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(SALINAS, Calif., May 10, 2013) – Oliver Gavin, driver of the No. 4 Compuware Corvette C6.R, qualified fourth (1:22.924 secs.) in the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) GT Class at Laguna Seca. Antonio Garcia, qualified sixth (1:23.042) in the No. 3 Compuware Corvette C6.R on the 2.238-mile, 11-turn road course.

“The car was pretty decent and it took a while for the tires to come in,” Gavin said about his qualifying lap at Laguna Seca today. “I thought we found a pretty good spot on the track but the Viper was a little bit in the way on the front. Unfortunately on the lap when it all started to come together, the Viper was right there when I came into the corkscrew which is a shame because I lost some time but I got by him and then the next lap I wasn’t so good getting into one and then into two and I never quite seemed to be able to string it together again. I don’t think we had enough to get on pole, but I think we had enough to get third.”

Gavin teamed with Milner to win the GT class in last year’s event at Laguna Seca, finishing 3.45 seconds ahead of the No. 3 Corvette C6.R, driven by Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen for a 1-2 finish. Gavin will again team with Tommy Milner this year. The two won the 2012 ALMS drivers’ championship, and opened the 2013 season with a victory at Sebring last month.

“Where we are right now with the car with the weight we have got on and everything else, I think we are pretty much maxed-out,” Gavin continued. “So I am relatively happy with the start position because it’s a four hour race and plenty can happen. Last year we proved that we could win races from third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and we didn’t have to be on pole. Very rarely does the pole sitter win anyway. So we just have to hit it right tomorrow and tires are going to be important and getting your pressures right with the track temperatures is going to be vitally important. It’s going to be important because it’s an hour and fifteen minutes longer than the standard race. Strategy is going to play a big part tomorrow.”

Garcia, who qualified the No. Corvette C6.R in sixth position also was not concerned with his starting position for tomorrow’s race.

“I could say that traffic was an issue, but it’s just three tenths and that was the difference in being on the pole or not,” Garcia said. “I am happy with how the car is behaving and if we had a cleaner run and more open track, then we could have been faster for sure. But I am not too concerned, especially in this race because it’s completely opposite to Long Beach where it was a complete sprint race. At Long Beach we had only one stop, and with a four-hour race here its going to be a minimum of three stops. Starting position is important, but I think the best thing is to have a really good car that can fight through the race and that is what I am happy with.”

Garcia will team with Jan Magnussen for tomorrow’s race.

The other top-ten qualifiers for Saturday’s race in ALMS GT competition were, No. 62 Ferrari F458 Italia (1st), No. 05 Porche 911 GT3 RSR (2nd), No. 17 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (3rd), No. 55 BMW Z4 GTE (5th), No. 23 Ferrari F458 Italia (7th), No. 56 BMW Z4 GTE (8th), No. 91 SRT Viper GTS-R (9th) and the No. 48 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (10th).

Corvette Racing has 78 ALMS class victories, including four in 2012, making it the most successful team in American Le Mans Series history.

The American Le Mans Monterey for theTequila Patron American Le Mans Series at Laguna Seca starts at 3:30 p.m. Pacific time on Saturday, May 11th.

 http://www.prnewschannel.com/2013/05/10/rare-chevrolet-corvette-c6rs-supercar-races-to-ebay-auction-block/

(PR NewsChannel) / May 10, 2013 / LOS ANGELES

A Chevrolet Corvette C6RS Supercar will have a new owner once the eBay auction (#151042384280) ends on May 19.

One of only seven produced, and at a cost of over $330,000 with a year’s worth of time to build, this car is only the 2nd completed C6RS to be publicly offered for sale.

In 2007, General Motors (NYSE:GM) approached Pratt and Miller Engineering and asked them to build a special street version of their legendary GT1 class C6R racecar. The car was planned to be presented to Jay Leno.

Pratt Miller delivered the ultimate race car built as a street legal American supercar for GM, making the C6RS the only factory authorized and sponsored re-build/re-make of their venerable C6 Corvette.

