Corvette Racing retains same full-season lineup - MotorSportsTalk

From the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” department, Corvette Racing has confirmed the same four full-season drivers for its pair of Corvette C7.Rs in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

GT Le Mans class champions Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner will be in the No. 4 Corvette with Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia continuing in the No. 3 Corvette.

This will mark the sixth consecutive year that the full-season lineup features the same four drivers. In their combined Corvette Racing history, they have combined to win 105 races and 10 Driver’s Championships in IMSA competition. Corvette Racing also has amassed class 11 Manufacturer and Team championships and an IMSA-record 102 race victories.

“Consistency is a key component in a successful endurance racing program,” said Mark Kent, Chevrolet Director of Motorsports Competition. “Retaining our core driver lineup for a sixth straight season gives us the best opportunity to repeat the phenomenal results from 2016.”

“It’s great to be coming back and joining Tommy again in the No. 4 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R,” Gavin said. “It was a great season for us with four victories, a number of podiums and of course sweeping the GTLM championships. The mindset and motivation is there for everyone on board. We want to start 2017 the way we ended 2016 – running at the front, leading races and challenging for victories. That has to be our goal. That’s what everyone’s aim is on our team.

“You have a little more spring in your step coming into a new season on the back of one like we had in 2016. You feel confident. I hope that’s the way it carries over into 2017.”

Milner added, “More than anything, I’m excited to start a new season again with Corvette Racing. Each year always presents new challenges, and fighting hard to conquer those challenges is what makes it easy to get excited for the season.

“Being with Corvette Racing for this many years and having the same core team, I find we hit the ground running from the first test to the first race, almost as an extension of the previous year. With the success we had last year, let’s hope that translates to a strong start for 2017.”

Third drivers for the Tequila Patron North American Endurance Cup races and Le Mans will be determined at a later date. This year, Audi factory drivers on loan Mike Rockenfeller and Marcel Fassler were in the U.S. races, with the Taylor brothers added for Le Mans.

Porsche recently announced Patrick Pilet and Dirk Werner for its No. 911 Porsche 911 RSR and Laurens Vanthoor and Kevin Estre for its No. 912, with Fred Makowiecki and Richard Lietz in the Nos. 911 and 912 cars as endurance race third drivers.

BMW Team RLL may have inadvertently revealed one of its lineups upon its “Art Car” release, as the names of Bill Auberlen, Alexander Sims, Augusto Farfus and Bruno Spengler were listed on the No. 19 BMW M6 GTLM.

Ford is expected to have a similar full-season lineup with its pair of Ford GTs run by Chip Ganassi Racing Teams. It leaves the second BMW and Ferrari’s GTLM entries via Risi Competizione and potentially Scuderia Corsa as yet to formally reveal their lineups for the class next year.

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Media and fan attention focused on a controversial run-in between Haiden Deegan and his Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing teammate Jordon Smith during Round 10 of the Monster Energy Supercross race at Detroit, after which the 250 East points’ Hunter Lawrence defends the young rider in the postrace news conference.

Deegan took the early lead in Heat 1 of the round, but the mood swiftly changed when he became embroiled in a spirited battle with teammate Smith.

On Lap 3, Smith caught Deegan with a fast pass through the whoops. Smith briefly held the lead heading into a bowl turn but Deegan had the inside line and threw a block pass. In the next few turns, the action heated up until Smith eventually ran into the back of Deegan’s Yamaha and crashed.

One of the highlights of the battle seemed to include a moment when Deegan waited on Smith in order to throw a second block pass, adding fuel to the controversy.

After his initial crash, Smith fell to seventh on the next lap. He would crash twice more during the event, ultimately finishing four laps off the pace in 20th.

The topic was inevitably part of the postrace news conference.

“It was good racing; it was fun,” Deegan said at about the 27-minute mark in the video above. “I just had some fun doing it.”

Smith had more trouble in the Last Chance Qualifier. He stalled his bike in heavy traffic, worked his way into a battle for fourth with the checkers in sight, but crashed a few yards shy of the finish line and was credited with seventh. Smith earned zero points and fell to sixth in the standings.

Lawrence defends Deegan — *Jordon Smith failed to make the Detroit Supercross Main and fell to sixth in the points. – Feld Motor Sports*

“I think he’s like fifth in points,” Deegan said. “He’s a little out of it. Beside that it was good, I don’t know. I wasn’t really paying attention.”

Deegan jokingly deflected an earlier question with the response that he wasn’t paying attention during the incident.

“He’s my teammate, but he’s a veteran, he’s been in this sport for a while,” Deegan said. “I was up there just battling. I want to win as much as everybody else. It doesn’t matter if it’s a heat race or a main; I just want to win. I was just trying to push that.”

As Deegan and Smith battled, Jeremy Martin took the lead. Deegan finished second in the heat and backed up his performance with a solid third-place showing in the main, which was his second podium finish in a short six-race career. Deegan’s first podium was earned at Daytona, just two rounds ago.

But as Deegan struggled to find something meaningful to say, unsurprisingly for a 17-year-old rider who was not scheduled to run the full 250 schedule this year, it was the championship leader Lawrence who came to his defense.

“I just want to point something out, which kind of amazes me,” Lawrence said during the conference. “So many of the people on social media, where everyone puts their expertise in, are saying the racing back in the ’80s, the early 90s, when me were men. They’re always talking about how gnarly it was and then anytime a block pass or something happens now, everyone cries about it.

“That’s just a little bit interesting. Pick one. You want the gnarly block passes from 10 years ago and then you get it, everyone makes a big song and dance about it.”

Pressed further, Lawrence defended not only the pass but the decision-making process that gets employed lap after lap in a Supercross race.

“It’s easy to point the finger,” Lawrence said. “We’re out there making decisions in a split millisecond. People have all month to pay their phone bill and they still can’t do that on time.

“We’re making decisions at such a fast reaction [time with] adrenaline. … I’m not just saying it for me or Haiden. I speak for all the guys. No one is perfect and we’re under a microscope out there. The media is really quick to point a finger when someone makes a mistake.”

The media is required to hold athletes accountable for their actions. They are also required to tell the complete story.

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