Critical days ahead for Chevrolet, Corvette in race to GT Le Mans titles

Garcia, Magnussen coming off overall victory at VIR
No. 3 Corvette team a class winner at COTA in 2013
Gavin, Milner hoping to solidify Driver’s Championship lead
Chevrolet in strong position in GTLM Manufacturer points

DETROIT (Sept. 14, 2016) – The first of Corvette Racing’s 102 class victories came on a hot, steamy Texas evening in 2000.
Fast forward to 16 years and Win No. 103 could come in the Texas heat – again in the Lone Star State. Both of the team’s Chevrolet Corvette C7.Rs will tackle Circuit of The Americas in the Lone Star Le Mans: the 10th round of this year’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

It is a critical time in the GT Le Mans (GTLM) season with two events to go. Corvette Racing and Chevrolet lead the class’s Manufacturer, Driver and Team points standings through nine races.
There are a total of 72 points left in the Driver and Team races, and 70 in the Manufacturer’s Championship.

Corvette Racing is a past winner at COTA with Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen claiming victory in the 2013 American Le Mans Series event.
The pairing is fresh off an overall victory in the most recent IMSA round at Virginia International Raceway where the No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Corvette C7.R led 84 of 90 laps.
That performance helped Garcia and VIR pole-winner Magnussen solidify their hold on third place in the GT Le Mans (GTLM) Driver’s Championship.

Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner, teammates in the No. 4 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C7.R, are the current GTLM Championship leaders… as they have been since opening the season with back-to-back victories at Daytona and Sebring.
Four victories on the season – including No. 100 all-time for Corvette Racing at Road America – have them seven points ahead of former Corvette Racing teammates Ryan Briscoe and Richard Westbrook.

Gavin, who set the fastest race lap at VIR, and Milner lead all GTLM drivers with podium finishes in six of nine IMSA races.
The duo is trying for their second Driver’s Championship together after they won the ALMS GT title in 2012.

Chevrolet owns a 17-point lead in the Manufacturer standings and can win its 11th title in IMSA competition.
No other manufacturer has won more GTLM races this season (five) nor in IMSA since the post-merger era began for sports car racing in 2014 (11).

The WeatherTech SportsCar Championship event is part of a doubleheader that also includes the FIA World Endurance Championship.

This is the first trip to Circuit of The Americas for the 2016-spec Corvette C7.R, which is an updated racecar from 2015 due to changes in Automobile Club de l’Ouest regulations for top-level GT cars that compete in the IMSA GTLM class.
There are a number of aerodynamic changes including a larger splitter at the front and diffuser at the rear of the Corvette. Side skirts and a repositioned wing also are among the most notable changes, along with updated safety features that are now mandated on all GTLM cars.

Corvette Racing Display on Location at Circuit of The Americas
This weekend’s IMSA and FIA WEC doubleheader features a number of Chevrolet and Corvette race cars and production cars.
Fans can see and learn about a number of top-line Chevrolet vehicles and performance accessories at the Corvette Racing Display from Thursday through Sunday including:

Exciting 2017 lineup models such as the Corvette Grand Sport, Corvette Z06, Camaro and Equinox Premier
Chevrolet 2016 models including the Silverado, Colorado, Malibu.
A Corvette C7.R show car
Samples of Chevrolet engines, performance parts and accessories available to fans for purchase from their local Chevrolet dealer
A variety of Chevrolet and racing related activities for adults and kids
Commemorative t-shirts for fans who sign up with Corvette Racing.

The Corvette Racing display opens at 10 a.m., Thursday; 9 a.m., Friday; and 7:30 a.m., Saturday.

The two-hour, 40-minute Lone Star Le Mans race for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship from Circuit of The Americas is scheduled for 12:35 p.m. ET on Saturday, Sept. 17
It will air live on FOX Sports 2 starting at 12:30 p.m. ET with IMSA Radio coverage and Chevrolet on-board cameras available on IMSA.com.

ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SIRIUS-XM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R:

"I have been fortunate enough to win many races in my career but the victory with Jan and Corvette Racing at COTA in 2013 is one of my most memorable. It was a very difficult last hour with traffic and trying to hold off other GT cars.
You can do that at a circuit like COTA, where there isn’t a lot of risk and danger with a large amount of asphalt runoff.
Jan and I are looking to keep the momentum from VIR and score another win at Austin."