Pratt Miller is the company that designed, built, supported and raced the Chevrolet Corvette C5R and C6R racing cars for GM since 1998.

The C6RS project was authorized and sponsored by the Chevrolet/Corvette division of General Motors a few years ago and the first of these seven supercars was given to Jay Leno by GM. Of the other six street legal race machines, only four are in private hands since Pratt Miller retained one and Jim Miller kept the other.

The vehicle listed on eBay, serial number C6RS003, was specially ordered and built for Pratt Miller’s official race photographer.

This specific C6RS Corvette was built as close as possible to the C5R and C6R race cars that were used by the Corvette Racing Team that earned an amazing five wins at the 24-Hours of Le Mans, the ultimate worldwide racing test along with seven American Le Mans Series GT championships since 2000.

The C6RS is a performance car powered by a 600+ HP Katech Aluminum 8.2 liter small block engine with a T-56 six-speed manual transmission and a light weight carbon fiber body.

The C6RS003 goes several steps beyond its C6RS siblings with several unique features that hold it out to be one of one in existence. Some car aficionados say it is hard to appreciate the car without seeing it in person and experiencing it’s presence and power.

The American made supercar features European interior refinements, race track features and unbelievable performance.

2013 is the 60th Anniversary for the Chevrolet Corvette, the car dubbed “America’s sports car.” This year, numerous auto shows and car races will feature the Corvette Marquis at their events.

This C6RS supercar is a Corvette enthusiasts dream as it promises to be the closest thing to a race car that can be driven comfortably down the road.

To view or bid on the Chevrolet CorvetteC6RS, visit the eBay auction page.

Media Contact

Mark Knass

Mark Knass & Associates

(949)642-7447

MarkKnassAssoc@aol.com

SOURCE: Mark Knass & Associates

O’Connell has heartbreaking last lap

LONG BEACH,Calif., (April 21, 2013) – Andy Pilgrim finished second in today’s Pirelli World Challenge Championships Long Beach Grand Prix presented by Kia. Teammate Johnny O’Connell suffered a heartbreaking last lap engine issue.

At the start of the 50-minute race through the streets of Long Beach, Pilgrim and O’Connell both had very strong starts from their seventh and fifth-place starting positions. By Turn One, O’Connell was third and Pilgrim had moved to fifth. The Cadillac duo was taking advantage of every opportunity in the early laps. On lap two, O’Connell passed Sofronas in the Audi (the eventual winner) for second place. Two circuits later Pilgrim moved past the Corvette of Mike Skeen to take over fourth position. The first of two full course cautions flew on lap 15. The subsequent restart on lap 20 had the top four GT competitors nose-to-tail. Six laps later the lead Volvo (No. 9 of Alex Figge) had a brake issue and spun going into Turn One, giving O’Connell the lead. Soon after the Flowery Branch, Ga. resident radioed that he had lost water pressure. At the same moment, the second full-course flag flew. The team had O’Connell nursing the Cadillac CTS-V Coupe around under the yellow when eventually he came to a stop just five turns from the checkered flag robbing him of a win. After the race Team Cadillac pulled a three-inch piece of steel from the radiator of the No. 3 Cadillac that came from the Volvo.

For Pilgrim (Boca Raton, Fla.), the two-front cars going out in a matter of two laps moved him into second place behind the winning Audi.

“At the start the whole right side of the field never went,” Pilgrim said. “Randy [Pobst, No. 6 Volvo] had problems and the Audi was stuck behind him. I thought this is great! I got a really good run into Turn One. Skeen came inside me into one, I never I saw him. It was a good move.”

“There were some GTS cars in front of me on the restart. We are not allowed to pull out to pass until we are at the start/finish line. I was a little concerned, but I pulled right and got a good run. The car was a little slippery in the rear. I had to be careful when I pointed it into the apex.”

“It was a shame what happened to Johnny,” Pilgrim said of his teammate. “That is really bad luck. I thought he was going to be able to nurse the car around to the finish.”

O’Connell was just three-quarters of a mile from winning the race.

“We got an awesome start,” O’Connell said. “The guys at Cadillac Racing have been really working on our starting procedures. We are improving. No one is going to beat the Volvo, at least not yet.”

