CORVETTE RACING AT SEBRING: Halfway Report
CORVETTE RACING AT SEBRING: Halfway Report
Team going for 12th class victory since 1999 at 12 Hours
SEBRING, Fla. (March 17, 2018) – Corvette Racing entered the second half of the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Advance Auto Parts well positioned for a shot at its fourth consecutive class victory in America’s oldest sports car race.
The No. 4 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C7.R of Oliver Gavin, Tommy Milner and Marcel Fässler took the GT Le Mans (GTLM) lead right at the four-hour mark after starting ninth in the category, and the 2016 Sebring class winners remained among the front-runners past the halfway mark.
Corvette Racing has 11 victories at Sebring in 19 attempts with this year’s running the 20th start for the program at the 12 Hours.
Defending Sebring class winners Antonio Garcia, Jan Magnussen and Mike Rockenfeller – in the No. 3 Corvette – were several laps down following an opening-lap punctured tire and visits to the garage to solve electrical and steering problems in the first six hours.
JAN MAGNUSSEN, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R: "This is Sebring for you. When things are great around here, man they are so great. But when they are like they are today, boy is it a long day. Our guys have worked hard so we can go back out. We will drive to the end and take whatever we can take. Right now it is just about salvaging one or two more points if we can. It’s not what we came here for, but it is what we have."
OLIVER GAVIN, NO. 4 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R: "It’s been a tough battle to get ourselves toward the front. I felt that we had been making a bit of progress with the car. We caught a good break when Chuck (Houghton, No. 4 race engineer) radioed in for me to pit just before a full-course yellow. Once things cycled through, we came away in the lead. It seemed like we cycled through a number of cautions and could never get going. Once we did, I had a good battle with Patrick Pilet (No. 911 Porsche) right at the restart. We were very even for a number of laps there. It’s encouraging. We have pretty good pace, even though there is some imbalance in the car. We can dial that out, I think, with an adjustment. It’s all about getting the car right for the night. We’ve kept it clean and haven’t had any issues so far. There’s still plenty of racing to go."
TOMMY MILNER, NO. 4 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R: "It’s been a good start to the race for us. The car is running well and we’ve not had any problems so far. We seem to just hang on to the back of the GTLM pack. This time of the day is the worst as far as track temperatures, grip levels and things like that. You have to survive through this window while the track is hot and greasy without making mistakes. The goal is to get to the later hours and see where you are.
"As we’ve done in the past when one of our cars have had issues ad is out of the running, we’ll experiment a little bit with tire choices and see if that helps us going forward. At the moment, our focus is to get everyone in the car and see if we can’t make something happen here."
MARCEL FÄSSLER, NO. 4 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R: "The first stint was really tricky because we had a huge tire drop-off already from when I got in the car. We adjusted tire pressures a little bit which was very helpful. It was also tricky with the traffic and it is easy to lose a lot. Sometimes you get pushed to the dirt and then it takes time to get the tires cleaned off."Corvette Racing high in the championship. We started well in Daytona so expect to do the same here."