JAN MAGNUSSEN, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SIRIUS-XM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R:

"It’s a very different experience going to Circuit of The Americas compared to our last few events. It’s a modern track and quite a nice venue. A lack of gravel and grass off-track can allow you to be more aggressive than you normally would.
Antonio and I have won here before and another good result would help us keep our championship position in the No. 3 Corvette."

OLIVER GAVIN, NO. 4 MOBIL 1/SIRIUS-XM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R:

"Tommy and I are eager to right the ship on the No. 4 Corvette C7.R after the disappointment from VIR. Certainly we would rather be leading the championship – as we are – than be the pursuers.
The effort from the entire Corvette Racing team this year has been outstanding, and I do feel confident we can keep that level of execution for the next two races. A solid result at COTA would go a long way toward that."

TOMMY MILNER, NO. 4 MOBIL 1/SIRIUS-XM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R:

"I enjoy racing at Circuit of The Americas, but I would enjoy it a lot more if we had some better results there. It’s a challenging circuit to be certain with a lot of different types of corners.
There also is a very long straight on the back part of the circuit, but you have to run max downforce to get through the twisty bits.
The strategy for us on the No. 4 car is simple: stay on track and gain as many points as we can over the last two races."

DOUG FEHAN, CORVETTE RACING PROGRAM MANAGER:

"Texas is all about BIG… and the combination of COTA, the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and FIA World Endurance Championship makes it one of the biggest and best sports car weekends for any fan around the world.
It’s an important one for us, as well. All three GTLM championships remain in play and the margin for error remains small. By and large, we have kept our Corvettes on-track and out of trouble. If we can keep doing that the last two races, we have a great chance to celebrate another title."

2016 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship – GTLM Standings (After nine of 11 events)

Driver Standings

1. Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 287
2. Ryan Briscoe/Richard Westbook – 280
3. Antonio Garcia/Jan Magnussen – 259
4. Bamber/Frederic Makowiecki – 250
5. Bill Auberlen/Dirk Werner – 246

Team Standings

1. No. 4 Corvette Racing – 287
2. No. 67 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing – 280
3. No. 3 Corvette Racing – 259
4. No. 912 Porsche N. America – 250
5. No. 25 BMW Team RLL – 246

Manufacturer Standings

1. Chevrolet – 297
2. Ford – 281
3. Porsche – 267
4. BMW – 258
5. Ferrari – 256

· Chevrolet holds 12-point lead in Prototype Engine Manufacturer Championship
· Cameron, Curran on two-race win streak in No. 31 Corvette DP
· Eleven points separate top three Corvette DP driver pairings

DETROIT (Sept. 14, 2016) – Only two races – covering 12 hours and 40 minutes – stand between Chevrolet and another Engine Manufacturer Championship in International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) competition.
Chevrolet’s Corvette Daytona Prototype program and the rest of the IMSA Prototype category head to Austin, Texas and Circuit of the Americas this weekend for the penultimate round of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

Chevrolet sits in the proverbial driver’s seat of the Prototype Engine Manufacturer Championship.
The lead is 12 points with 70 remaining. Taking the points scale into consideration, Chevrolet will clinch the title at Road Atlanta’s Petit Le Mans as long as one of the four Corvette DPs starts the final two races of the season.

The Corvette Daytona Prototype continues to establish itself as one of modern endurance racing’s most successful racecars.
It has won 35 races in 55 events since the start of the 2012 season.

This year alone, Corvette DPs have swept the Prototype class podium at Long Beach, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park and Road America.
It has won five of the last six IMSA races; with two more victories this year, the Corvette DP program would win eight races for the fourth time in five years.

Corvette Daytona Prototype drivers hold or share the top four positions in the category Driver’s Championship. Action Express Racing’s duo of Joao Barbosa and Christian Fittipaldi, who share the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Corvette DP, hold a narrow one-point lead.
Two-time and defending Prototype Driver’s Champions, Fittipaldi and Barbosa won the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen and have six podium finishes.
Their last seven races include the win at The Glen and four runner-up finishes.

Their Action Express Racing teammates – Eric Curran and Dane Cameron in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering/Team Fox Corvette DP – are on a two-race win streak and are second in Driver’s points.
They were winners at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park and Road America.
The No. 31 Corvette DP also has six podium finishes including runner-up results at Sebring and Watkins Glen.

