Corvette Racing Wins 100th Race In 1-2 Sweep Led By Milner, Gavin In IMSA WeatherTech Northeast Grand Prix - Speedway Digest

Tommy Milner and Oliver Gavin gave Corvette Racing its 100th sports car racing victory and led the team’s 60th 1-2 sweep in Saturday’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park.

It was the third victory of the 2016 WeatherTech Championship season for the co-drivers of the No. 4 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R and the first since back-to-back GT Le Mans (GTLM) class victories in the Rolex 24 At Daytona and the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh From Florida. The victory enabled Milner and Gavin to extend their lead in the GTLM standings to 10 points, 228-218, over No. 67 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT co-drivers Ryan Briscoe and Richard Westbrook, who saw their three-race GTLM win streak come to an end with a third-place run.

The two-hour, 40-minute race was a hotly contested battle virtually throughout the GTLM class, with all five competing manufacturers running inside the top three at one point or another in the race. The battle came down to Ferrari vs. Chevrolet vs. Ford, as Giancarlo Fisichella led the way with an hour remaining in the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE ahead of Gavin in the No. 4 Corvette and Briscoe in the No. 67 Ford.

With just over 30 minutes left in the race, Fisichella lost traction and ran off course exiting Lime Rock’s famed “Big Bend” Turn 1-2 complex, opening the door for Gavin to move into the lead. Four laps later, Fisichella again ran wide exiting Turn 2 allowing Briscoe and Antonio Garcia in the No. 3 Corvette to move into second and third.

With 20 minutes remaining, Garcia took second place away from Briscoe but he would not challenge Gavin over the remaining distance, finishing 0.975 seconds behind his teammate to preserve the team’s sweep of the top-two positions.

“Brilliant job by the Corvette Racing team giving me a great car today and Tommy for driving a great first stint,” Gavin said. “Brilliant day all around. We extended our lead in the championship, so it’s all good. It’s amazing to get the 100th win today. I’ve been a part of the Corvette Racing team for a long time, and this team has done an amazing job throughout my career. I just have to thank them and my great teammates.”

“Racing here at Lime Rock is always tough with all the traffic,” Milner added. “Fortunately, it seemed like there was just enough separation between the three classes in certain spots to really allow some passing to happen. For sure, I was frustrated at some points, and others were frustrated as well, but we all seemed to manage to make it through. There were a couple of guys racing super hard. I knew the race was going to get that way.”

Garcia was joined by Jan Magnussen for the runner-up result for the No. 3 Corvette C7.R team, which unofficially moved them into third in the GTLM standings. Briscoe and Westbrook picked up their fourth consecutive GTLM podium result with the third-place run.

View full results via Al Kamel Systems at Results.IMSA.com

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Adam Sinclair

NHRA, IHRA, Motocross and other forms of motorsports Staff writer
About Me: Adam has been a race fan since the first time he went through the tunnel under the Daytona International Speedway almost 30 years ago. He has had the privilege of travelling to races all across the state of Florida (as well as one race in Ohio), watching nearly everything with a motor compete for fame and glory, as well as participating in various racing schools to get the feel of what racecar drivers go through every week. Adam has spent the last three years covering motorsports for Examiner.com., where he had the opportunity to see the racing world from behind the scenes as well as the grandstands. He invites everyone to follow him on Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus, and looks forward to sharing his enthusiasm for all things racing with the readers of SpeedwayDigest.com.Be sure to tune in for his weekly sports talk program, Thursday Night Thunder, where he discusses the latest in motorsports news with drivers, crew members, and fans. The show takes place every Thursday at 8:00 pm EST on the Speedway Digest Radio Network.