the Ford chicane. There was a lot of confusion and I just put the throttle flat on the floor.
"It seemed like we were racing against the pace car all day. We'd lose two minutes, catch back up, and then lose two minutes again. The team did a very good job, we never gave up, and what happened today is just part of racing. We are professionals and have to accept it -- but to be honest, you have to be disappointed when you push hard and don't win."
Doug Louth, Corvette Racing Engineering Director: "It was easy to stay awake this morning because there was a lot happening. It couldn't have been any closer between the two Corvettes -- if they had both run to the finish, it would have come down to the wire. There were a lot of possible scenarios with pit stops and tires. Unfortunately that didn't happen, but Corvette C6.Rs finished first and second."
Dan Binks, Crew Chief, Corvette C6.R No. 63: "Winning Le Mans is so unbelievable that I can't even talk about it. All of the people here worked their butts off, and we're just the guys who show up at the track. There are dozens of guys back in the shop working on this stuff."