Corvette Racing Wins All 3 GTLM Championships

• Stephen Fogel

• October 18, 2016

Corvette Racing won the GT Le Mans (GTLM) Driver’s, Team and Manufacturer’s Championships in the final race of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Series. The race was the Petit Le Mans presented by Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort, held at Road Atlanta in Braselton, Georgia. The 10-Hour Petit Le Mans endurance race uses the rules established for the 24 hours of Le Mans. The race was originally established by Road Atlanta owner Don Panoz. It was first run on October 10, 1998 as part of the IMSA season.

Continuing A Winning Tradition

With their third-place finish, Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner, drivers of the No. 4 Corvette C7.R, made it their second championship driving together, as well as the 10^th for Corvette Racing.

Gavin and Milner were assisted by the efforts of their third driver, Marcel Fässler. Their podium finish was enough to give them the championship. This win is in addition to Chevrolet’s GTLM Manufacturer’s Championship, clinched earlier the same day. The No. 4 also won the GTLM Team Championship – the 11^th in program history.

Gavin, Milner and Fässler ran in the top half of the GTLM field for nearly the entire race. Milner began from the seventh position, but the new GTLM co-champion was able to move up to second place after his two-hour, 30-minute drive. Help came in the pit lane, too as the No. 4’s crew gained Milner a spot at each stop.

Gavin took over and drove to the lead shortly after a full-course caution period three-and-a-half hours into the race. He never dropped before second before handing over to Marcel Fässler, who had previously won at Daytona and Sebring with Corvette Racing and the Gavin/Milner duo. He ran in podium position for nearly three hours before a slight off-track excursion in Turn One. He recovered nicely and was solidly in the top-five at the end of his stint.

Milner got back in the No. 4 Corvette with three hours to go and moved back into podium position less than an hour later. Gavin drove the final 75 minutes to put a wrap on the championship season.
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Corvette Racing Successes in 2016

The No. 4 Corvette C7.R achieved wins at the Rolex 24 at Daytona, the Twelve Hours of Sebring, the Long Beach Grand Prix Circuit, Lime Rock Park, and Road America. Additional points accumulated in other races included those from a 2^nd, a 3^rd, a 4^th, a 5^th, and a 7^th place.

Corvette Racing has been remarkably successful, but it is a little known and even less acknowledged center of excellence within the monolith that is General Motors. The current Corvette C7 owes a great deal of its on-road and on-track prowess to the successes of Corvette Racing. Racing truly does improve the Corvette breed, for street and competition drivers alike. If only GM truly knew what it had in the Corvette program and would use its strengths to improve both its image and its products!

Corvette Racing will start a brand Championship hunt when the 2017 IMSA season opens on Jan. 28-29, 2017 at the Rolex 24 at Daytona.