Corvette Racing at Monterey: Second Row Start for Milner in GTLM

Cameron, R. Taylor fill up all-Corvette DP second row in Prototype

• Magnussen to line up behind teammate in No. 3 Corvette C7.R

• Three Monterey class wins in last four years for both Corvette Racing, Corvette DP

• Corvette Racing with 99 victories in program history

MONTEREY, Calif. (April 30, 2016) – Corvette Racing will challenge for its fourth class victory in five tries at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca on Sunday from the second and third rows of the GT Le Mans (GTLM) grid for the Continental Tire Grand Prix of Monterey. Tommy Milner qualified the No. 4 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R fourth in class Saturday with a lap of 1:23.385 (96.622 mph).

Meanwhile, Chevrolet’s Corvette Daytona Prototype teams will look to match Corvette Racing’s mark with another overall victory in the Continental Tire Grand Prix of Monterey. Dane Cameron in the Action Express Racing No. 31 Whelen Engineering/Team Fox entry led the four-car Corvette DP contingent by qualifying third at 1:19.072 (101.892 mph). He will team with Eric Curran.

Milner will have Jan Magnussen in the No. 3 Corvette C7.R behind him at the start. Magnussen qualified sixth in the No. 3 Corvette C7.R at 1:23.450 (96.546 mph). He and Antonio Garcia were class winners at Laguna Seca in 2013 and 2014.

Milner and Oliver Gavin won in 2012; the pairing came to Monterey with two victories and a runner-up finish in the first three races. They lead the GTLM championship as a result.

A victory Sunday would be Corvette Racing’s eighth at the 2.238-mile, 11-turn circuit on the Monterey Peninsula and fourth in five seasons. This also is the team’s last race before the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June.

The second row of the Prototype grid will feature two Corvette DPs. Ricky Taylor in the Wayne Taylor Racing No. 10 Konica Minolta Corvette DP, last year’s Monterey pole-winner, qualified fourth Saturday with a lap of 1:19.119 (101.831 mph). He will drive with brother Jordan Taylor, and the two are coming off a victory in the most recent IMSA round at Long Beach.

Christian Fittipaldi in Action Express Racing’s No. 5 Mustang Sampling Corvette DP qualified fifth at 1:19.214 (101.709 mph). He and teammate Joao Barbosa are the Prototype points leaders entering Sunday.

In the No. 90 VisitFlorida.com Corvette DP, Ryan Dalziel qualified seventh with a best lap of 1:19.652 (101.150 mph). He and Marc Goossens will share last year’s race-winning Visit Florida Racing Corvette DP.

The Continental Tire Grand Prix of Monterey for GTLM and Prototype entries is set for 11:15 a.m. PT on Sunday. It will air live on FOX Sports 1 with audio coverage from IMSA Radio is available on IMSA.com.

CORVETTE RACING QUOTES

TOMMY MILNER, NO. 4 CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R – QUALIFIED FOURTH IN GTLM: “It was better than we expected! We’ve been fifth or sixth all weekend, and we ended up fourth. So it’s not a huge gain but in this class, every position matters. In the end, I was really, really happy with that. In the last practice session we did a lot of work on long runs. It looks like that is going to be a challenge here tomorrow – managing tires, getting the car to last to the end and have it be driveable. It is going to be a long race tomorrow I feel like with how the tires are acting. We’re not really sure where everybody else is with tires and what they are doing as far as their long-run pace. I think we’re fairly happy here with the No. 4 car where it is; it’s as good as we’ve had it. And certainly getting a good qualifying effort will be massively helpful once we get to the race. Hopefully we will be able to keep this spot on the start or even gain a spot of two if we are lucky and just try to get it half way to hand it over to Oliver.”

JAN MAGNUSSEN, NO. 3 CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R – QUALIFIED SIXTH IN GTLM: “Obviously I’m not so happy about qualifying sixth, but I think we probably got the most out of it. We improved the Corvette in certain areas but didn’t really make any headway in others. It is what it is. Maybe we can improve a little bit in the race tomorrow, but it starts to be a little bit of a gamble – we can make small changes, but that’s about it.

CORVETTE DAYTONA PROTOTYPE QUOTES

DANE CAMERON, ACTION EXPRESS RACING NO. 31 WHELEN ENGINEERING/TEAM FOX CORVETTE DP – QUALIFIED THIRD IN PROTOTYPE: “I think we maximized the potential for what we have for our type of car. I’m pleased to be starting near the front and doing something a little bit different – shuffling the driver order a bit. We’ll see what shakes out tomorrow. We’ve made a ton of progress on our Whelen Engineering Corvette over this weekend and even compared to last year where we struggled a little bit. We’re a lot happier to be a lot further up the road than we were this time last year. We’re looking for a strong race and another podium and trying to jump in points on the rest of these guys and win this championship.”

RICKY TAYLOR, WAYNE TAYLOR RACING NO. 10 KONICA MINOLTA CORVETTE DP – QUALIFIED FOURTH IN PROTOTYPE:” It was good. I think it is interesting what the No. 31 is doing with drivers – qualifying with the fast guy. I think a good advantage for us is we have two good, strong drivers. It is a bit of a shame not being third because I had a lap going that would have probably put us there. I made a little mistake, but that is my fault. When we get to the race, anything can happen. The first two sequence of corners, Turn Two and Turn Three are always a bit messy. Your starting position hardly ever stays the same here after the first lap. I think we’ll have a good race tomorrow. We have a lot of confidence in that we have two strong drivers and the other teams are starting their fast guys. We aren’t really racing the Mazdas so I think we are in good shape. The Corvette DP has been solid. Reliability is a given for us because the guys always prepare such a good car.”