Corvette Racing Team's Victory In Salt Lake City Alms

Where better to show off the Corvette performancemy crew chief, said on the radio, 'Make it count! I
parts than at the American Le Mans Series Utahpushed and pushed, the crew did a fantastic pit stop,
Grand Prix at Miller Motorsports Park. And this whereand we managed to get out just in front of Jan. I have
exactly Oliver Gavin together with Olivier Berettato say that our engineer, Steve Cole, and the team
scored their fourth win in five starts this season. Thegave us a brilliant race car today."
two "Ollies" completed 61 laps of the 4.5 mile circuit inWhile Gavin reminisce the race Beretta was savoring
their No.4 Compuware Corvette C6.R, finishing 26.550his record-setting 32nd career ALMS victory and
seconds ahead of Jan Magnussen and Johnnywould be focusing on the team's next race which is
O'Connell in the No.3 Compuware Corvette C6.R. Thethe 24 Hours of Le Mans. Beretta said, "It was a very
two Corvettes finished eight and ninth respectively.important day for us because it was the last practice
After the team elected to change tires that had beenbefore Le Mans. We had to finish with the car in one
flat-spotted in a spin during qualifying Gavin was givenpiece because it will fly to France in a few days. We
no choice but to start at the back of the pack. Perwant the mechanics to be well rested because
ALMS rule, the pole-winning Corvette was demoted tothey've done a fantastic job since the start of the
the 25th starting position after the tire change. Despiteseason. We went through three street races without
his pole position Gavin was able to surpass the entireany accidents and now we've completed a successful
GT2 field on the first lap obtaining the ninth positions.Michelin tire test. We are ready to go to the big one
And by the third lap he was 3.5 seconds behind thenow."
No. 3 Corvette which has started on the 12th position.The Corvette Racing Program Manager Doug Fehan
Gavin recalled, "There was quite a melee in the firstalso agreed that indeed "It was a perfectly executed
corner with cars going off the track, and I was tryingrace today and we learned a tremendous amount. I
to be very careful because the last thing I wanted tothink we've made a very good tire selection for Le
do was damage the car. I managed to pick off carsMans; the last compound we had on looked really
one by one. Then I caught up behind one of thegood, so we're excited about that. We'll be as
prototypes - that was a problem because we wereprepared as possible."
much quicker in the corners but their car was like aThe race was a tough one for the Corvette Racing
dragster in the straights. Finally he went wide in Turn 15team like for instance the experience of Magnussen
and I managed to get past him."who had to deal with a transmission problem in his two
A full course caution at 11:50 into the race has reducedstints in the No. 3 Corvette C6.R. He said, "In the first
the margin between the two Corvettes to .6 seconds.stint I had some trouble with the gearbox on shifts.
And then it happen after the first round of pit stops atThat problem got better in the second stint, but I
the 40 minute mark, the No. 4 Corvette has started tocouldn't count on it not coming back so it was hard for
lead.me to push. Still, we did have a good test of the tires,
Gavin said, "As I came in for the pit stop, Ray Gongla,and that will be useful for us going into Le Mans.