by Chris Hayes
Corvette Racing's Johnny O'Connell and Jan Magnussen flew to victory in the GT1 class at Long Beach gifting the multiple championship-winning team with an emphatic and peerless 1-2 triumph after leading home Olivier Beretta and Oliver Gavin in the sister Corvette C6.R.
Magnussen had planted his Corvette on pole in qualifying and never looked back despite fierce pressure from Gavin.
O'Connell eventually crossed the line a mere 1.374 seconds ahead of the sister car and celebrated his 30th career victory in exuberant fashion with a series of donuts that swathed the Californian crowd in smoke.
The two Corvettes were locked in a fierce battle throughout the one hour 40 minute race with Beretta and Gavin glued to the gearbox of the leading C6.R particularly at the early stages when Magnussen and Gavin were forced to negotiate heavy traffic and debris on the twisty 1.968 temporary street circuit.
"I was giving it everything I had," O'Connell declared after the race. "You see the competition in the pits between the two crews and how close it was between the Corvettes on the track, so it doesn't take a big field of cars to make it an exciting race.
"I first raced in Long Beach in 1986, so to finally get a win here 22 years later is very special. Corvette Racing is the team that's the most important in my career, and to show the performance of E85 ethanol racing fuel here in Southern California is a very cool moment."
So close was the contest between the leading cars that at one-point during the pit-stops Gavin almost collided with his opposite team-mate. The Corvettes pitted simultaneously under caution just after the first hour of the 100-minute race, the stop was a dead heat, and the #3 maintained its narrow lead.
"It was a crazy pit stop," exclaimed Gavin, "I came in right behind Jan (Magnussen), couldn't see the line for the pit lane speed limit, and nearly ran up the back of him.
