z060ntrack

http://www.americanlemans.com/primary1.php?cat=news

Kubs

The link isnt working but I got this e-mail from a buddy of mine who works at P&M this morning:

Corvette Racing Realigns Driver Lineup for Mosport ALMS

Beretta and O'Connell in No. 3 Corvette, Gavin and Magnussen in No. 4 Corvette for Grand Prix of Canada

Bowmanville, Ont., Aug. 26, 2010 – Corvette Racing will have familiar faces in different places at the Mobil 1 presents the Grand Prix of Canada at Mosport International Raceway. Olivier Beretta will move to the No. 3 Compuware Corvette C6.R, joining Johnny O'Connell for the eighth round of the 2010 American Le Mans Series. Jan Magnussen will be reunited with former teammate Oliver Gavin in the No. 4 Compuware Corvette C6.R.

"Although racing is a technology-driven sport, there is also an important human element," said Corvette Racing program manager Doug Fehan. "To compete at this level, the drivers must have absolute confidence in their car and be totally comfortable with its setup. By realigning our driver pairings to better match setup preferences, Corvette Racing is seeking to minimize compromises in the car setups and maximize our on-track performance. Tailoring each car to the driving styles of the respective driver pairs will provide the most competitive two-car effort.

"This change was made in consultation with all four drivers, and they are in complete agreement that this is the way forward," said Fehan. "Corvette Racing is one team that campaigns two cars. The mechanics, engineers, drivers, and managers all work together for a single goal – to have a Corvette in the winner's circle. Everyone understands that when one Corvette wins, the entire team wins. With our revised driver lineup at Mosport, we are confident that we will have the two strongest possible entries in the extremely competitive GT class."

The Corvette Racing driver roster has an impressive record, with a combined total of 12 ALMS championships and 135 career ALMS victories. The four full-season drivers have stood on the top step of the podium 17 times at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Gavin and Magnussen previously shared the No. 4 Corvette in long-distance races in 2004-06, while Beretta and O'Connell will be co-drivers for the first time at Mosport.

Corvette Racing’s next event is the Mobil 1 presents the Grand Prix of Mosport at Mosport International Raceway in Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada. The two-hour, 45-minute race will start at 3:05 p.m. ET on Sunday, August 29. The race will be televised tape-delayed on SPEED from 4 – 7 p.m. ET. Live radio coverage will be available on American Le Mans Radio, Sirius Channel 127, and XM Channel 242.

dvandentop

nice before opening i was gonna say gavin and mags in one could be hopefully a right combo for a win

Anomir

I like all the drivers, but Johnny O is my favorite. I would like to know what is really going on behind the scenes, I know I will not find out but sure wish I could.

If it were the differences in driver styles, set up preferences etc, I would have thought this change would have occurred during the off season while testing, or at least much earlier than this.

I have to be honest, I am pretty worried about what is REALLY going on.

dvandentop

wouldnt be surprised if there isnt some driver shake up over the off season

SIK02SS

So who got shafted? Magnussen going to the (traditionally) #2 team car, or Beretta being taken out of the faster and more consistent car (for this season). Will definitely be interesting to see how this unfolds as well as the off season 'talk'

z060ntrack

If you watched the difficulty with braking last week at Road America; this makes sense. It just didn't show up as much at Mid Ohio as it did on a higher speed track like Road America. Mosport is similair and these driver combo's and associated chassis setup should prove to be positive.

rfn026

I can't help but be reminded by someone moving deck chairs around. I would agree that we're going to see a couple of different drivers next season. That's not because anyone is a bad driver but when you have a season like this one changes have to be made. Driver's are the easiest thing to change.

Richard Newton
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Painrace

I call ! It is not always the driver's fault!

Jim

CRAIG GELSTON

They seem to have pace, and in my opinion have a stellar driver line up.
swapping spit in the driver's seat will not keep the cars from blowing
up, overheating and falling apart. Yes, they did run over each other
at sebring, but I'm not so sure that wasn't a crew misshap.
Corvette Racing's problems are WWAAAYYYY deeper than that.
-Craig Gelston

1stZ

Several good points mentioned aboved. IMO, I think they (Vette) didn't fully anticipated the "real competition" as proof by all the trash talking that fehan was doing early. And now that the season is almost over with the Vette not really in contention in the championship; not to mention the vette's is the only manufacturer team in the GT class, I believe this driver change is just to keep people from asking them (fehan & co.) how come they couldn't win? That driver combo have been together for a while now. They all knew what each driver likes. I don't buy it. No excuses! Just go out there & hopefully finish with a win to have something to look forward to next season.

davidfarmer

you thinking they are gonna eliminate the only US driver they have left.............???

davidfarmer

oh, and Mosport is nothing like Rd America. While Mosport has a long straight, the CORNERS are much faster. You don't have hard braking zones and low speed corners at Mosport like you do at Rd America.

rfn026

No one really believes that it's the driver's fault. It's just much easier to swap drivers than anything else. GM sure isn't going to dump Gary Pratt. Fehan will be around until he finally retires. The driver always takes the first hit.

Richard

grantar2

There are really two answers to this question. First they really do need the Katech engines back. They simply don't have the shop manpower for the added work, and in all honesty they lack the talent.
Second they are missing Ron Fellows. The drivers they have are great, but the BMW's are a first rate team, Rahal, Letterman have been around motorsports a long time, and they Flying Lizard Porshce team has been through the GT2 learning curve and are well up on the vette team. Until Corvette wins a race this year the need to keep quite, they are already out of the championship.
It may also be a case of the dominance of the GT1 car masked some of the teams weaknesses.

C5-vette

It may also be a case of the dominance of the GT1 car masked some of the teams weaknesses.


ding ding ding we have a winner here.

dfinke23

.......when the competition is there, everyone has to perform and there is no room for arrogance.
Playing by the rules so you don't incur weight penalties also helps (again, arrogance). After everything that has happened this season, the last place to look is the guy behind the wheel.

As far as swapping drivers for suspension setup, they might be on to something.

rfn026

While we're on the subject of drivers it seems that Lou G. has dropped out again. I couldn't find him on the Grand Am list for the weekend.

Car Counts

If these two road racing groups keep going we're going to have about 15 cars show up per weekend,

Grand Am has just 24 cars and ALMS has 30. That's bad. We're talking about 54 road race cars this weekend split two ways. Put them together and we could have a decent race.

It's easy to bad mouth NASCAR but they get 43+ for the cup race and 43+ for the Nationwide race every week. The Nationwide race today had 46 cars show up to go road racing.

NASCAR can hold a road race and get almost as many cars as TWO other dedeicated road racing series combined.

Richard Newton
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John Shiels

Look what they pay for 30th position in NASCAR it makes it affordable.

z060ntrack

Ollie Gavin qualified 4th, and Johnny 'O 6th