After earning pole position, defending GT drivers champion and Corvette Racing’s Jan Magnussen stormed the No. 3 C7.R to victory this afternoon during Long Beach Grand Prix GT Le Mans Class action. Magnussen also won the event last year in the C6.R. Co-champion Antonio Garcia drove the opening stint.
Additionally, the dynamic duo of Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner muscled the No. 4 C7.R to a third place finish in GTLM Class. BMW’s Mueller and Edwards came in second.
Up front in Prototype Class action, brothers Ricky and Jordan Taylor (Jordan will be driving Corvette Racing during the 24 Hours of Le Mans) came in second in their No. 10 Corvette DP race car. Jordan, the younger, was reeling in race leader Scott Pruett in the No. 1 Ford EcoBoost/Riley DP, posting lap times two seconds faster than Pruett’s, before the checkered flag signaled an end to the 100-minute race.
The next race of the Tudor United SportsCar Championship will be May 3-4, at the Monterey Grand Prix, at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca
Comments
Thats what I am talking about. It was only a matter of time before the C-7R would get a victory, or some sort of respectable position in these endurance races. Now,its all about consistency for the C-7R, in order to establish some dominance.
I just hope they do not sink up the show too much as they will get hit with weight or intake penalties.
I think they will play it smart and once the car comes in they will run only as hard as they have to. They know the price of looking too good.
Go Jake
Which is why I’m no fan of Tudor United SportsCar racing. If a car, design, or team begins to dominate, IF there must be adjustments to the rules – it should be done at the end of the season to affect the NEXT season. NOT mid season. If a team or car is superior to others, tough luck, that’s racing. The competition should have brought something better. And more important they better be assessing their short comings so they can come back harder next season.
Arbitrary restrictions and rule changes does not make for good racing. It makes for sorry boring “spec racing” which is exactly why Motorsports is suffering in decline. I want to see superior cars and drivers pushing the envelope. Not some “everyone is equal” bullsh#t where superior car designs or drivers are limited because the competition couldn’t produce a viable alternative to the dominating team’s formula.
Well it is not all that easy.
I hate seeing the rules folks getting involved but here is what you are faced with.
Road racing is expensive and there is little return in it other than product exposure for the MFG. If a MFG has a car that is not competitive it will not race or remain in a series unless they can get a break. To keep companies in they have to keep adjusting the rules as if a company get beat for an entire year they leave and you end up with only one model left.
This is something that has killed many road racing series over the years. We lost Showroom stock, We lost Can Am and Trans Am several times because of dominance of one model.
Then fans lose interest if their brand does not win either.
You can say oh well it is the MFG fault and they need to build a better car but it just does not work that way and it never will.
Like it or not generally most racing has to have rules to adjust the fields to make it so anyone can win. To their credit IMSA has tried to keep thing different so it is not a spec series and nearly all brands are or will be made competitive. It is a hard balancing act.
Like it or not racing lives on the advertising value to the MFG and the entertainment factor to the fans. NASCAR for better or worse has proven this. Only F1 is the most pure racing but even there the rules are tossed out and new ones are brought in to make it more competitive now and then.
The key for the teams is to be as good as they need to be and not stink up the show. You do like the SR71 pilots did for the speed records they set. If someone went faster they just go up the next day and put in a little more throttle. We know the plane could do Mach 3 but some have said there was talk it could do Mach 6 if asked. We will never know as the top speed is still classified.
I loved the AWD Audi in Trans Am but they killed the series like Penske and Bud Moore killed it the first time. Also the 917-30 killed Can AM the first time too.
It is a tough call but parity is what brings MFG to the table and keeping things equal keeps them there.