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.

O’Connell post two third place finishes

St. PETERSBURG, Fla., (March 24, 2013) – Johnny O’Connell and Andy Pilgrim drove their Cadillac CTS-V race cars to third and fifth-place finishes in race two of the Pirelli World Challenge Championships Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg this morning.

O’Connell and Pilgrim improved one position each on the final standings from race one at St. Pete yesterday. The “gift” was the result of the Porsche of Ryan Dalziel, yesterday’s GT race winner, being disqualified in post-race inspection for the front splitter being out of compliance. As a result O’Connell was granted third place and Pilgrim fourth.

Based upon their fastest race laps from yesterday, O’Connell started today’s round two of the double event weekend from fourth, with teammate Pilgrim starting directly behind him in sixth. Unlike the first race, the Pirelli World Challenge officials went back to the traditional standing start for this morning’s race.

With light precipitation in the air, the Cadillac CTS-V racers of O’Connell and Pilgrim jumped off of the starting grid and headed to Turn One. O’Connell was able to put his CTS-V Coupe between the Corvette of Michael Skeen and the apex picking up a position in fifth with teammate Pilgrim following in behind. As the race progressed the threat of rain went away and left the Pirelli World Challenge competitors to run the 50-minute event without a caution. On lap 30, the front runners began to experience problems. Early race leader Alex Figge, No. 9 Volvo, experienced engine problems and retired, he was soon followed in by second place runner Dalziel with a flat tire on his Porsche. Keeping the pressure on, O’Connell was able to drive his No. 3 Cadillac Racing CTS-V Coupe to a podium paying position of third. Pilgrim came to the checkered flag in fifth.

“I slid more than I thought at the start,” O’Connell said. “I ran fifth pretty much the entire race. I ran clean. Looking at the total weekend, I ran about as perfect as I could have yesterday and today. I can honestly say that I got 110% out of the car. Thanks to the misfortune of Dalziel yesterday, I finished third and two guys had trouble in front of me today, which put me on the podium again. Team Cadillac puts great cars under us and we had a pretty good weekend.”

Pilgrim experienced some handling issues in race two.

“There was a tiny bit of precipitation on the warm-up lap, but not enough to affect anyone,” Pilgrim said. “I was able to get a good start. I got by Skeen’s [Mike] Corvette at the start. I knew I was going to be running with him again, like yesterday. He was a little better around more of the track than I was today. As long as I could lean on the brakes, I was alright. We had a slight push in the car all weekend and we just couldn’t quite figure it out. About 15 laps into the race, the brake pedal began to get a little soft, so I had to back out of it.”

Round two of the Pirelli World Challenge Championships Honda St. Peter Grand Prix was won by James Sofronas in an Audi R8.

The Pirelli World Challenge Series, race two, will run tomorrow, Sunday, at 10:25 a.m. The races from St. Pete will be televised on NBC Sports, Sunday, April 7 at 12:30 p.m., EDT. Live streaming can be viewed on race day at world-challengeTV.com.

Rounds three and four of the Pirelli World Challenge Series will be at the Long Beach Grand Prix presented by KIA, April 19-21.

 http://gmauthority.com/blog/2013/03/corvette-racings-secret-weapon-is-the-pratt-miller-radar-camera/

With the start of the 2013 American Le Mans Racing series at last weekend’s 12 Hours of Sebring, Corvette Racing was able to snatch a victory in the GT class with the C6.R race car. The car also featured something special for the first time that may have helped Tommy Milner, Oliver Gavin, and Richard Westbrook win: an innovated rear-view camera system that relays the distance of approaching vehicles, even in the blind spots. And it works in the rain, and in the dark.

The system runs on a custom Linux machine with an Intel Core i3 CPU and uses a rear-facing radar sensor that is capable of tracking up to 32 objects while working in tandem with the camera. Different colors and symbols are displayed on the rearview screen, which allows the driver to easily see race cars that are behind, how close they are, their closing speeds, and even the approaching vehicle’s racing class.

For instance, a green marker means the car behind the Corvette C6.R is falling back, while yellow means it’s moving at the same rate of speed; a red marker indicates that the car is closing the gap and about to pass, with a blinking arrow indicating on which side the C6.R will be passed. To differentiate racing classes, an extra line in the marker indicates when the computer believes the encroaching vehicle to be of a faster class (as shown above).

Pratt Miller claim it to be the only system of its kind in racing, but plans to sell the technology to other teams in the future, with pricing still to be determined. Watch how the radar camera works in this video (visit the following URL):

St. PETERSBURG, Fla., (March 23, 2013) – Team Cadillac’s Johnny O’Connell and Andy Pilgrim finished round one of the Pirelli World Challenge Championships Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg in fourth and fifth respectively this afternoon.

O’Connell and Pilgrim started the 50-minute race together on the third row of the Pirelli World Challenge GT grid based upon their fifth and sixth place qualifying times. For the first of two races this weekend, the series’ officials decided to have the competitors come to the green flag using a rolling start. Tomorrow’s round two will be a traditional standing start.

