It seems fitting that the last international edition of the Great American Endurance Race should be one by the Great American Sports Car. The GT trophy from the last Twelve Hours of Sebring sanctioned by the American Le Mans Series and welcoming the world’s best cars and teams, went to the #4 C6-ZR1 of Corvette Racing—a car in its last year also, incidentally.
It wasn’t an easy ride for the winning Corvette, driven by Oliver Gavin, Tommy Milner, and Richard Westbrook. The car had to overcome electrical problems and penalties and spent the last three hours chasing the leading Ferrari. In the end, the Ferrari driver faltered and the Corvette took the win—Corvette’s tenth in the 12 Hours.
“Certainly seemed like we were making it harder than we wanted to,” said Olly Gavin after the race. “We had some issues with the car and we got about a lap and a bit down. Then we got a penalty for something, not really sure what [contact with the #23 Ferrari], a stop plus 60 seconds.
“The crew was fantastic today, and Tommy and Richard drove fantastically today. Tommy at the end did an amazing job, relentlessly closing the Ferrari dow,n putting big pressure on him and the Ferrari eventually made a mistake and ran wide at Turn Ten and that was the victory for us.
“An amazing twelve hours of just never giving up. Delighted for everybody: for Corvette Racing, for Tommy, first Sebring win, and a first win for Richard, so yeah, it’s fantastic.”
Tenth Win a Tough One
This victory marked the tenth time Corvette has won its class in the Twelve Hours of Sebring under the ALMS.
Corvette also has nine poles at Sebring, but didn’t get one this year. It was outqualified by the Risi Competizione Ferrari and early on the AJR-West Ferrari was equally fast.
Tom Milner took advantage of pit strategy to take the class lead after an hour, and Richard Westbrook held onto the lead until his stop near the three-hour mark. Westbrook stint was cut short by an electrical malfunction which shorted out the dashboard. After five minutes in the pits, Westbrook handed off to Oliver Gavin who collected a pit-lane speeding penalty on the way back to the race, costing the car a stop-and-go.
Meanwhile Antonio Garcia in the #3 Corvette got off to a much rougher start. He collided with the #5 Core Autosports PC Oreca after only nine minutes of racing, earning himself a stop-plus-sixty. Half an hour later he brought in the #3 Corvette with transmission problems. This car would be in and out off the pits until it retired, apparently because of the failure of an 89-cent part.