Wayne Taylor Racing’s pairing of Jordan Taylor and Ricky Taylor also are two-time winners this year in the No. 10 Konica Minolta Corvette DP.
They won races at Long Beach and Belle Isle with a runner-up at Daytona and third-place finishes in the last two Prototype races at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park and Road America.
In addition to the Wayne Taylor Racing entry, Ricky Taylor will race a Chevrolet Corvette C7.R for Larbre Competition in the FIA World Endurance Championship.

Marc Goossens, fourth in the Driver’s Championship, will team again with Ryan Dalziel in the Visit Florida Racing No. 90 VisitFlorida.com Corvette DP. The duo has shown good pace with podium finishes in the Rolex 24 to start the season and also at Laguna Seca in May.

The Corvette DP bodywork reflects the Corvette C7 production lineup.
At the heart of the Corvette Daytona Prototype is a purpose-built 5.5-liter Chevrolet LS9 V-8 engine developed by ECR Engines.

The two-hour, 40-minute Lone Star Le Mans race for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship from Circuit of The Americas is scheduled for 12:35 p.m. ET on Saturday, Sept. 17
It will air live on FOX Sports 2 starting at 12:30 p.m. ET with IMSA Radio coverage and Chevrolet on-board cameras available on IMSA.com.

JOAO BARBOSA, ACTION EXPRESS RACING NO. 5 MUSTANG SAMPLING CORVETTE DP:

"For sure - we're the team to beat. We proved that in the last three or four races, and we obviously won the championships the past two years and we're currently leading this one.
Everybody wants to beat us to take the championship away. Obviously, there's a lot of pressure in these last two races but we can deal with that.
We have a great race car, great sponsors and a great team behind us. I'm pretty sure we can handle everything that is going to be thrown at us in the last two races."

RICKY TAYLOR, WAYNE TAYLOR RACING NO. 10 KONICA MINOLTA CORVETTE DP:

“It is always great racing in COTA.
We only have two races to go and need to get back into the championship this weekend. Our car is always very competitive so we just need to execute this weekend to get our third win of the season.
It is a very difficult situation but with a good race here in COTA anything can happen at Petit Le Mans considering there will be more cars in the field and more points available to be gained.”

DANE CAMERON, ACTION EXPRESS RACING NO. 31 WHELEN ENGINEERING/TEAM FOX CORVETTE DP:

"Austin is a really great city and it's unique to be at an F1-caliber track like Circuit of The Americas.
It's fun driving a high-downforce car like our Whelen Corvette DP. It's pretty fun, but it's also really tricky because the surface is kind of low grip.
There's a really big mix of super high-speed sections, like getting through all the turns in the first section of the track and down through there, and a lot of relatively slower corners.
It's always tricky to get the balance perfect. We were quite competitive there last year until our race came unraveled a bit.
So, I'm expecting to be competitive there again this year."

RYAN DALZIEL, VISIT FLORIDA RACING NO. 90 VISITFLORIDA.COM CORVETTE DP:

“We haven’t quite had the season we had anticipated at VISIT FLORIDA Racing but we’re still working hard.
We’re going for race wins and we have two more opportunities to do get to Victory Lane.
We just did a test with Chevrolet and continued to learn more about the car.
We’re looking forward to getting there, Circuit of the Americas always puts on a good show for us.”

JIM LUTZ, CORVETTE DAYTONA PROTOTYPE PROGRAM MANAGER:

“We are in very good shape in the Prototype points standings heading to Austin.
While nothing is certain yet, it appears we are well on our way to clinching a fifth straight Engine Manufacturer title.

However there is plenty at stake this weekend as the competition this year between our four Corvette DP partner teams has been as close as ever. It won’t be easy at Circuit of The Americas, which puts a premium on downforce and agility of the competing cars.

Plus we have seen in years past that the weather can change drastically, and there is the potential of rain during the weekend.
We certainly will give it our best shot and look forward to wrapping up another championship a couple of weeks from now at Road Atlanta.”

2 sessions in, and coming off of a recent Balance of Performance change that could have slowed the Corvette DPs, another 1-2-3 was produced during a hot and muggy afternoon practice session at Circuit of The Americas.

Where the No. 5 Action Express Corvette DP led the morning session, the sister No. 31 car driven by Dane Cameron posted the fastest lap (1m 58.13s) of the 60-minute outing.
Wayne Taylor Racing's No. 10 Corvette DP (-0.616) and Visit Florida Racing's No. 90 Corvette DP (-0.646) formed a wedge ahead of the top P2-based Prototype.