From the drop of the green flag the Cadillac CTS-V race cars of O’Connell and Pilgrim took up positions in fourth and seventh places. As is the nature of closed street course racing, the parade effect took over. On lap 11 O’Connell was passed going into Turn One, relegating him to fifth position. On lap 26, a full-course caution brought the field back together. On lap 30 the race restarted with a rejuvenated O’Connell and Pilgrim, each able to make up positions on the lap finishing the race in fourth and fifth place.

“The start was pretty clean,” O’Connell said. “I was able to gain a position going into Turn One. The front cars seemed like they could get off of the turns a little better than we could. Early in the race they just inched, inched away and the next thing you know there’s a gap. Then you add in the GTS traffic and you almost lose touch. I had the Audi behind me at the start. It was a matter of time before he was able to get by. On the restart, Randy [Pobst] in the Volvo bobbled in the kink and I was able to get a place back on him. I am pleased with the race. Team Cadillac gave Andy and me great race cars. We will be ready for round two tomorrow.”

Pilgrim had a clean start and was able to make up two positions on the restart.

“Everyone really bunched up quickly on the start,” said Pilgrim. “A lot the guys behind me didn’t get up to the pack in the last turn. The traffic here is unbelievable with so many GTS cars. They are not that far off of us, speed wise, down the straight, but in the turns they are much slower. You have to be so patient with them. I don’t think you’ll see as much patience tomorrow. On the restart, I was able to make a couple of good moves and get some positions. I was able to get inside Skeen [Mike, No. 2 Corvette] in Turn Four and held the position. In Turn 10 Randy [Pobst] got balked a little and I banged in behind Johnny to make the pass. It was tight coming out of that turn, but I got by.”

Round One of the Pirelli World Challenge Series from St. Petersburg was won by Ryan Daiziel in a Porsche 911 GT3.

The Pirelli World Challenge Series, race two, will run tomorrow, Sunday, at 10:25 a.m. The races from St. Pete will be televised on NBC Sports, Sunday, April 7 at 12:30 p.m., EDT. Live streaming can be viewed on race day at world-challengeTV.com.

Written by: John Dagys

Location: Northampton (UK)

Following in the footsteps of his father and brother, Ricky Taylor will get his chance to tackle the world’s greatest endurance race this year, having secured a ride with one of the most successful privateer endurance teams in the business.

The 23-year-old second-generation driver has signed with Larbre Competition for the 90th Le Mans 24 Hours, joining team regulars Julien Canal and Patrick Bornhauser in the French squad’s No. 50 Corvette C6.R, which will be seeking its third consecutive GTE-Am class victory and fourth in a row in the twice-around-the-clock classic.

“If I ever have a situation where I could be comfortable and have a good chance to win [Le Mans], this is it. I don’t think the opportunity could be better,” Taylor told SPEED.com in an exclusive interview.

“It’s a great opportunity for me because it’s a strong team, good car and not a huge factory effort, so there’s not too much pressure. But at the same time, they have won it three times in a row. I think it’s a good chance for me to go to Le Mans for my first time.”

The deal to jump aboard the two-time and defending class-winning Corvette came when Pedro Lamy, the team’s original designated professional driver, moved to one of Aston Martin Racing’s GTE-Pro entries, leaving a void for a Platinum or Gold-rated driver in the squad.

“Originally we were talking about the 70 car,” Taylor explained. “Then Cooper MacNeil ended up over there. I’d just gotten my [FIA/ACO] license all finalized and turned out that I was a Gold. A lot of the options went away at that point and I was kind of discouraged. Then, a seat opened up in the 50 car and Larbre called and said they’d like someone with a history of endurance racing.”

While it will mark Taylor’s debut at Le Mans, the GM driver holds an impressive resume in the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series, which includes seven victories, a string of poles and two runner-up finishes in the DP championship, all with his father’s Wayne Taylor Racing operation. He’s since moved over to Spirit of Daytona Racing for 2013.

But outside of a one-off run in a V8 Supercar at last year’s Gold Coast 600, Le Mans will be Ricky’s first experience of a GT-style car but will have plenty of people to lean on for advise. That includes younger brother Jordan, who made his Le Mans debut in 2012 with Corvette Racing and returns to the factory GTE-Pro squad this year, with a similar spec Corvette C6.R.

“I’ve got the excuse and can say my car is a little bit older!” Ricky joked, in reference to the one-year old car mandate for cars competing in GTE-Am. “At the end of the day, it’s going to be good. I’m actually going to be sleeping in [Jordan’s] room at the track. We’re both going to be able to compare notes without being competitive, which is going to be cool.

“There’s going to be absolutely no competitive aspect to it, which is going to be weird, especially this year in DP. It’s going to be pretty cool.”

Ricky will get his first taste of the Corvette C6.R in a private test in France, prior to the official Le Mans Test day on June 9 and the race itself on June 22-23.