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Corvette Racing Goes 3-4 At Rolex 24 At Daytona

Corvette Racing‘s No. 3 and No. 4 C7.R race cars weren’t able to pull off a win at last weekend’s Rolex 24 at Daytona, but they finished the race toward the top of the GTLM pack, securing third and fourth, respectively. The race was a trying one, with numerous Prototype cars retiring due to mechanical failures, but not for Corvette, which ran a clean, consistent, and mistake-free race.

Unfortunately, that alone wasn’t enough to keep Ford GTs Nos. 66 and 67 at bay. The two Ford Chip Ganassi Racing cars seized first and second in the GTLM class, earning Ganassi his 200th win in major league auto racing.

The Rolex 24 at Daytona marked the start of the 2018 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season, and the kick-off to Corvette Racing’s 20th season of competition. The No. 3 Corvette C7.R, driven by Antonio Garcia, Jan Magnussen, and Mike Rockenfeller, started from pole after having posted the fastest Qualifying lap time.

“This year’s race was a lot difference than previous years because of the lack of safety car periods,” said Magnussen after the race. “Usually, you had to get the car right for the last three or four hours, and then in the last hour you had to nail it. This year, you had to push the whole way. By the end of it, we didn’t have enough, which is a shame because we ran a good race. We didn’t go [without] any issues but we didn’t hit anything and the car is in one piece. We ran out of brakes at the end because we were pushing the whole way through.”

Magnussen continued: “It’s the most physical Rolex 24 I’ve ever done. I didn’t do one stint behind the safety car. I think I did 10 stints and every one of them was full-on. We’ll go back, look at everything and get ready for Sebring.”

The next race on the 2018 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship calendar is the Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring, March 15th through the 17th.

Aaron Brzozowski is a writer and motoring enthusiast from Detroit with an affinity for '80s German steel. He is not active on the Twitter these days, but you may send him a courier pigeon.

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Comments

  1. Yeah, especially when the BOP favors the Ford GT’s. Guess IMSA got tired of the Vette’s kicking everyone’s @$$ in GTLM so this year it’ll be Caddy’s turn…

    Reply
  2. the corvettes have to run a lot of rear wing downforce to get traction and this kills top speed. the new mid engine corvette will cure this problem as they will be on par with the ford GTs. when the corvettes get to the slower top speed tracks they will be able to run with the GTs.

    Reply
    1. You do know how the BoP works right? They pick a car and try…emphasis on try…to make all the cars equal to that car. Corvette always gets the least HP…EVERY YEAR!!! They are forced to run the tires off to keep up in the straights…yet they keep finding a way to win…and then that is removed by BoP…PERIOD!!!

      Reply
      1. that is why they had “the roar before the 24” to establish what will be needed to equalize the performance. they made caddy go from 6.2 liter to 5.5 liters engines because the extra cubic inches gave them an advantage last year even with the restrictors in the air intake. they also have different limits on fuel capacity and how fast the fuel can be put in the car to try and even things out. last year the fords won this race but corvette won the championship because things were more equal on the slower road race tracks where all out top speed is not as important.

        Reply

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