Michael Shank Racing's Ligier JS P2-Honda (-0.954) represented the carbon fiber cars in fourth, but the gap to the best DP was almost double the figure from the morning.

Starworks Motorsport went fastest in PC with the No. 88 ORECA FLM09-Chevy (2m01.367s), which edged the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports car (-0.135) and the No. 20 BAR1 Motorsports entry (-0.396).

Ford maintained its grip on the GT Le Mans class with the No. 67 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing GT (2m04.107s). Texas-based Risi Competizione followed with its Ferrari 488 GTE (-0.403) and the No. 912 Porsche North America Porsche 911 RSR (-0.505).

Compared to the morning session where a long red flag interrupted the flow, the afternoon was fairly normal, aside from the usual smattering of spins and off-course excursions.

· Garcia, Magnussen advance to third place in GTLM
· Gavin, Milner increase GTLM Driver’s Championship lead
· Prototype win for Ricky, Jordan Taylor as Corvette DP scores podium sweep
· Chevrolet adds to lead in pair of Manufacturer races

AUSTIN, Texas (Sept. 17, 2016) – Corvette Racing met its goal Saturday of a solid points haul to maximize its championship position heading into the final race of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen in the No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C7.R placed third in a closely fought GT Le Mans (GTLM) class in the Lone Star Le Mans race at Circuit of The Americas.

The result was a key one for Chevrolet in the GTLM Manufacturer’s Championship, as the Bowtie Brand earned second-place Manufacturer points and its nearest rival received fourth-place points.
Chevrolet, going for its 11th Manufacturer’s title in IMSA competition, unofficially leads by 20 points heading into the season-ending, 10-hour Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta in two weeks.

GTLM Driver’s Championship leaders Tommy Milner and Oliver Gavin placed fifth Saturday in GTLM and grew their points advantage from seven points to 11.
The No. 4 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C7.R has won four times this season and has led in points from the start of the year.

The Prototype standings also favor Chevrolet and its Corvette Daytona Prototype teams after Saturday’s race.
Ricky Taylor and Jordan Taylor won overall in their Wayne Taylor Racing No. 10 Konica Minolta Corvette DP as they led 70 of 75 laps for their third win of the season.

Chevrolet also leads in Prototype points for the Engine Manufacturer’s Championship – a title it has won four consecutive years since the program began in 2012.

Garcia and Magnussen drove from eighth place in class at the start to third in the span of two hours.
Magnussen drove the opening 43 minutes and picked up three spots during that time.
The other big development early on was the ability of both the No. 3 and No. 4 Corvette Racing crews leapfrog their closest championship challenger thanks to a quick first pit stop.

Gavin, who started sixth, pitted from that position at the same time as Magnussen before handing off to teammate Milner.
The championship co-leader held firm against a tough challenge from his leading championship rival as the two cars came together as Milner defended his position just before the halfway point. He emerged unscathed while the competing car lost 12 laps due to damage.

In Prototype, Corvette DPs won for the sixth time this year and fifth in a row. Chevrolet-powered teams also swept the Prototype podium for the third consecutive race.

The Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette Daytona Prototype won by 1.421 seconds as Jordan Taylor finished ahead of Action Express Racing’s Dane Cameron and the No. 31 Whelen Engineering/Team Fox Corvette DP.
The Taylor have won more than any other driver combination in the category and solidified their hold on third place in Driver points.

Cameron and Eric Curran used their fourth consecutive podium to vault into the lead of the Prototype Driver’s Championship for the first time this season. Unofficially, the Cameron/Curran combo are now one-point ahead over their Action Express Racing teammates Joao Barbosa and Christian Fittipaldi, who placed third in the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Corvette DP.

Marc Goossens and Ryan Dalziel in the Visit Florida Racing No. 90 VisitFlorida.com Corvette DP placed seventh in class after losing time due to a loss of drive just past the 30-minute mark.

The final race of the IMSA season is the 10-hour Petit Le Mans presented by Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort on Saturday, Oct. 1 from Road Atlanta.
The race begins at 11 a.m. ET with live television coverage across FOX Sports 1, FOX Sports 2 and IMSA.tv with IMSA Radio coverage and Chevrolet on-board cameras available on IMSA.com.

