DETROIT (April 30, 2018) – It’s been awhile, but Corvette Racing is finally heading back to Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

The return is a fitting one for the team in the midst of its 20th season of competition.
No team in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship has the level of history and success at Mid-Ohio than the Corvette Racing program.
With the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Showdown looming, here are a couple of facts and tidbits to peruse…

1: As in one team, one manufacturer and one model of car for 20 years: Corvette Racing, Chevrolet and the Chevrolet Corvette.
3: Class victories at Mid-Ohio for Oliver Gavin, the most among Corvette Racing drivers. He and Tommy Milner won in 2012 – the team’s last visit to the track.
5: Class victories at Mid-Ohio for former Corvette Racing pilot Johnny O’Connell, the most among team drivers.
6: Years between Mid-Ohio events for Corvette Racing.
7: Consecutive victories at Mid-Ohio for Corvette Racing between 2001 and 2008; the team didn’t race there in 2003 as it was not part of the American Le Mans Series schedule.
8: Class victories at Corvette Racing at Mid-Ohio – more than any entrant in IMSA at the circuit.
8: As in Chevrolet’s small-block V8. More than 100 million units have been sold worldwide and is the most successful engine in American motorsports.
9: Number of drivers who have competed at Mid-Ohio for Corvette Racing – Olivier Beretta, Kelly Collins, Antonio Garcia, Oliver Gavin, Jan Magnussen, Johnny O’Connell, Andy Pilgrim and Tommy Milner.
12: Manufacturer Championships for Chevrolet and Corvette Racing since 2001.
16: Number of GTLM wins for Corvette Racing since the start of 2014. That is the most of any manufacturer and team in the category.
16: Number of victories for Corvette Racing drivers at Mid-Ohio.
21: Tracks at which Corvette Racing has won races – Baltimore, COTA, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park/Mosport, Daytona, Detroit, Houston, Laguna Seca, Le Mans, Lime Rock, Long Beach, Miami, Mid-Ohio, Portland, Road America, Road Atlanta, Sebring, Sonoma, St. Petersburg, Texas, Trois Rivieres and Utah.
107: Victories worldwide for Corvette Racing – 99 in North America and eight at Le Mans.
201: Event starts by Corvette Racing since 1999.
5,282.31 Number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing in its 11 previous appearances at Mid-Ohio. That represents 2,347 laps.
274,113.88: Total number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing since its inception. To put that in perspective Apollo 13 – the longest manned spaceflight in history – covered "just" 248,655 miles.

CORVETTE RACING AT MID-OHIO: Back to Another Famed Circuit

Team’s first event at Mid-Ohio since 2012

Corvette Racing with eight class victories at Mid-Ohio
Gavin, Milner winners at Corvette Racing’s last Mid-Ohio visit
Corvette Racing coming off victory No. 107 in program history

DETROIT (May 1, 2018) – Corvette Racing returns to one of its most successful venues this weekend when it visits Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course for the fourth round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
It’s the first time at the historic track for the program since 2012 with Corvette Racing looking for victory No. 108 – and 100th in North American competition.

Mid-Ohio, site of Sunday’s Acura Sports Car Challenge, has seen years of Corvette Racing dominance since the team’s first trip there in 2001.
With eight class victories – including seven straight from 2001 and 2008 (the team didn’t race there in 2003) – no team in the IMSA paddock can match Corvette Racing’s level of success at the circuit.

Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner were victorious in the 2012 Mid-Ohio race for the American Le Mans Series, and the duo is coming off a second straight Long Beach victory three weeks ago in their No. 4 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C7.R.
The result vaulted them to second in the GT Le Mans (GTLM) Driver’s Championship, the same spot where Chevrolet sits in Manufacturer points.

Three Mid-Ohio victories are part of Gavin’s collection of 50 victories with Corvette Racing to lead the program all-time.
Third in that group is Jan Magnussen, who partners with Antonio Garcia in the No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C7.R. Magnussen has 35 victories with Corvette Racing and was the 2008 ALMS GT1 Mid-Ohio winner with the team.

Corvette Racing is in the midst of its 20th season of global competition. Mid-Ohio is one of 21 tracks where the team has claimed at least one victory.