“It was a good battle at the front. I tried to get around Sofronas a couple of times. Then on lap two we went into Turn One, he couldn’t get his car pointed in and I raced him to the fountain and won that battle. I set off to try and run down Figge. By that time, he had a really good gap. I was pushing hard to open up space to the Audi behind me, while looking after my Cadillac for the end of the race. Everything was going to plan.”

“When Figge broke his rotor, I thought yeah,” O’Connell said. “You don’t wish him to be hurt, but I am leading the race. I took a big piece of shrapnel into the radiator of my car. I had to keep it running for eight minutes. We ended up being about two minutes short. On the positive side for the team, we come away from the weekend with a good points day for Andy and Cadillac.”

The Long Beach Grand Prix presented by Kia will run Sunday will be televised on NBC Sports, Sunday, May 5 at 2 p.m. EDT.

The Pirelli World Challenge Series will run the Cadillac Sports Car Challenge at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Tex. May 17-19.

John Edwards and Robin Liddell Take Chevrolet Camaro GT.R to Top Podium Spot in GT for Second Consecutive Race

With GS Win Earlier in the Day, Edwards Becomes Only Fourth GRAND-AM Driver to Win Two Races in One Day

BRASELTON, Ga. (April 20, 2013) – Continuing their winning ways, the Stevenson Motorsports duo of John Edwards and Robin Liddell led the field at Road Atlanta to the checkered flag, and brought their No. 57 Stevenson Motorsports Camaro GT.R to Victory Lane for a second-consecutive week. The pair started sixth when qualifying was rained out, and the starting grid was set on team point standings for the Video Studio Ultimate Grand Prix of Atlanta, Round 4 on the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series 2013 schedule.

With strong driving skills and good pit strategy, they were able to keep their Camaro in the front of the field at the conclusion of the 2.75-hour race. The victory marks Liddell’s 20th career win in the GT division and Edward’s sixth.

Earlier in the day, Edwards won the PricewaterhouseCoopers 250 for the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge in the No. 9 Stevenson Motorsports Camaro GS.R, to join Michael Valiante, Bill Auberlen and Paul Dalla Lana (twice) as GRAND-AM’s only drivers to win two races in one day. Matt Bell shared the driving duties with Edwards in getting the Grand Sport class win. The run moves the team up to third (unofficially) in the team point standings with eight races remaining in 2013.

“Congratulations to Stevenson Motorsports on the team’s win in both Rolex Series GT, and Continental Tire Challenge GS,” said Jim Lutz, Chevrolet Racing Program Manager, GRAND-AM Road Racing. “Both classes are very competitive, so to get one victory a weekend is an accomplishment, but to win in both classes is a remarkable feat. The teams and the drivers executed perfectly, putting together great race strategies for both cars.

“In addition, congratulations to John Edwards for scoring the “double” win. He and his co-drivers, Robin Liddell in GT and Matt Bell in GS, drove very smart races to get to the top of the podium in both classes.”

In the Daytona Prototype (DP) class the No. 99 GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing Corvette DP, with drivers Alex Gurney and Jon Fogarty behind the wheel, finished third in the inaugural race for the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series at Road Atlanta to score the team’s third-consecutive 2013 season podium finish. The No. 90 Spirit of Daytona team of Richard Westbrook and Ricky Taylor brought home a fifth-place finish.

Other Team Chevy finishers in the 2.5-hour Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge race were Lawson Aschenbach and Eric Curran who brought the No. 01 CKS Autosport Camaro GS.R to the checkered flag in seventh-place; and, Ashley McCalmont and Bob Michaelian who finished 14th in-class driving the No. 00 CKS Autosport Camaro GS.R.

The next event for Team Chevy in GRAND-AM Road Racing Rolex Sports Car Series will be the Chevrolet GRAND-AM Detroit 200 at Belle Isle Park, in Detroit, Michigan, May 31 – June 1. The GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series race can be seen live on SPEED, Saturday, June 1, at 5:00 p.m. EDT. The Continental Tire Sports Car Series’ next race will be at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on Saturday, June 15th at 12:00 a.m., with television coverage set for broadcast on June 23, 4:00 p.m. EDT on SPEED.

TEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUOTES:

ROLEX SPORTS CAR SERIES RACE:

ROBIN LIDDELL, NO. 57 STEVENSON MOTORSPORTS CAMARO GT.R – WINNER

WHAT WAS IT ABOUT TODAY THAT JUST CLICKED FOR YOUR STEVENSON TEAM?

“Well we have got a super crew and obviously Mike (??) and the guys from Pratt and Miller on the perch supporting us with strategy and what they do collectively. John (Edwards, co-driver) obviously did a great opening stint. We are not that high in the points so it was always going to be tough for him. We knew we didn’t have a car that was very strong on the back straight which is what a lot of it is all about here. Over a stint we felt we had a decent car. A lot of it was unknown for everybody because we haven’t raced here before with these cars on these tires, so we didn’t know what the degradation was going to be like. We did struggle a bit on old tires. It really came down to thinking on our feet. The guys made a good call to pit early, take the tires and try and establish a gap with some quick laps when everybody else was falling off. Essentially that is what we were able to do. Really happy, again, we have won today like two weeks ago in Barber (Motorsports Park) with ultimately not the quickest car out there but some great team work, some great pit work from the guys.”

ROUGH START TO THE SEASON FOR YOU GUYS DO YOU FEEL LIKE THAT IS BEHIND YOU?

“You never know if it’s behind you. It’s pretty bad to have two poor finishes right in the first two races, but this is a team that always fights hard and we never give up. We always look to improve and we have some super people, great engineering support and great crew guys. We are usually a team for the last five years we have always been a team that on any given weekend we are always threatening for a win. I don’t think this year is going to be any different.”

JOHN EDWARDS, NO. 57 STEVENSON MOTORSPORTS CAMARO GT.R – WINNER

YOU WON THE GS RACE EARLIER TODAY GET IN THE GT CAR AND YOU WIN AGAIN. WAS THERE ANY CHALLENGE TO YOU AT THIS TRACK? OR WAS IT SOMETHING THAT YOU JUST QUICKLY ADAPTED TO?

“I think if you were watching the races it was always a big challenge. In the GS race Andy Lally was pressuring me at the end and I was really thankful for that yellow to take the pressure off of me. My stint in this race was relatively uneventful. We had to work through a little bit of traffic in the beginning starting sixth based on where we were in points. Then Andrew (Davis) was running well in the Porsche and they were getting a good run off the No. 7 so I never really had a chance to get by him except with some traffic and never really made it work. We came out of the pits in second when Robin (Liddell, co-driver) got in the car and the team made a great call to pit early, got Robin in the lead, had fresh rubber at the end and he made a hell of a pass on Alessandro (Balzan) to take the lead.”

CONTINENTAL TIRE SPORTS CAR CHALLENGE RACE:

MATT BELL, NO. 9 STEVENSON MOTORSPORTS CAMARO GS.R – WINNER

GREAT POINTS WEEKEND FOR YOU GUYS:

“It’s pretty surprising. I don’t think we have ever been in this position before. Really the team is working better than they ever have before. The pit stops, I think we gained something like 10 seconds on pit stops today. Everyone is just working overtime. The engineering stand they figured out this car without too much testing time. Obviously we were rained out yesterday so I am just completely impressed with everything. The car is exactly what we needed of it. John (Edwards, co-driver) had an incredible drive. So far we are looking pretty good in this championship.”

JOHN EDWARDS, NO. 9 STEVENSON MOTORSPORTS CAMARO GS.R – WINNER

PRETTY INCREDIBLE BACK-TO-BACK THERE SECOND LAST WEEK AND A WIN THIS WEEK:

“I think last week we were leading and I was a little bitter with a missed shift to lose it. I think we had a better car today. (Andy) Lally was there at the end I think we were pretty equal on lap time, but he was a little quicker down the straights but not as good in the brake zones. I think over one lap we were about even, but that made it stressful when his speed was coming from the straightaway and mine was coming from the brake zone because I had to work really hard there at the end. Awesome running with him I think we stayed clean. I didn’t think there was a scratch on the car, but I see some rubber so I know I got super sideways when I was next to Lally so I might have rubbed him there a little bit but other than that a really clean race.”