CORVETTE RACING GTLM QUOTES

ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SIRIUS-XM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R – FINISHED THIRD IN GTLM:

“The further we went into the weekend, the better the Corvette was. From the first practice through the warmup and race, we never stopped working on it. At points, we made some big swings on the setup side because we had nothing to lose. At some point we found our way a little bit. The first surprise was that in qualifying, we weren’t as far off the pace as we thought. T
he warmup was the same. It was very hard, especially with traffic. At the end, I think we had a Corvette that could have challenged the race winners. We’re looking forward to Road Atlanta now and wrapping up the Manufacturer’s Championship for Chevrolet.
We have a really good chance, and I really want to win that race. I’ve come close a couple of times so that will be my focus.”

JAN MAGNUSSEN, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SIRIUS-XM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R – FINISHED THIRD IN GTLM:

“It was a pleasant little surprise. I think that it’s a good couple of spots better than I thought we were going to be. The car was quite good in my stint. We were able to kind of keep up with the guys in front, whereas I thought we would be out of it real fast looking at the practice times and qualifying. But the race car was pretty good I have to say… better than I thought it was going to be.
I’m happy for the result. I’m happy for Corvette Racing and Chevrolet getting closer to that manufacturer championship.”

OLIVER GAVIN, NO. 4 MOBIL 1/SIRIUS-XM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R – FINISHED FIFTH IN GTLM:

“This could be a real turning point for us in the championship. I think we will have to go to Petit Le Mans and get a seventh or an eighth place if the No. 67 was to win. It’s not a super comfortable cushion, but we just need to execute at Petit. I think we just need to be smart. We weren’t the greatest today, we weren’t the fastest.
We were battling with the car a little bit and we made a couple of changes during the race. One was the wrong way and the other one was, I think, back in the right direction. But we need to go back and look at the data to see where we were missing it.
Ultimately, we came away with scoring good points. We have extended our lead in the championship and at this time of the year that is all you need to be doing. You just need to be executing, getting the points on the board and extending our points lead.
Looking at all the practice sessions, all the qualifying and everything that we did, I really didn’t think we were going to be coming away with extending our points lead over the No. 67. But we have, and it’s positive. We move forward and we go to Petit very positive.”

TOMMY MILNER, NO. 4 MOBIL 1/SIRIUS-XM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R – FINISHED FIFTH IN GTLM:

“Coming away with the points lead we have was best-case scenario. It’s not really how I would have liked to have gotten that points lead. We struggled all day today and really all weekend… just looking for pace and just sort of comfort driving the car.
That part wasn’t so much fun, but yeah, we lucked out today for sure. We definitely had, as Olly (Gavin) said, we’ve had either all of the luck in the world or none of it. Today it looked like we had none and then we had all of it pretty quickly there. Part of me feels bad for the No. 67 guys, but that is kind of a bummer way to lose some points. But I can’t say I’m too unhappy about it.
We’ve all fought really hard all year long and some races we’ve had some good races and so have they. Now it comes down to Petit Le Mans where the gap is fairly large, but we still need to execute for the whole race.
We certainly can’t just jog across the finish line there; we still have to push hard. It will be a big challenge for sure, but we are in a good spot.”

CORVETTE DAYTONA PROTOTYPE QUOTES
RICKY TAYLOR, WAYNE TAYLOR RACING NO. 10 KONICA MINOLTA CORVETTE DP – PROTOTYPE RACE-WINNER:

“It was an awesome race. We had the best car today, and not often do you have the best car and everything goes your way and everything goes right. Today, we had a little hiccup with traction control cutting out for a couple of laps; it was a bit of a panic for the guys with about 40 minutes about how we were going to get it working again. With a one-second lead with no traction control, (40 minutes) would have been a long, long time.
But they worked through it and Jordan controlled the race after that.”
(ON HIS STINT) The conditions were not that bad. The car was very comfortable inside. The car was great.
We were able to build such a good gap and Jordan was able to bring it home from there.”

JORDAN TAYLOR, WAYNE TAYLOR RACING NO. 10 KONICA MINOLTA CORVETTE DP – PROTOTYPE RACE-WINNER:

“It was obviously a good day, our third win of the year. We had a strong car so I knew we had a shot at it when Ricky won the pole. Then Ricky had a flawless run, pulled out a 10-second lead and I knew, basically with me finishing it, it was up to me to lose it. I think we pulled it out to 15 seconds and then something happened – either I made a mistake by spinning or we had a traction-control problem.
I spun, and the next five laps we were fighting what turned out to be traction-control problems and I was probably freaking out on the radio a little bit. Thankfully, the guys got it sorted, we fixed it. By that time, we only had a two-second lead so the race was back on.