The Acura Sports Car Challenge at Mid-Ohio will air live at 1 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 2 and the FOX Sports Go app.
Streaming in-car footage along with live audio coverage of practice, qualifying and the race from IMSA Radio is available on IMSA.com.

ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R:

"Mid-Ohio is completely different racetrack than we have competed on so far this year.
I’ve had good races there, but who knows how things will go now that it is a different time of the year.
In the past we’ve had very hot races there and some thunderstorms. But this time of year will be very different.
I do like the venue, and the last time I was there was my first year as a full-time Corvette Racing driver. As a team, we won the last time we were there.
Experience is a good point for us, and have more than most at Mid-Ohio. Let’s see what how we can use that."

JAN MAGNUSSEN, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R:

"I’m really looking forward to getting back to Mid-Ohio. For a long time I was upset that we didn’t race there.
It’s a great, historical track with some great experiences – old-school with a great layout.
The flow is really great but it’s a challenge in other places where if you really go for it. When you’re putting everything on the line, it can make a huge difference how you run around there.
The trick is to not go over the line. It has great flow and some decent undulation. Where you place the car suddenly matters a lot because it will go light eventually as you go over the crests and ridges.
It’ll be great going back there."

OLIVER GAVIN, NO. 4 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R:

"The last time Tommy and I were at Mid-Ohio, we won there. So we’re looking forward to going back.
I’ve always enjoyed the circuit. There are spots on it that are frustrating because there isn’t a lot of grip.
You feel like you’re aiming from the grippy patches to the grippy patches on certain parts of the track. It lends itself pretty well to multi-class racing, and they’ve been exciting in the past. Mid-Ohio has generally been quite a good place for me.
I’ve got good memories there and are pleased we’re going back there as a series.
Hopefully we can have a good weekend there."

TOMMY MILNER, NO. 4 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R:

"I’m excited to go back to Mid-Ohio. It’s sort of like experiencing a new track for the first time.
We’ve had a long history of success there. The last time we were there, Oliver and I won in ALMS GT so we’re eager to replicate that. It’ll be good for the fans to have this level of sports car racing back at the track. Certainly our cars have moved on a bit since we were last there six years ago.
It will be interesting to see how our GTLM cars will attack the circuit. It’s always been a track for high levels of downforce.
There’s a lot of flow to the racetrack, so based on the improvements we’ve seen in the cars and our Michelin tires, it’ll be fun to see how fast the track is for us.
It seems that it can be difficult to pass in some places with a close succession of corners.
Finding some place to go a bit quicker than our competitors and getting around is going to be difficult.
It’s an incredibly rewarding track when you have a good car and everything is working right."

DOUG FEHAN, CORVETTE RACING PROGRAM MANAGER:

"Our return to Mid-Ohio couldn’t come soon enough. This is a great, classic American track that really fits really well with the natural topography.
It also is the closest track on our schedule to Detroit, and it felt like home for us with eight Corvette Racing wins in the ALMS era.
We’ve won here with the C5-R and the C6.R – where we also debuted the GT2 version in 2009 – and we’d like nothing more than to put the C7.R in Victory Circle in its first race here.
It won’t be easy as it never is in our category, but we like our combination of handling, braking ability and performance – along with a dose of good fortune – to put us in good position to contend come Sunday."

CORVETTE RACING AT MID-OHIO: Ready to Charge… Rain or Shine

Two Chevrolet Corvettes to start from third and fourth rows

LEXINGTON, Ohio (May 5, 2018) – With an eye toward a questionable raceday forecast, Corvette Racing will head into the Acura Sports Car Challenge at MidOhio prepared for both a dry and wet race.
The two Chevrolet Corvette C7.Rs will start from the third and fourth rows of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s GT Le Mans (GTLM) field.

The team’s task of winning for the ninth time at MidOhio is not an impossible one.
Corvette Racing won in its last appearance at the 2.25mile, 13turn circuit in 2012 with Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner coming from sixth place to do it.

Saturday, Antonio Garcia qualified fifth in the No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C7.R at 1:18.114 (104.063 mph) while Milner wasn’t far off at 1:18.452 (103.614 mph) in the No. 4 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Corvette. Garcia will drive with Jan Magnussen, and Milner is back at MidOhio with Gavin.

