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BUBBA burger Sports Car Grand Prix At Long Beach Acura Sports Car Challenge at Mid-Ohio
Lexington, OH
May 03 to May 05, 2019 -
Track: Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course
Race Duration: 2 hours 40 minutes
Circuit Length: 2.4 miles
Entry by Class:
Le Mans Prototype (2)
GT Le Mans (8)
GT Daytona (15)
Qualifying Saturday, May 4, 2019
WeatherTech Championship
11:40 to 12:45 pm EDT
CORVETTE RACING AT MID-OHIO: Milner Charges to Second-Row Starting Spot
Press Release:
Fourth, seventh for Corvette C7.Rs in highly-competitive GTLM qualifying session
CORVETTE RACING AT MID-OHIO: Milner Charges to Second-Row Starting Spot
Fourth, seventh for Corvette C7.Rs in highly-competitive GTLM qualifying session
LEXINGTON, Ohio (May 4, 2019) – Corvette Racing will look for more championship points and its 100th IMSA victory Sunday from the second and fourth rows of the GT Le Mans category following qualifying for the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s Acura Sports Car Challenge at Mid-Ohio.
Tommy Milner paced Corvette Racing’s efforts in Saturday’s time trials. He qualified fourth in the No. 4 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C7.R that he shares with Oliver Gavin. The duo are coming off a third-place finish in the team’s most recent race at Long Beach, Calif., in which Corvette Racing scored a double-podium finish.
Milner’s best time Saturday was a 1:19.721 (101.965 mph) lap that put him within 0.597 seconds of the GTLM pole-winning time. Teammate Jan Magnussen was less than 0.3 seconds adrift in the No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C7.R that qualified seventh. His best time was 1:19.919 (101.712 mph).
Magnussen and Antonio Garcia finished second at Long Beach and were third at year ago at Mid-Ohio to start their push to the eventual GTLM Driver’s Championship – Corvette Racing’s third in a row. On Saturday, Magnussen was one of five GTLM drivers to hold provisional pole position during the session. At one point in a five-minute span, five drivers swapped pole position nine times.
Friday and Saturday was filled with changing weather conditions between warm and dry and downright cold and wet. Saturday afternoon’s qualifying session marked the best conditions of the weekend with things expected to improve for Sunday’s two-hour, 40-minute race.
Corvette Racing has won eight times at Mid-Ohio – the most of any entrant in the series. It also is IMSA’s most successful team with 99 all-time victories.
The Acura Sports Car Challenge at Mid-Ohio begins at 1:40 p.m. ET on Sunday. It will air on live on NBC Sports Network and the NBC Sports app starting at 1:30 p.m. Live audio coverage of practices, qualifying and the race from IMSA Radio is available on IMSA.com.
TOMMY MILNER, NO. 4 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R – QUALIFIED FOURTH IN GTLM: “It seemed like initially we were good. I was P2 for a little while there, but as it went on we fell back a little bit. We missed a little bit on the tire pressures, and the track is in a weird spot with all the rain the last two days, being a little dry this morning and then more rain after our practice. So a lot of it today was feeling it out and trying to figure out where you can go quick and where you can’t. Eighth place didn’t sound good; I cooled my tires for one more shot at it. Honestly, you are being a little careful right now in these conditions in some places. So I threw caution to the wind a little bit. If I went off at Turn Four and braked too late, I was going to be no worse off. In the end, fourth is a good starting spot for our Corvette C7.R. It’s difficult to pass here, so the farther up the grid the better it will be for the race. Now we have to execute on the track and in the pitlane then see where we end up tomorrow.”
JAN MAGNUSSEN, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R – QUALIFIED SEVENTH IN GTLM: “We missed a little bit on the tire pressures, so the pressure was super high at the end. When it mattered, I didn’t have a lot of grip and the car was moving around a lot. But the balance of the Corvette was good. We were just slow because the pressures were so high. That’s how it is… one of those sessions. I’m quite happy with the race car we have for tomorrow. It will be in a spot where we can do something good with it.”
I thought FOX coverage was lacking the last couple of years but NBC is TERRIBLE. It's basically endless commercials with some racing and that's being generous.
I'd really like to know how many minutes of commercials vs actual dedicated racing. There are far more IMSA commercials than need to be.
