GT1 Battle Continues in 18th Hour at Le Mans
No. 64 Corvette C6.R Gains Time on Track, Loses Ground
in Safety Car Period
LE MANS, France (June 18, 2006) - The Corvette vs. Aston
Martin rivalry continued at the three-quarter mark of the 24
Hours of Le Mans. After 18 hours of flat-out racing, the No.
64 Compuware Corvette C6.R of Oliver Gavin, Olivier Beretta and
Jan Magnussen was on the same lap as the class-leading No. 009
Aston Martin. The two GT1 machines were ranked fourth and fifth
overall. Behind them in the GT1 standings were two Corvettes
and two Aston Martins in alternating positions.
Magnussen was relentless in his pursuit of the Aston Martin
in his early-morning stint, cutting seconds from the Aston Martin's
advantage on virtually ever lap. By 9:45 a.m. the Dane had trimmed
the margin to 2:13 when a full-course caution for oil on the
track brought out the safety car. Caught behind the safety car
after a pit stop and driver change, the Corvette lost nearly
half a lap to the Aston Martin. Gavin dug deep to fend off Aston
Martin driver Pedro Lamy and avoid going a lap down.
After travail during the night, the dawn signaled a new day
for the No. 63 Compuware Corvette C6.R of Ron Fellows, Johnny
O'Connell and Max Papis, although the car was 10 laps down to
the leader and sixth in the GT1 division. Fellows replaced Papis
at 5:17 a.m. and handed off to O'Connell at 7:10 a.m. Fellows
returned for another stint at 9:03 a.m., and Papis took over
at 10:51 a.m.
"Through the night we worked hard to stay on top of tire compound
and pressure changes," said engineering director Doug Louth. "In
a 24-hour race you have to be in full learning mode as you get
into conditions that you haven't seen in practice and then figure
out how to implement lessons ASAP. But cueing tire mounting,
setting pressures for track temperature projections more than
one hour out, and scheduling sets into the tire warmers makes
this a very interesting proposition.
"At 5 a.m., we started to hold our own again after a rough
night," Louth noted. "Somehow the Astons go very well after dark,
so we were glad to see the morning and hopefully a chance of
running them down. Last year our guys could go quicker in daytime
conditions, and based on our Saturday afternoon performance,
it seems this is true again in 2006. With our chassis/aero package
and within the adjustments we have available mid-race, we clearly
have better performance on a hotter track. I would say we're
fortunate that this is the longest day of the year!"
NO. 63 COMPUWARE CORVETTE C6.R QUOTES:
Johnny O'Connell: "Things are going well. I was pleased with
the performance of the car, and the second stint was really good.
We ran low 3.53s and turned our fastest times of the race. The
crash took us out for three laps, the clutch cost us five or
six laps, so right now we're in the position that if no one in
front of us has a problem, I think we'll finish about where we're
at now. We'll keep pushing hard in case someone does have a problem,
and but for the clutch problem we'd be running third. It's a
frustrating situation, but the performance of the car has been
exceptional, given what it's been through."
Ron Fellows: "The track is pretty fast. I had just a little
trouble getting comfortable with the entry, but the car is good.
I couldn't equal the lap times of the leaders, but even if we
turn the fastest lap it's not going to make much difference for
us. We have to stay running at this point and get to the end.
You don't want not to finish. Ten laps is 40 minutes on the track,
and anything can still happen."
NO. 64 COMPUWARE CORVETTE C6.R QUOTES:
Olivier Beretta: "The medium tires are working a lot better
than the softer ones we had on earlier. We still have a long
way to go before we can catch the Aston, but then again there
is still six hours of racing left. We'll see, anything can happen
at Le Mans."
24 Hours of Le Mans GT1 Standings at 18 Hours:
Pos./Car No./Drivers/Car/Laps
1. (009) Sarrazin/Lamy/Ortelli, Aston Martin DBR9, 266
2. (64) Gavin/Beretta/Magnussen, Corvette C6.R, 265
3. (62) Piquet Jr./Garcia/Brabham, Aston Martin DBR9, 260
4. (72) Policand/Goueslard/Alphand, Corvette C5-R, 258
5. (007) Enge/Turner/Piccini, Aston Martin DBR9, 257
6. (63) Fellows/O'Connell/Papis, Corvette C6.R, 256