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GM Media Press ReleaseNote: Pictures and information are from GM Communications.
FOR RELEASE: June 11, 2002 Serge Vanbockryck, GM Racing Communications Corvettes at LeMansLE MANS, June 11, 2002 - Corvette Racing will start this year’s 70th running of the Le Mans 24 Hours as a clear favorite for victory in the production car based GTS-class. Since October 2000, America’s legendary performance icon has scored a victory in every major endurance race in the world, including an overall win in the Daytona 24 Hours and a 1-2 in class in Le Mans last year. Beginning as the underdog with its first attempt in 2000, the team has become the favorite this year, a position emphasized given its winning percentage of 100 percent in the 2002 American Le Mans Series. Since that rain-soaked 24-hour race to victory in 2001, the Pratt & Miller and GM Racing engineers have continuously fine-tuned the Millennium Yellow coupes, resulting in the 2001 ALMS Teams and Manufacturers titles. During May’s Open Test, the little details proved their worth as both cars lapped the 13.9-kilometer circuit a massive five seconds quicker than they did last year. “The cars are visually similar to last year’s configuration,” says Corvette Program Manager Doug Fehan. “With the exception of the rear-view mirror, the extensive fine-tuning we’ve done since last year may not be visually apparent. We have done extensive work on the airflow under the hood, making small but significant changes that have yielded a bit of extra horsepower. Smaller rear-view mirrors plus a number of other aerodynamic tweaks have given us a slicker car at high speed.” In 2000, the objective was to come, see and learn. Last year the objective was to come, see and win. This year the objective is clearly to win again. “Although it will be tough to duplicate last year’s Le Mans finish, that is our goal,” Fehan said. “We go to Le Mans with the momentum of winning the last race of 2001 and two race wins in two starts in 2002, so that’s positive. But there are no secrets. A solid crew from Pratt & Miller Engineering that have been together since the start of this C5-R program has meticulously prepared the Corvettes. They also perform great pit stops. We have six solid drivers that don’t make mistakes and don’t go off the road. Goodyear works closely with us to provide great tires for both dry and wet conditions. The way our Goodyear rain tires performed in the heavy rains during last year’s Le Mans greatly contributed to our success and they have even improved over the winter.” That improvement was demonstrated six weeks ago at the Open Test when team and drivers concentrated on working on the race set-up, rather than putting on a set of ultra-soft qualifying tires and going for a time. “All six drivers were capable of running laps well under four minutes in race trim, which is five seconds faster than we were capable of doing last year,” Fehan said. “May’s performance exceeded our wildest expectations, so I’m satisfied with all the good work done by everybody.” The cars will be the exact same chassis used last year, with the 2001 Daytona and Le Mans C5-R to be driven by Ron Fellows and Johnny O’Connell, with Briton Oliver Gavin replacing Scott Pruett. The other car will have the same drivers’ line-up for the third straight year with British-born Andy Pilgrim, American Kelly Collins and Frenchman Franck Fréon sharing the duties. Having won everything there is to win doesn’t mean Corvette Racing will take it easy in Le Mans. “Le Mans is the one race you should never underestimate,” Fehan said. “That race gets tougher every time you run it. Just look at last year: we had a serious accident in practice and then we had the wettest Le Mans in history. Just keeping the cars on the track in those conditions was a major achievement and not exactly something you practice.” “To have won that particular edition sure made the victory extra sweet. Plus the competition will have improved as well. I understand some of the Vipers are serious candidates for a win and the Saleens will have improved as well. It won’t be a walk in the park just because we won it last year. But the team behind Corvette Racing is a hard working and very dedicated group, so we will be as prepared as we can be.” Or, in other words: “There are no secrets, just great preparation.” CORVETTE RACING DRIVER BIOGRAPHIES No. 63 Chevrolet Corvette C5-R RON FELLOWS (CDN)Born: Sept. 28, 1959 Le Mans Participations: 2 Le Mans Best: 7th (2001 – Corvette) Career Highlights:
Ron Fellows in Le Mans: Year Car Team Co-drivers Result2001 Corvette C5-R
Corvette Racing O’Connell-Pruett 7th
(1st GTS)
JOHNNY O’CONNELL (USA) Born: July 24, 1962 Le Mans Participations: 5 Le Mans Best: 5th (1994 – Nissan, 2000 – Panoz) Career Highlights:
Johnny O’Connell in Le Mans: Year Car Team Co-drivers Result 2001 Corvette C5-R
Corvette Racing Fellows-Pruett 7th
(1st GTS)
Born: Sept. 29, 1972 Le Mans Participations: 1 Le Mans Best: 18th (2001 – Saleen) Career Highlights:
Oliver Gavin in Le Mans: Year Car Team Co-drivers Result 2001 Saleen S7R Team Saleen Borcheller-Konrad 18th (3rd GTS)
No. 64 Chevrolet Corvette C5-R ANDY PILGRIM (USA) Born: Aug. 18, 1956 Le Mans Participations: 4 Le Mans Best: 8th (2001 – Corvette) Career Highlights:
Andy
Pilgrim in Le Mans: KELLY COLLINS (USA) Born: April 21, 1965 Le Mans Participations: 2 Le Mans Best: 8th (2001 – Corvette) Career Highlights:
Kelly Collins in Le Mans: Year Car Team
Co-drivers Result
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