While the qualifying positions aren’t ideal, there is the knowledge that Corvette Racing is confident in both its dry and wetweather setups.
Friday’s two practice sessions were run in mostly rainy – and windy – conditions while Saturday stayed dry for final practice and qualifying.

Sunday’s forecast calls for dry conditions early with an increasing likelihood of rain in the afternoon just as the two hour, 40minute race will enter its closing stages.

A victory would be the 108th for the Corvette Racing program and its 100th in North America.

Corvette Racing is in the midst of its 20th season of global competition. MidOhio is one of 21 tracks where the team has claimed at least one victory.

The Acura Sports Car Challenge at MidOhio will air live at 1 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 2 and the FOX Sports Go app. Streaming in car footage along with live audio coverage of practice, qualifying and the race from IMSA Radio is available on IMSA.com.

ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R – QUALIFIED FIFTH IN GTLM:

"I did so many laps exactly the same that it was a bit annoying. It felt like no matter what I tried, the lap time was the same.
So far the weekend has been reasonable.
We have been reacting to the track a little bit, and we don’t know how it will develop like we do at other tracks where we have been often.
I’m not happy with the result but I think we are close enough to be competitive tomorrow.

(Rain chances)
"That always seems to be a question mark about this track: when it will rain, how hard it will rain and for how long.
We cannot do anything about that except react to it and be in the right spot."

TOMMY MILNER, NO. 4 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R – QUALIFIED EIGHTH IN GTLM:

"A lot of people, like us, haven’t been here in awhile. We seem to have a bit of a struggle with car balance.
We are throwing big changes at it to try and improve.
We made another big jump there in qualifying but obviously not enough. We’ll keep working at it.
I feel like we are sort of headed in the right direction, so that is good.
We haven’t lost ourselves yet we are making steady progress.
Our position isn’t ideal but the pace isn’t that far off, knowing how the car felt in qualifying.
It felt to me like there should and could be more performance in the car. We just need to find it and unlock it."

GTLM Qualifying, slower times for the C7.Rs for starting of race Sunday

LEXINGTON, Ohio (May 6, 2018) – Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia earned a podium finish Sunday in Corvette Racing’s return to Mid-Ohio Sports Car in the Acura Sports Car Challenge at Mid-Ohio.
The duo piloted their No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C7.R to a third-place finish in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s GT Le Mans (GTLM) class.

The result vaulted Garcia and Magnussen into a fourth-place tie for the GTLM Driver Championship with Corvette teammates Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner.
They placed eighth in GTLM on Sunday in the No. 4 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C7.R as the team returned to Mid-Ohio for the first time since 2012.

Chevrolet is third in GTLM Manufacturer points – three points out of first place – as Corvette Racing takes a break from IMSA competition to travel to the 24 Hours of Le Mans for the 19th consecutive season.

The Garcia/Magnussen duo began fifth, but Garcia gained a spot on the opening lap.
The close level of competition and constant traffic around Mid-Ohio meant the No. 3 Corvette held its position for the middle of the race.

It wasn’t easy, especially for Magnussen who was part of a three-way fight for third place in class inside the final 40 minutes.
He hung tough and made his move going into the first corner with 27 minutes left to move into podium position.

Milner and Gavin started eighth, but the No. 4 Corvette moved up through the field with a strong start from Milner.
He drove the opening hour before handing off to Gavin.
The No. 4 squad had some of the worst luck with traffic and opted to pit with 70 minutes left in hopes of catching a caution period to gain track position.
Unfortunately the race went green for the entire two hours and 40 minutes. Gavin eventually had to take a late splash of fuel two laps from the end.

Corvette Racing’s next event is the 24 Hours of Le Mans on June 16-17. The team has won eight times in the French enduro.

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

“That was hard to watch, because I really don’t like to be watching! I prefer to be in the car. But Jan did a really, really, really good job.
The whole race went according to plan. Fifth wasn’t good enough to be up front and fight for the win, but we started to make up positions like we always do.
We started to see that strategy was a key thing here. We kind of managed to fight the Fords and we lost some time fighting them on everything.