It got a little close, but the only thing that made it close was traffic coming and going.
It was a good race. We had a little battle, but obviously a great day for us. Konica Minolta and DLL had 70 people here, so it couldn’t have been a better weekend for us.

(MORE ON THE RACE): “Well the spin, I don’t know if it was my mistake or the problems we were having caused the mistake, but either way I knew with it being my stint I had to kind of bring it back to the guys because of the lead we had that Ricky (Taylor) built. I’m just happy. It’s our third win of the year. DLL is here and Konica Minolta… and thank you to Continental Tire.”

(THIRD STRAIGHT 1-2-3 for CORVETTE DP)

“The Corvette DP has been great for years.
This was the third race in a row we finished 1-2-3 just shows the dominance of the car.
The car’s been developed a lot and we’ve learned a lot. It’s been good to me, it’s been a fun car to drive.”

Jordan Taylor held off a charging Dane Cameron to win Saturday’s Lone Star Le Mans at Circuit of The Americas.
It was the third IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship victory of the season for the No. 10 Konica Minolta Corvette Daytona Prototype started by Ricky Taylor, enabling the brothers to close to within seven points in the Prototype class battle with only one race remaining.

Cameron ran down Taylor and pulled alongside him with 13 minutes remaining, but Taylor held on to the lead, beating Cameron to the checkered flag by 1.421 seconds.
That ended a two-race winning streak for the No. 31 Action Express Racing Whelen Engineering Corvette DP.

“During the strategy meeting coming into this race, we talked about going for the win or going for the points,” said Ricky Taylor, who started from the pole. “Today was all about the win.
I think the team did a great job. The stops were all great and the strategy was perfect. I feel like we had a great car the last 3 times we were here, and it’s great to finally get a win.”

Jordan Taylor admitted feeling the heat in the latter stages of the event.

“I had an issue where the car went off the track a bit, and when I hit the accelerator the traction control didn’t catch it,” Jordan Taylor said. “I instantly turned off traction control to try and whip the car around and eventually put myself in a really bad spot.
Thankfully, the guys were able to walk me through what was wrong and I was able to fix it. It was hot today, and I did two hours, 10 minutes.
If it wasn’t for our new cool suit technology, I don’t think we would have made it.”

Action Express teammates Christian Fittipaldi and Joao Barbosa finished third in the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Corvette DP.
Entering the season-ending Petit Le Mans presented by Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort at Road Atlanta on Saturday, Oct. 1, Curran and Cameron unofficially have 285 points to 284 for Fittipaldi and Barbosa, with the Taylor brothers third with 278 points.

View full results via Al Kamel Systems at Results.IMSA.com

NOTEBOOK

In a key moment of the race, the Action Express Racing teammates got together in Turn 13 on the seventh lap while battling for fourth. Fittipaldi spun and continued – losing four positions in the process. Curran was assessed a drive-through penalty for the contact, falling to last in the class and 40 seconds behind the leader.

“I was racing for position with my teammate Christian,” Curran said.
I thought we had a little bit faster Whelen Engineering Corvette at that point of the race. He went a little wide in a few corners. I got up next to him and got a run on him, but I didn’t expect his move. I stayed in my position, but I hit the curb.
Unfortunately, that bounced me into him and spun him around. That’s not what I wanted – that’s not the way I race.”​

The first caution waved at the 34-minute mark when Marc Goossens lost the driveshaft on the No. 90 Visit Florida Racing Corvette DP while running fourth. Co-driver Ryan Dalziel later rejoined the race 36 laps down, avoiding the team’s first mechanical DNF since Road America in 2013, when it retired with gearbox problems.
The second and final caution period began moments after the initial restart 52 minutes into the race.
When the event went back to green, the No. 60 Michael Shank Racing Honda Ligier JS P2 of John Pew and the No. 0 Panoz DeltaWing Coupe of Katherine Legge spun in Turn 1. Pew collected a temporary WeatherTech sign on his windshield.
He drove through several corners but was unable to shed the sign, forcing him to stop and bringing out a brief caution. Legge was assessed a drive-through penalty for the contact.