Oliver Gavin took fourth in qualifying for the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) GT class at Laguna Seca, while team-mate Antonio Garcia will line up sixth.
Gavin, who will share the #3 Compuware Corvette with Tommy Milner, whom he won the GT class at the 2012 event, set a time of 1:22.924 seconds. Garcia also raced at the 2012 event, completing a Compuware 1-2, sharing the second Compuware car with Jan Magnussen.
“The car was pretty decent and it took a while for the tires to come in,” said Gavin. “I thought we found a pretty good spot on the track but the Viper was a little bit in the way on the front. Unfortunately on the lap when it all started to come together, the Viper was right there when I came into the corkscrew which is a shame because I lost some time but I got by him and then the next lap I wasn’t so good getting into one and then into two and I never quite seemed to be able to string it together again. I don’t think we had enough to get on pole, but I think we had enough to get third.”
“Where we are right now with the car with the weight we have got on and everything else, I think we are pretty much maxed-out,” he continued. “So I am relatively happy with the start position because it’s a four hour race and plenty can happen. Last year we proved that we could win races from third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and we didn’t have to be on pole. Very rarely does the pole sitter win anyway. So we just have to hit it right tomorrow and tires are going to be important and getting your pressures right with the track temperatures is going to be vitally important. It’s going to be important because it’s an hour and fifteen minutes longer than the standard race. Strategy is going to play a big part tomorrow.”
