García, Magnussen, Gavin, Milner all climb GT Le Mans podium

LONG BEACH, Calif. (April 13, 2019) – Corvette Racing claimed two podium finishes Saturday at the Bubba Burger Sports Car Grand Prix of Long Beach, the first time since 2014 that the program scored a pair of top-three results on the streets of southern California.

Antonio García and Jan Magnussen placed second in the GT Le Mans (GTLM) category of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship with their No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C7.R. They were followed closely by Tommy Milner and Oliver Gavin in the No. 4 Corvette in third place.

As was the case for the last handful of years at Long Beach, Saturday’s race was a topsy-turvy affair up to the finish. After finding misfortune while leading the last two years, Garcia and Magnussen finally had luck turn their way. After García began fifth, the No. 3 Corvette gained a spot during its lone pit stop under caution 40 minutes into the race.

Rejoining fourth, Magnussen immediately began hounding the third-place Porsche. He made the move going into the first corner with 23 minutes left and set out to run down the second-place Ford.

Meanwhile, Gavin began third and set the fastest GTLM lap of the race before handing off to Milner. Looking for a third straight Long Beach class victory with his teammate, Milner went from sixth to fourth with seven minutes remaining. He continued his challenge as Magnussen caught the second-place car with two laps to go. The No. 3 Corvette moved into second when the Ford ran out of fuel on the final lap, and the two cars made contact. Magnussen was able to continue with Milner right behind to the finish.

Corvette Racing’s next event is the Acura Sports Car Challenge at Mid-Ohio on May 3-5.

ANTONIO GARCÍA, NO. 3 CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R – SECOND IN GTLM: “Things happened for us but not against us like in previous years. So that’s a plus! We aren’t used to having trouble-free last laps here. I told Jan with my luck, I don’t know if I would have made it to the end! It was a tough position to switch our strategy here. Jan is a great qualifier here, so it was tough for me to discover qualifying after all these years of him doing it. So I did my best. I think I had a car to qualify on the first row, but we know GTLM is super-competitive. In the race, I got stuck behind the 66 so all I could do was save fuel. It helped us jumped the 4 Corvette in the pits and we almost got the Porsches. After that, Jan did a magnificent job with managing the tires and fuel. I’m happy keeping it this way! I know I’ll qualify better next year, so maybe we can do that and win the race.”

JAN MAGNUSSEN, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R – SECOND IN GTLM: “The end was pretty crazy with the 66 running out of fuel ahead of me. I thought I was going to get stuck behind him, so I had to get on the throttle full to push him out of the way to get that last half-lap back to the checkered flag. Corvette Racing did a fantastic job setting the car up and thinking about what we needed at the end of the race. I don’t know if we had the best car, but it was close. I’m super happy today. For sure we’d like to get a win soon. We’ve caught up in the championship so it’s a good day.”