Corvette Racing capped Corvette's 50th anniversary in international road racing by sweeping the American Le Mans Series manufacturers, drivers and team championships in the season finale at Raceway Laguna Seca late last month. A runner-up finish by Oliver Gavin and Olivier Beretta in the No. 4 Compuware Corvette C6.R at the Monterey Sports Car Championships wrapped up Chevrolet's sixth consecutive manufacturers' title and gave the pair their second straight drivers championship.
The four-hour race was hard fought from the green flag as all four GT1 contenders finished within one lap of each other. The Aston Martin DBR9 of Stephane Sarrazin and Pedro Lamy won by 4.945 seconds over Gavin and Beretta, and the No. 3 Compuware Corvette C6.R of Johnny O'Connell and Ron Fellows took third place by 0.474 seconds over the Aston Martin of Tomas Enge and Darren Turner.
"It's fantastic that we have won the championship again", said Gavin. "This season has had some ups and downs, some great racing and some frustrating racing, and in the end we've come through. It was really close at the finish and we didn't know whether Olivier was going to be able to catch Stephane. He got close but then hit traffic, and then we just ran out of time."
Beretta had the best seat in the house after passing his team-mate O'Connell for second in the Corkscrew with 13 minutes to go. "The final stint was amazing", said Beretta. "We had two options today: Olly and I knew we just had to finish the race to win the drivers championship, and on the other hand we really wanted to push hard and win the manufacturers championship for Chevrolet. So I tried to forget about the drivers championship and push hard to show that Corvette was still No. 1, even with all of the handicaps we have been given this year. Corvette Racing is a great team and they gave me a great car. This is my fourth ALMS championship, but this one is the sweetest."
The race almost went awry for the No. 4 Compuware Corvette at the start when Beretta was hit from behind by a Ferrari, damaging the left-rear fender. Two laps later, a fortuitous caution period allowed the pit crew to reattach the fender without losing contact with the leaders.
The race became a strategic chess match when the two Corvettes made their fifth and final pit stops under caution at the two-hour, 48-minute mark, ensuring that both cars could run to the finish without another stop. When the class-leading No. 007 Aston Martin pitted with a flat tyre at 3:16, the championships were virtually clinched as the Corvettes were running comfortably in second and third.
O'Connell relentlessly cut the No. 009 Aston Martin's advantage by a second a lap, passing for the lead in Turn 11 with 27 minutes remaining, but the Aston countered and regained the lead going into Turn 2.
"It was a great battle," O'Connell declared. "We got by them, he got back by me, and then I got punted by one of the prototypes. I thought we might have hurt the car, but we never gave up, and that's the mantra of Corvette Racing."
Next event
March 17, 2007, Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, Sebring International Raceway, Sebring, Florida, 5.95 km road course.