I thought FOX coverage was lacking the last couple of years but NBC is TERRIBLE. It's basically endless commercials with some racing and that's being generous.
Agreed.
BTW, they didn't show the last few minutes of GTLM!
I thought NBC had been doing a decent job previously but you all are right. This was really bad. Besides the commercials, they seemed to not be able to follow the right stories. For the first 45 minutes or so of the race, the 1-2-3 GTLM cars were nose to tail. When the 912 Porsche passed the Ford for second, he was hounding Miller non stop until the first pit stop. It was excellent racing, and they showed less than 30 seconds or so of that entire battle. Instead we watched a bunch of a DPI leader with a 6+ second lead --and the worst, we had in car camera of a Pit Stop for a mid-pack GTD car. The in car camera, pointed out the driver, sitting there waiting for the fuel and tire changes (which you couldn't see from the in-car), while the Porsche was inches away from the Corvette in a 1-2 battle Thank goodness for in-car cameras yesterday.
I thought NBC had been doing a decent job previously but you all are right. This was really bad. Besides the commercials, they seemed to not be able to follow the right stories. For the first 45 minutes or so of the race, the 1-2-3 GTLM cars were nose to tail. When the 912 Porsche passed the Ford for second, he was hounding Miller non stop until the first pit stop. It was excellent racing, and they showed less than 30 seconds or so of that entire battle. Instead we watched a bunch of a DPI leader with a 6+ second lead --and the worst, we had in car camera of a Pit Stop for a mid-pack GTD car. The in car camera, pointed out the driver, sitting there waiting for the fuel and tire changes (which you couldn't see from the in-car), while the Porsche was inches away from the Corvette in a 1-2 battle Thank goodness for in-car cameras yesterday.
I do like DPI action, but it's secondary to GTLM and GTD even less so.
Not sure why NBC did what it did...oh well, at least we have Le Mans coming up.
I don't blame them for showing DPI battles over GTLM as DPI is the top class (although I have no evidence, I strongly suspect GT classes are more popular with the fans, but I understand they want to showcase the top class). What I do blame them for is showing a DPI car circling the track with no competition in site, when there is an absolutely riveting battle going on for the class lead somewhere else. They did figure that out at the end of the race when they focused on the GTD battle, so good for them. Its just I was just watching thrilling racing from the Porsche in-car camera, hounding Milner for the lead every turn and saw nothing of that on TV, which was nuts....
The #3 car got beat in the pits. P-car had a 5 second quicker pit stop and got out ahead of the Vette.
Well, yes, but no.
40 minutes or so in, the #3 was sitting way back in 6th/7th and knew they didn't have the pace to catch up. So, they pitted early (just at the window were they could make it on 1 more stop) so they could short fill the first time, get a bunch of track position, and perhaps hope for yellows to help keep them up there. However, there was no yellow until near the end. So, on the second Pit Stop, the #3 needed a full load of fuel and the Porsche needed less than a full load of fuel, so it of course was going to have a shorter pit stop.
I think they kissed something or someone a bit harder than they showed.
I do remember early in the race of Milner ungracefully getting up on the curb to pass someone on the inside of an apex and banging the Ferrari(?) on the left rear....
Here are the extended highlights of the race I just found on YouTube:
Now contesting his 18th season with Corvette Racing, Britain's Oliver Gavin has recently notched up a landmark 50th win with the team, making him the most successful driver in Corvette Racing history. Mobil 1 The Grid caught up with the veteran racer as he reflects on his career so far with the team, with whom he has won at Le Mans, Long Beach, Sebring, Lime Rock Park and many other tracks.
IMSA update BoP is out (which will be for Watkins Glen for GTLM).
BMW, who coincidentally just announced they were leaving WEC, but staying in IMSA was given a power and related fuel increase. No other changes to GTLM.
I would really love to see whatever data IMSA is looking at and think the other cars are where they should be....
IMSA update BoP is out (which will be for Watkins Glen for GTLM).
BMW, who coincidentally just announced they were leaving WEC, but staying in IMSA was given a power and related fuel increase. No other changes to GTLM.
I would really love to see whatever data IMSA is looking at and think the other cars are where they should be....
Its secret spreadsheet must be very interesting.
Whatever the case, BoP seems to work.
Victories are spread around the field pretty well.
05-01-2019, 12:57 PM
Mid-Ohio Race Info
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