Tragedy to Triumph - a storybook ending at Le Mans
In Wednesday practice Jan Magnussen skidded off hard into the barrier at the Porsche Curve. The damage to the # 63 was beyond repair.
Per reports, the throttle malfunctioned because a piece of debris worked its way inside the pedal box.
Now the outcome was up to the # 64. Doug Fehan, Gary Pratt, engineers and crew proved once again that whatever the odds, teamwork puts you back in the game. And that’s exactly what they did, pooling their resources behind the # 64 to win the GTE Pro Class in a storybook ending.
A quarter into the 24 hour race Milner, Gavin and Taylor worked their way up front from 7th in class. A Porsche and an Aston dropped out after a third of the race increasing their odds.
Watch the Corvette C7.R blow by the Ferrari and Aston Martin on the Mulsanne straight.
At the finish Gavin held a 5 lap advantage completing 337 laps (2,865 miles). With 2 hours to go he caught and passed the leader, the Ferrari 458 of Toni Vilander who then lost 5 laps with a mechanical issue.
The # 50 C7.R of the Jack LeConte’s French Larbre team was not so fortunate. It was sidelined after 94 laps. The WEC schedule will take them to Germany, the US, Japan, China and Bahrain.
Corvette results compiled by Wayne Ellwood
The Pratt & Miller boys head to the 6 hours of Watkins Glen on Sat Jun 27.
