Corvette Racing returned to the winner's circle July 24 at the Mobil 1 presents the Grand Prix of Mosport as Oliver Gavin and Jan Magnussen scored the team's first American Le Mans Series victory of the season. Gavin and Magnussen won the GT class by 4.4 seconds in their No. 4 Compuware Corvette C6.R over the Ferrari 458 Italia of Jaime Melo and Toni Vilander. Tommy Milner and Olivier Beretta finished sixth in the No. 3 Compuware Corvette C6.R after contact with a backmarker cost them valuable time on the high-speed Canadian circuit.
After qualifying sixth and eighth on Saturday, Corvette Racing rebounded with a strong race day setup. The two-hour, 45-minute race was anything but predictable as spins, crashes, close calls, and penalties added to the drama.
Gavin and Milner were the starting drivers, and slotted into sixth and eighth respectively as the race began. The running order changed dramatically after the first round of pit stops under a full-course caution, as Gavin emerged in third after two cars were penalized. Shortly after the one-hour mark, Gavin moved into second and began an extended battle with Vilander in the Risi Competizione Ferrari.
"We started coming on these big clumps of traffic, and things started getting crazy," Gavin said. "I had this mad battle with Toni, where he passed me going into Turn 2 and then he went around the outside of a GTC car. I managed to undercut them both and come back around the outside into Turn 3 – it was fantastic racing!"
Contact with the Ferrari in Moss Corner punctured a tire, and the crew scrambled as Gavin dove into the pits with one hour and four minutes to go. Magnussen took over the No. 4 Corvette and emerged in third. The Dane passed the Ferrari with 30 minutes to go, and then took the lead with 20 minutes remaining.
"I knew that for us to get a good result out of this race, we had to be 100 percent focused every second," Magnussen said. "We could never relax, just push all the time. To pull a win from where we were after qualifying is just fantastic. These guys have done it before and they'll do it again – you can never count Corvette Racing out. The way this team pushes, I'm so proud to be part of it."