LONG BEACH,Calif., (April 20, 2013) – Johnny O’Connell and Andy Pilgrim will start their Cadillac CTS-V race cars from the fifth and seventh positions for tomorrow’s 50-minute Pirelli World Challenge Championships Long Beach Grand Prix presented by Kia.

O’Connell (Flowery Branch, Geor.) and Pilgrim (Boca Raton, Fla.), along with the rest of the GT field, have been dealing with limited run time on the concrete lined 1.98-mile, 11-turn temporary street course surrounding the Long Beach Aquarium and Convention Center. In Friday’s practice, a couple of GT competitors experienced engine failures and issues that caused red flags stopping the action as well as spilling fluid on the track. The only quality laps were done this morning prior to qualifying. O’Connell and Pilgrim relied on their Long Beach racing experience and the data and guidance of Team Cadillac to set up their cars for qualifying.

In the 15-minute qualifying session O’Connell recorded a fast lap of 1:21.742, good for fifth place and a third row starting position in GT. Pilgrim posted a lap of 1:21.963 good for seventh, which will have him starting directly behind his teammate tomorrow afternoon.

“Twenty minutes on a Saturday morning, you need more practice time than that at a track like Long Beach,” O’Connell said. “I think every team is struggling with something, just due to lack of track time. One of the cars left a lot of gear oil on the race track on Friday. Then this morning the Corvette had a big wreck. We lost a lot of valuable track time. This sort of situation plays into the hands of Cadillac Racing. We have great data, engineering and a lot of laps here in other cars.”

O’Connell’s qualifying time was an improvement from 2012.

“I am pleased with my qualifying run. I ran a 1:22.1 last year, being 122 lbs. heavier. I went quicker this year, as I should. We qualified about where we expected to be.”

“You have to go hard right from the start,” O’Connell explained about the beginning of the race. “But, it is never worth taking a chance and wrecking your car. You have to wait and see and be ready to take advantage of every inch.”

Pilgrim, last year’s GT class winner, is relying on experience for this weekend.

“Practice on Friday was a bit of mess,” Pilgrim said. “We had a couple of crashes, a few engine blow-ups and someone was spewing gear oil on the track. That can’t be helped. What should have been a 30-minute session ended up being one or two laps at speed. That meant that the 20-minute session before qualifying this morning was really important. Luckily, we had a good run for 10-minutes, before the red flag. We literally had three or four laps before qualifying. It helps that we know the place and have raced here several times before. We did the best we could. The car was pretty good. I am a little quicker than last year.”

“I had a good qualifying run. There were some waving yellow flags in Turn One, so I didn’t get my third lap. I ran my fastest lap on the fourth circuit, so that was pretty good.”

“We don’t know how they race,” Pilgrim said about the new faces that will start in front of him tomorrow. “I am going to have to be aggressive at the start. I can’t afford to wait. Like St. Pete, we are in the same fifth to seventh range on the grid. A few of the guys in front of us are fast down the straights, but not so quick in the corners. So we have to take advantage when we can. It will require a lot of patience. Last year, the race went green the whole way, but I don’t think that is going to happen this year. Judging by what we have seen in the two practice sessions so far. But you never know.”

The Pirelli World Challenge Series Long Beach Grand Prix presented by Kia will run Sunday, April 21. The races from Long Beach will be televised on NBC Sports, Sunday, May 5 at 2 p.m. EDT.

Tied for Manufacturer Lead After 2 Rounds

LONG BEACH, Calif., April 20, 2013) – Corvette Racing scored two top-five finishes at Long Beach to maintain a share of the lead in the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) Manufacturer Standings through the first two races of the season.

Tommy Milner and Oliver Gavin, drove the No. 4 Compuware Corvette C6.R to a fourth-place finish in the GT class in the two-hour Tequila Patron American Le Mans Series at Long Beach on the 1.968-mile, 11-turn street circuit. Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen finished fifth in the No. 3 Compuware Corvette C6.R.