That is what probably allowed the 25 BMW to go crazy on strategy and that is when they went ahead of us. We learned from that, too.
We are usually the ones doing crazy strategies like they did. It paid off for them.
When you are in the lead pack, you need to do what we did. We got some good points over our competitors.
I’m happy on how everything worked against the actual pace we had today. Porsche really deserved that win.
Next time I will be a little bit faster in qualifying so we can fight for the win.”

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

“For how things developed, this is not a bad result.
Obviously we would like to have had the pace of the Porsche and BMW today but we kind of got in the middle of them, so only one of each got ahead. It was a good race good strategy and good pit stops from the crew as usual.
We had a good race car. It was all-around fun. I had really a fun battle with Joey (Hand).
We got a little racey but it was good fun. Hopefully we get to have more good racing like that throughout the year. I really enjoyed it.“

OLIVER GAVIN, NO. 4 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R – FINISHED EIGHTH IN GTLM:

“We had to gamble a bit today.
We were chasing a chassis imbalance all weekend, and we tried something in the warmup.
But things just didn’t go our way with the start and traffic.
Tommy really got balked in a couple spots, and it seemed like that happened more often than not to stop our progress.
Then we had to come in with two laps left for a splash of fuel. It was that sort of day.
It seemed like we had similar pace to everyone else a lot of the time but there wasn’t enough pace to get by anyone.
It’s a bit of a frustrating day but we’ll move on and learn from this for the big one – Le Mans.”

TOMMY MILNER, NO. 4 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R – FINISHED EIGHTH IN GTLM:

“I was pretty happy with that first stint.
We’re staying in touch with the cars ahead of us, depending on traffic.
Maybe we were a little off but we were close enough where we could race of the most part. It’s definitely tough at Mid-Ohio.
There aren’t a lot of tracks where you have a car that you’ve felt like you’ve worked on all weekend, and this is one of those.
The racing was good and fun. It was chaotic at times with passing GTD cars and being passed by P cars.
We struggled a little bit with balance, but I don’t think we’re alone on that. I didn’t seen anyone out there who was super happy with their cars.”

Porsche’s day at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
After the No. 911 Porsche 911 RSR of Nick Tandy went from second to the lead on the race’s opening lap – and subsequently led the race’s first 55 minutes – it was the driver of the No. 912 Porsche entry
Earl Bamber, who later assumed the lead with 90 minutes remaining in the two-hour, 40-minute race. With co-driver Laurens Vanthoor, Bamber never looked back, only losing the lead on a series of green flag pit stops to win the Acura Sports Car Challenge by 1.673 seconds.

In total, Porsche led 90 of the GT Le Mans (GTLM) class’ 118 laps on the day.

“We had really smart strategy that gave us the lead at the pit stop,” said Vanthoor, who picked up his first career IMSA win.
“It gave us a good gap, but I had to try and control it a bit with the tires.
I knew the guys behind me wanted to catch me, but I didn’t want to destroy my tires too much, which isn’t easy. It was a very stressful one and a half hours.
I was happy when it was done and finally we won.

“I had to wait one-and-a-half years to get my first win. We’ve had some opportunities as well, but it always went wrong for some reason.
Finally, it worked out and it’s a huge relief.”
It was Porsche’s second win in four IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTLM class starts this season, with the No. 911 of full-time drivers Tandy and Patrick Pilet joining Frédéric Makowiecki in a victory in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts in March.

While Porsche won the race, the No. 25 BMW M8 GTE of Connor De Phillippi certainly made it interesting.
As is typical in the ultra-competitive GTLM class, four different manufacturers made up the top four positions with the No. 3 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C7.R of Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen rounding out the podium, and the No. 66 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT of Joey Hand and Dirk Mueller finishing fourth.
All eight cars in the class finished on the lead lap.

“This was a two-hour, 40-minute race and I think the top six or seven cars were covered by 28 seconds by the end of the race,” said Bamber. “I think that shows how great the BoP is and how great IMSA is doing.
You can’t make a little mistake or you’re at the back.
But that’s why we’re here, to race the best and make it a tight fight and we love it.”