ALMS »

'Two Ollies' cruise to second GT1 title

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 Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

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 DRB9 of Stephane Sarrazin and Pedro Lamy won by 4.945 seconds over Gavin and Beretta, while the No. 3 Compuware Corvette C6.R of Johnny O'Connell and Ron Fellows took third place by .474 seconds over the Aston Martin of Tomas Enge and Darren Turner.

"It's fantastic that we've won the championships 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," Gavin continued. "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 teammate 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 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. Then shortly after the first hour, Beretta passed Lamy for the GT1 lead. For the next 20 minutes, the GT1 contenders ran nose-to-tail in a four-car freight train.

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American Lemans Series.  27-30 Sept. 2006. Petit Lemans. Road Atlanta. Braselton, Ga. #3 & #4 Corvette.
David Brabham and Scott Sharp celebrate winning the 2009 American Le Mans Series (ALMS) crown for Patrón Highcroft at Laguna Seca [pic credit: Hazel PR]
David Brabham and Scott Sharp celebrate winning the 2009 American Le Mans Series (ALMS) crown for Patrón Highcroft at Laguna Seca [pic credit: Hazel PR]
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