“As we saw in qualifying, the cars are just so close in performance,” Milner said. “We were in a good spot, but just a little unlucky there.”

Milner, who earned his first career ALMS race at this event last year, qualified sixth and had driven up to fourth when the team pitted with just over an hour remaining, and changed drivers. During the exchange, the team had a difficult time securing the steering wheel.

“Pretty much our race was so dictated by that pit stop where I got in and really just struggled to get the wheel on,” Gavin said. During the stop the team also experienced some trouble with one of the tires, and “the wheel got spun around and I was then trying to find the point where it had to slot on, and it wasn’t so easy to see. By the time I got it on, everybody else had finished up their pit stops and we came out pretty much at the back.”

Garcia, meanwhile, started fourth and quickly moved toward the front.

“Everything went to plan, basically,” Garcia said. “We knew how usually the first lap works here. I basically put pressure on, and the two cars in front of me both went off so I kind of made myself a little bit of a gap and made a pass on both.”

But, a series cautions slowed the No. 3 Corvette C6.R’s momentum, and brought pit strategy into play.

“All of those yellows – especially that first one, it was like flipping a coin,” Garcia said. “I think it was the right call to stay out, but then with all of these yellows coming after is where being in the lead wasn’t such an advantage anymore.”

The No. 3 Corvette C6.R was running second when the driver change was made.

“It started off pretty well,” Magnussen said. “I think the way the strategy and the pit stops worked out really hurt us. It seemed like everybody else was trying to salvage something and kind of went out of sequence and gained really well on it, and we lost on it, unfortunately. We were struggling a little bit too much right there at the end with grip.”

With less than 15 minutes remaining, Gavin passed Magnussen for fourth place.

“It was another learning lesson for us,” said Gavin, who teamed with Milner and Richard Westbrook last month to win the season-opening Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring. “It was good just to score the points in the championship, to get fourth place, I’ll take that every day with how rough that race was. It was pretty nasty at times, and difficult, and traffic was hard. There was plenty of bumping and banging, and you just have to try and keep the car clean. There were a number of times where I thought, ‘Oh, this could get pretty messy here. We’re going to lose a corner off the car.’ Or, it was just sliding and sliding and you were just hoping that it was going to stop sliding before we ended up hitting the wall, and fortunately it did.”

The No. 55 BMW Z4 GTE won the race, followed by the No. 56 BMW Z4 GTE, the No. 91 SRT Viper GTS-R, and the two Corvettes.

Unofficially, Chevrolet and BMW share the Manufacturers Standings with 34 points apiece.

“Those guys battled the whole race,” said Jim Campbell, Chevrolet Vice President of Performance Vehicles and Motorsports. “I would say tires were a factor throughout the race. It was tricky out there. I commend the whole Corvette Racing team for really staying focused and driving toward the front. You know, a couple of cars in front of us were a little tight on gas. We didn’t get them today, but it was a good points day and momentum in the season continues. So, on to Monterrey.”

The ALMS season resumes with Round 3 on May 9-11 with the American Le Mans Series Monterey (Calif.) at Laguna Seca, where Gavin and Milner won last year.

Long Beach Results

1. 1. #55 BMW Z4 GTE (Auberlin/Martín)
2. 2. #56 BMW Z4 GTE (D. Muller/Hand)
3. 3. #91 SRT Viper GTS-R (Farnbacher/Goossens)
4. 4. #4 Chevrolet Corvette C6.R (Gavin/Milner)
5. 5. #3 Chevrolet Corvette C6.R (Magnussen/Garcia)
6. 6. #48 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (Miller/Holzer)
7. 7. #23 Ferrari F458 Italia (Sweedler/Bell)
8. 8. #93 SRT Viper GTS-R (Bomarito/Wittmer)
9. 9. #62 Ferrari F458 Italia (Beretta/Malucelli)
10. 10. #17 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (Henzler/Sellers)

(LONG BEACH, Calif., April 19, 2013) – Jan Magnussen, driver of the No. 3 Compuware Corvette C6.R, qualified fourth (1:19.047 secs.) in the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) GT Class at Long Beach. Tommy Milner, who won his first ALMS race at this event last year, qualified sixth (1:19.083) in the No. 4 Compuware Corvette C6.R on the 1.968-mile, 11-turn Long Beach Street Circuit.

