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2012 Laguna Seca - The Dirty Details
May 15 2012 08:15:38 PM ESTChris Draper - Corvette Info Center
Our man, Chris Draper, was at Laguna this past weekend. The following is his story --

Laguna Seca never has lack of action. This year's race was no exception. Friday's qualifying saw a bit of a shock when Aston Martin showed their true hand and posted a 1:22.229 for pole position. Tommy Milner in the #4 Corvette took 2nd at 1:22.661, and Jan Magnussen posted a 1:22.919 on his 8th lap, 4 more then the #4 car.

Race day was a test of will power. Aston Martin in the opening laps showed they had the speed and started pulling away from the rest of the GT pack until the first full coarse caution really shook things up. AMR had a fuel fill issue that shook them from 1st to 5th. Our badboys capitalized and the #4 Corvette took the lead.

Throughout the 6hr battle, there were 5 or more GT cars absolutely nose to tale lap after lap. It could have been anyone's race, but mistakes were seen from all teams. The #4 Corvette saw a fuel fill issue that took them from their healthy lead down to 5th. The BMWs experimented with some different tire compounds early on and guessed wrong and after a full stint nearly cost both cars a lap. The #45 Porsche had the pace, but penalties cost them the race.

Ultimately, it came down to Corvette vs BMW once again. Milner and Gavin fought back with the Take No Prisoners attitude and got back into the lead and made it count. The #3 Corvette got passed by the #56 BMW after a caution restart, but Magnussen fought back hard and made the move of the race.

During Magnussen's maneuver, he flat spotted the tires. With about 8 minutes left the BMW was biting back inch by inch each lap. The injured Michelins held in just long enough and on the final corner of the final lap the BMW got a little too hard on the gas, fishtaled out of the corner, and the cheers for the Corvette Racing camp could nearly be heard over the sound of the thundering V8s crossing the finish in a 1-2 style victory. Click HERE to watch the podium presentation.

Click HERE to relive the last 20 minutes of the race.

Our badboys truly took no prisoners. They didn't even leave a crumb on the table, and took home some hardware for a new centerpiece.

These smiles should last at least until Le Mans next month where hopefully they car pull off a duplicate result.

Chris has posted all of his pics over at Corvette Info Center for Friday and Saturday, including some post race pics from the Corvette Racing garage.
Great work Chris.

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Great race and of course the move by Jan had to be the high lite of the race. T G field is just so competitive. I hope with two wins in three races does not draw the eye of the ACO on Corvette and have them come up with some off the wall restrictions
--- TR6speed from Floida on 05.16.12 at 9:42am


Nurburgring 24hr - Links
May 14 2012 04:58:10 PM EST
The 40th running of the Nurburgring 24hr is scheduled for May 17-20. The race will be streamed online via several different outlets.

Video stream can be found on the official website.

Radio stream can be found at Radio Le Mans.

Be sure to cheer on Tommy Milner, Jan Magnussen, and Richard Westbrook as they battle it out in a GT3 Corvette versus the likes of Porsche, BMW, Mercedes, Audi, and more.

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Last comment:
@jackflash and the rest of Vette land...Lets rewind back to the late 80's for the solution to defy the "circus".... It's called the Corvette Challenge. Press Fastforward: Marketing promo: Fit some safety equipment, seal the engines, Get Pilot Sport Cup Tires. Ship Thecars to well known ALMS events.Let Badboys to their stuff. Post resulting Lap times
@ Mr. Tadge Juechter Line up you preproduction C7 for shipment
--- Zonker2 from Montreal on 05.16.12 at 11:51am


Corvette Rules Laguna
May 13 2012 10:36:15 AM EST
Hard fought 1 - 2.
3.45 seconds apart.
Corvette now first in the GT Class.
As it should be.
Congrats to Gavin for his 36th career ALMS victory.

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In the video (see link in NCM Bash)Doug mentions how the ACO/IMSA admitted that they screwed CR last year so this year they leveled the playing field and then told the other teams that they better come ready to race. Well it looks like it has worked. Corvette wins the last 2 events and was right there at Sebring. The latest item that they corrected was the fueling issue of the duel tanks taking longer and that was addressed and it appears to have helped based on the pit stops (not counted the two that the 4 car had). Now on to Lemans.
--- TR6speed from Florida on 05.14.12 at 8:46pm


Carroll Shelby  1923 - 2012  RIP
May 11 2012 05:13:30 PM EST
A worthy Corvette opponent but the one & only regardless. And a bad boy through & through.

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The man trancended all makes, a true "car guy" in the purest sense of the word. A true American hero in motorsports, he will be missed, but his legacy and legend will live on. Any time you're in Las Vegas be sure to take the 20 minute ride out to the Speedway to visit the Shelby Museum, lots of history and some awesome cars there. RIP Mr. Shelby.
--- GS10tk from Syracuse, NY on 05.13.12 at 9:01pm


NCM Bash: Corvette Racing Seminar
May 08 2012 06:22:28 PM EST
The National Corvette Museum Bash was held on April 26-28. During that time, godug and Dan Binks held a seminar for all the fans and owners telling stories and answering questions about the yellow badboys.

They cover everything from how the ACO/IMSA admittingly "screwed" Corvette Racing when they moved to GT2, their thoughts on the new Viper and its illegal 8.0L V10, how BMW was mysteriously quicker in the pits at Sebring, the emotions of Le Mans, and the story of our newest badboy, Jordan Taylor.

The video is about 1hr 30min long, so sit down, grab a cold one and some snacks, and enjoy the show.

Click HERE for the video, courtesy of Corvette Blogger.

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Absolutely beautiful! Even with the major pit eff-ups! Stellar work fellas!
--- Shifter from Currently on Cloud 9 on 05.12.12 at 10:55pm


2012 Laguna Seca - Tire Strategy
May 08 2012 03:20:10 AM ESTESPN
Laguna Seca has been a place of drama, surprises, ups, and downs.

For 2012 we see the race being moved back to May (11' was in September). This means it will be warmer then before. Tires played a key factory in the 2011 race which saw the Corvettes finishing 5th and 7th due to tire durability and degradation. What is the difference?

Tire Durability is the predictability of performance loss of the tires over a stint.

Tire Degradation is the severe abrupt unpredictable loss of tire performance due to overheating and over-stressing the tires.

For 2012 Michelin have supplied Corvette Racing with a larger and improved set of tires. We have seen the BMW's Dunlops progressively get better as the stint goes on. The Michelin's still fall off near the end, but are they improved enough? They will have 6hrs to find out.

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Today's race should be EPIC - ready to get the Laguna Seca party started and watch another WIN for Corvette Racing!
--- DarkKnightC6 from Aiken, SC on 05.12.12 at 1:36am


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