As you may have already heard, the Corvette Racing team was dealt both disappoint and elation during the annual 24 Hours of Le Mans race last month.
Driver Jan Magnussen experienced a stuck throttle during the final qualifying round in the No. 63 Corvette C7.R, causing damage to the car that couldn’t be repaired in time for the Le Mans race itself, let alone the race after in Watkins Glen. With that, Corvette Racing was whittled down a single entry — the No. 64 Corvette C7.R, making the team’s prospects looked positively bleak. But the No. 64 C7.R performed flawlessly in the race, and ended up taking first place in the GTE-Pro class.
Magnussen, a racing veteran who has also raced in CART, NASCAR, and F1, recently penned a column where he describes what it was like to get back in the driver’s seat for the Six Hours of Watkins Glen.
The damaged No. 63 Corvette (No. 03 when racing in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship — Le Mans is actually an FIA World Endurance Championship-sanctioned event) was still being rebuilt by Pratt & Miller, which meant Magnussen and co-driver Antonio Garcia had to drive the Larbre Competition Corvette C7.R, at The Glen. Ironically, the Larbre car was the official No. 64 Corvette Racing entry for the first half of the season last year.
A few challenges like a poor pit-stop (attributed to a failed wheel gun) and the fact the team is “still learning the 2015 tire and how to get the most out of it” meant the race perhaps didn’t unfold quite as planned. With that said, Magnussen and the team still ended up fourth and were content on walking away with a couple points.
Afterwards, Magnussen and the Corvette Racing team went on to compete at the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in Ontario in preparation for the Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix last Sunday, July 12. Magnussen and the refurbished No. 03 car took third. As a result, Magnussen and Garcia are back in the driver’s championship points lead.
Check out Magnussen’s write-up here.
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