“We definitely made some good improvements between practice and qualifying,” Magnussen said. “It’s always hard here because there’s such a long time between the two sessions, so you really have to think about how the track is going to develop, so I think we made some good choices. We’ll go back and look at some old data and fine-tune a little bit, but overall, I’d be happy to race this car.”

Magnussen added that the No. Corvette C6.R experienced a minor problem during practice, but it was fixed before qualifying.

“We had a small issue shifting this morning. Fixed. All gone,” Magnussen said. “I’m really looking forward to tomorrow.”

Magnussen will team with Antonio Garcia for tomorrow’s race.

Milner will again team with Oliver Gavin. The two won the 2012 ALMS drivers’ championship, and opened the 2013 season with a victory at Sebring last month.

“Obviously, it’s super, super close, as it always is in GT,” Milner said. “So, the position doesn’t sound great; sixth is not what I was hoping for, but it was only two-tenths off the pole. That’s pretty close.

“Obviously, I’d love to get a win here again, like I did last year, my first win in ALMS, but at the end of the day is the championship and finishing the race and keeping the nose of the car clean, give it to Oliver and let him work his magic like he did last year.”

Corvette Racing has 78 ALMS class victories, including four in 2012, making it the most successful team in American Le Mans Series history.

The Tequila Patron American Le Mans Series at Long Beach starts at 4:30 p.m. Pacific time on Saturday, April 20.

 http://media.gm.com/product/public/us/en/gmracing

(LONG BEACH, Calif., April 19, 2013) – Corvette Racing returns to where its championship season in 2012 earned its first of four victories: The 1.968-mile, 11-turn Long Beach Street Circuit.

Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner, co-drivers of the No. 4 Compuware Corvette C6.R, won at Long Beach last year en route to the Team and Driver championships. It was their first victory as a team, and Milner’s first victory in the American Le Mans Series.

“Long Beach was the start of the run to the Championship for Tommy and me,” Gavin said. “As you so often have to be on street races, we were a little lucky in that the two cars in front of us on the grid had issues on the fourth corner of the race and their race was compromised from there on. We still had to battle our way from then on to the front but our car was good straight off and that was a big plus point.”

One of the keys at Long Beach, Gavin said, is the very last turn.

“The most important corner on the track is the last one and getting off that corner well is vital for lap time and opportunities to overtake other cars,” Gavin said. “If you can get into someone’s tow on the straight it’s the best chance you get to pass others going into Turn 1. Street tracks are always a bit of a lottery, but if you are able to switch on your tires fast, ride the bumps easily and go through and off the corners well, you’ve got a good chance to be fast.”

Doug Fehan, Corvette Racing Program Manager, agrees that luck is important, particularly on street courses.

“There’s a formula that I like to extoll, and it’s for any race: It’s 25 percent great car, 25 percent great team and 50 percent good luck,” Fehan said. “And that gets modified just a little bit when you go to street races, and the good-luck portion plays a much greater role. Because you have a great car and a great team, but in a street race anything can happen to you – from turn one, lap one to turn 10, final lap of the race. You’ve got to have good fortune on your side. Anybody who wins at Long Beach, has good fortune on that day. That’s just the way street races work.”

Corvette Racing, which also won the 2012 ALMS Manufacturer Championship, opened the 2013 season with a victory last month. Milner made a late pass for the lead and held on for the final 15 minutes as the No. 4 GT Compuware Corvette C6.R overcame an early electrical issue and two key penalties to win the GT class 61st Annual Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring at Sebring International Raceway.

Fehan thinks the one-month break between the first two races will be a good thing for the two Corvette Racing teams.