2018 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship – GTLM Standings (After One of 11 Events)
| Driver Standings | Team Standings | Manufacturer Standings |
| 1. Westbrook/Briscoe/Dixon – 35 2. Mueller/Hand/Bourdais – 32 3. Garcia/Magnussen/Rockenfeller – 30 4. Gavin/Milner/Fässler – 28 5. Rigon/Calado/Vilander – 26 |
1. No. 67 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing – 35 2. No. 66 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing – 32 3. No. 3 Corvette Racing – 30 4. No. 4 Corvette Racing – 28 5. No. 62 Risi Competizione – 26 |
1. Ford – 35 2. Chevrolet – 32 3. Ferrari – 30 4. Porsche – 28 5. BMW – 26 |
Corvette Racing at Sebring
| Year | Class | Drivers | Result | Car | Notes |
| 1999 | GTS | Fellows/Kneifel/Paul Jr. | 4th | Corvette C5-R | Fellows pole |
| Pilgrim/Sharp/Heinricy | 7th | Corvette C5-R | Pilgrim fastest race lap | ||
| 2000 | GTS | Fellows/Kneifel/Bell | 6th | Corvette C5-R | Fellows pole |
| Pilgrim/Collins/Freon | 5th | Corvette C5-R | |||
| 2001 | GTS | Fellows/O’Connell/Kneifel | 3rd | Corvette C5-R | |
| Pilgrim/Collins/Freon | 2nd | Corvette C5-R | |||
| 2002 | GTS | Fellows/O’Connell/Gavin | 1st | Corvette C5-R | Fellows pole |
| Pilgrim/Collins/Freon | 4th | Corvette C5-R | |||
| 2003 | GTS | Fellows/O’Connell/Freon | 1st | Corvette C5-R | |
| Gavin/Collins/Pilgrim | 3rd | Corvette C5-R | Gavin pole | ||
| 2004 | GTS | Fellows/O’Connell/Papis | 1st | Corvette C5-R | Fellows pole |
| Beretta/Gavin/Magnussen | 6th | Corvette C5-R | Gavin fastest race lap | ||
| 2005 | GT1 | Fellows/O’Connell/Papis | 2nd | Corvette C6.R | |
| Beretta/Gavin/Magnussen | 3rd | Corvette C6.R | |||
| 2006 | GT1 | Fellows/O’Connell/Papis | 4th | Corvette C6.R | |
| Beretta/Gavin/Magnussen | 1st | Corvette C6.R | |||
| 2007 | GT1 | Fellows/O’Connell/Magnussen | 2nd | Corvette C6.R | Magnussen pole, fast race lap |
| Beretta/Gavin/Papis | 1st | Corvette C6.R | |||
| 2008 | GT1 | Fellows/O’Connell/Magnussen | 1st | Corvette C6.R | |
| Beretta/Gavin/Papis | 2nd | Corvette C6.R | Gavin fastest race lap | ||
| 2009 | GT1 | Magnussen/O’Connell/Garcia | 1st | Corvette C6.R | |
| Beretta/Gavin/Fässler | 2nd | Corvette C6.R | Gavin pole, fastest race lap | ||
| 2010 | GT2 | Magnussen/O’Connell/Garcia | 8th | Corvette C6.R | |
| Beretta/Gavin/Collard | 9th | Corvette C6.R | |||
| 2011 | GT | Beretta/Milner/Garcia | 3rd | Corvette C6.R | |
| Gavin/Magnussen/Westbrook | 4th | Corvette C6.R | |||
| 2012 | GT | Magnussen/Garcia/Taylor | 2nd | Corvette C6.R | Magnussen pole |
| Gavin/Milner/Westbrook | 3rd | Corvette C6.R | |||
| 2013 | GT | Magnussen/Garcia/Taylor | 11th | Corvette C6.R | |
| Gavin/Milner/Westbrook | 1st | Corvette C6.R | |||
| 2014 | GTLM | Magnussen/Garcia/Briscoe | 8th | Corvette C7.R | |
| Gavin/Milner/Liddell | 6th | Corvette C7.R | Gavin fastest race lap | ||
| 2015 | GTLM | Magnussen/Garcia/Briscoe | 1st | Corvette C7.R | Sebring/Daytona winners |
| Gavin/Milner/Pagenaud | 9th | Corvette C7.R | |||
| 2016 | GTLM | Magnussen/Garcia/Rockenfeller | 9th | Corvette C7.R | |
| Gavin/Milner/Fässler | 1st | Corvette C7.R | Team’s 10th Sebring win | ||
| 2017 | GTLM | Magnussen/Garcia/Rockenfeller | 1st | Corvette C7.R | 3rd straight Sebring team win |
| Gavin/Milner/Fässler | 10th | Corvette C7.R |