“It lets the guys wind down a little bit, and you clearly get to take more time and get the car correct and ready for the next race,” Fehan said. “There’s a huge emotional build-up to that event at Sebring, and a huge emotional release when you’re victorious, so to have a little extra time to catch your breath, get yourself sorted out, and enjoy and contemplate what you’ve accomplished, and then re-focus on what you have to do. So, the break is actually pretty good.”

The No. 3 Compuware Corvette C6.R, driven by Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen, looks to bounce back from an electrical issue at Sebring.

“The issues that we had with the 3 team at Sebring were just devastating,” Fehan said. “As it turns out, a simple little pin on one little wire, and it took those guys out of contention – and they had a car that was good enough to win. Now, if you do this game long enough, you’re going to have those experiences. Everybody goes through that. They all want to perform at their optimum, they all want to make sure that they bring a car that they know can win. And they did that at Sebring. It just didn’t work out. It was one of those racing bad days. As quickly as that can happen to you, it can turn around. I think they are very energized by that, I think they know that at a street race it is anybody’s ballgame and the 3 guys are not at all down and out about it at this point. You go home, you get past it and you come back harder than ever.”

Corvette Racing has 78 ALMS class victories, including four in 2012, making it the most successful team in American Le Mans Series history.

The Tequila Patron American Le Mans Series at Long Beach starts at 4:30 p.m. Pacific time on Saturday, April 20. GT Qualifying is at 5:25 p.m. Pacific time on Friday.

St. PETERSBURG, Fla., (April 16, 2013) – Johnny O’Connell and Andy Pilgrim are ready to take on round three of the Pirelli World Challenge Championships Long Beach Grand Prix presented by Kia on Sunday, April 21.

O’Connell (Flowery Branch, Geor.) and Pilgrim (Boca Raton, Fla.) sit fourth and fifth respectively in GT points based upon their finishes in round one at St. Petersburg last month. Since that time the team has run some test laps at Sebring, making up for lost time in the off season. The concrete lined 1.98-mile, 11-turn temporary street course surrounding the Long Beach Aquarium and Convention Center is the longest active street race in North America, having hosted the first race in 1975.

O’Connell used the first race of the Pirelli World Challenge season to size up his competition.

“St. Pete was the first opportunity for us to get a feel of what the competition level of the GT competitors will be for the 2013 season,” O’Connell said. “I honestly had one of the best race cars I’ve had in ages and even with driving a strong race ended up third only through attrition. My strategy for this weekend is to push hard, make no mistakes, and make sure to finish every lap.”

“Long Beach is a circuit that I very much enjoy driving. There are several good overtaking areas as well challenging turns. Of course qualifying is always important, if for nothing else, seeing how perfect a lap you can do.”

The Georgia resident has had success at Long Beach.

“I have some very good racing memories of Long Beach,” O’Connell continued. “My first race there was in 1986 in Formula Mazda. My favorite memory, so far, would have to be winning with Jan Magnussen in the Corvette in 2008. A peculiar memory would be racing Indy Lights in 1991 when a broken water main flooded the hairpin about five minutes into our first session.”

Last year’s Long Beach performance ranks high with Pilgrim.

“Winning last year is easily my favorite racing memory at Long beach,” Pilgrim said. “I had podiums before, but never the top step, that was very special. I raced there the first time in 1994. I have about eight Long Beach races under my belt.”

The 2012 Pirelli World Challenge Championship GT point’s runner-up will put a premium on qualifying this weekend.

“Qualifying is important. The race is only 50-minutes long and a lot of things can happen on a closed street circuit. It will also be vital to get a good start. It is hard to pass at Long Beach. You have to save the tires as they can become very slippery towards the end of the race, particularly if the race goes all green like it did last year.”

“I personally think the run from Turn Six to the exit of Turn Eight is critical on this track. I try to be very clean and as late as I can on the brakes, but still keep good momentum. You can really gap people here if you keep momentum through the apex of these three turns.”

The Pirelli World Challenge Series Long Beach Grand Prix presented by Kia will run Sunday, April 21. The races from Long Beach will be televised on NBC Sports, Sunday, May 5 at 2 p.m. EDT.