JUNE 17, 2015

(Audi Motorsport/newspressUSA)
Audi put up a magnificent fight, but it was Porsche's Le Mans this year. Here the No. 7 Audi R18 e-tron Quattro driven by André Lotterer, Marcel Fässler and Benoît Tréluyer makes a pit stop. They finished third.

(Photo by Richard Prince for GM/Chevrolet Racing)
The No. 64 Chevrolet Corvette Racing C7.R driven by Oliver Gavin, Tommy Milner and Jordan Taylor, races to the win in the GTE Pro class of the 24 Hours of Le Mans at Circuit de la Sarthe Sunday. It is the eighth class victory at Le Mans (in sixteen attempts) for the Corvette Racing team since its debut there in 2000, but the team's first since 2011. Corvette Racing has enjoyed quite the season so far in 2015, with the team also winning the Daytona 24 Hours (Rolex 24) in January and the 12 Hours of Sebring (Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh From Florida) in March. The No. 3 Corvette Racing team of Jan Magnussen, Antonio Garcia and Ryan Briscoe won GT Le Mans class victories at Daytona and Sebring and lead the Tequila Patrón North American Endurance Cup standings. Unfortunately the re-numbered No. 63 Corvette crashed due to mechanical failure during qualifying on Thursday with Magnussen at the wheel, forcing the team to withdraw that machine from the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the first time Corvette Racing has been forced to start the race with only one car. The No. 64 team team car battled for the GTE Pro lead for much of the 24 hours, mostly with the No. 95 Aston Martin Racing Vantage V8 and the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia. Ultimately, a mechanical problem on the No. 51 Ferrari with roughly two hours remaining left the No. 64 Corvette with plenty of breathing room, resulting in a five-lap victory over the second-place No. 71 AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia. “Unbelievable,” said Milner. “We certainly had our backs against the wall with our team car going out in qualifying, but as Corvette Racing, we’re one team. We pulled together and here we are, P1. Amazing! I can’t say enough about Oliver and Jordan. Each of them had a stint in the car where watching it, I just went, ‘Wow! Incredible!’ Thanks to those guys, thanks to all the crew guys. Our (No.) 4 guys back in the U.S., we’ve had a rough go of it for a bit, but this win makes up for that, for sure.”

(Photo by Richard Prince for GM/Chevrolet Racing)
Jordan Taylor climbs out as co-driver Tommy Milner climbs into the No. 64 Chevrolet Corvette Racing C7.R as the crack Pratt & Miller crew swarms over the car during an overnight pit stop.

(Photo by Richard Prince for GM/Chevrolet Racing)
The Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner/Jordan Taylor No. 64 Chevrolet Corvette Racing C7.R at speed at the Circuit de la Sarthe on its way to victory in the GTE Pro class of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. It was the eighth Le Mans class victory for the Corvette Racing team since its debut in France in 2000 (in sixteen attempts), but the first since 2011.

(Photo by Richard Prince for GM/Chevrolet Racing)
Victory for Corvette Racing at Le Mans!

(Photo by Richard Prince for GM/Chevrolet Racing)
Jordan Taylor (l to r), Corvette Racing program manager Doug Fehan, Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner celebrate Corvette Racing's victory at Le Mans.

(Motor Racing Legends)
The Le Mans Legend, a historic race run the morning of the 24 Hours of Le Mans for racing machines that competed there between 1949-1968, was dominated by a pair of Ford GT40s. 1994 Swiss Touring Car Champion Bernard Thuner, a veteran of three Le Mans 24 Hours races, was dominant in Claude Nahum’s GT40 (which competed in the 24 Hours in 1968), while Andrew Smith and James Cottingham (in the ex-Scuderia Bear GT40 which was punted out of the ’66 Le Mans 24 Hours during qualifying) finished second in their GT40.

(Photo by Phillip Abbott/LAT for GM/Chevrolet Racing)
Josef Newgarden (No. 67 CFH Racing Hartman Oil Chevrolet Turbo V6) celebrates after winning the Honda Indy Toronto, a Verizon IndyCar Series race through the streets of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was a memorable day for CFH Racing, as Newgarden's teammate, Luca Filippi (No. 20 CFH Racing Fuzzy's Vodka Chevrolet Turbo V6) finished 1.4485 seconds behind, giving the team its first ever 1-2 result. It was the second victory this season for Newgarden, and the second of his four-year Verizon IndyCar Series career. "I'm so happy we were able to get a win, but a 1-2 is just amazing because Luca is such a star," said Newgarden, who also won at Barber Motorsports Park back in April. "Just an amazing team effort. I'm definitely excited because this is Toronto and this is an IndyCar town."

(Photo by Phillip Abbott/LAT for GM/Chevrolet Racing)
Luca Filippi (No. 20 CFH Racing Fuzzy's Vodka Chevrolet Turbo V6) races to a second-place finish on the streets of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, his best result in the series.

(Photo by Michael L. Levitt/LAT for GM/Chevrolet Racing)
Helio Castroneves (No. 3 Team Penske Hitachi Chevrolet Turbo V6) makes a pit stop in the Honda Indy Toronto on Sunday. Castroneves finished third, while Will Power (No. 1 Team Penske Verizon Chevrolet Turbo V6), the pole sitter, finished fourth. 2014 Toronto race winner Sebastien Bourdais (No. 11 KVSH Racing Team Hydroxycut Chevrolet Turbo V6) placed fifth.

(Photo by Rusty Jarrett/HHP for GM/Chevrolet Racing)
Kurt Busch (No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Haas Automation Chevrolet SS) celebrates his win in the rain-shortened Quicken Loans 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Michigan, on Sunday. It was the second win of the season for Busch. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports AMP ENERGY Chevrolet SS) was second and Martin Truex Jr. (No. 78 Furniture Row Racing/Visser Precision Chevrolet SS) was third. Watch a NASCAR video here.

(Honda)
Fun? Yes, sometimes manufacturers actually do things just for the helluva it. Honda Performance Development is bringing one of its HPD ARX-04b LMP2 coupes to the 2015 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb.  As a matter of fact, it's the same machine that competed in this year's Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona, and it will be driven up the 14,110-foot mountain by Verizon IndyCar Series race winner and former Formula 1 driver Justin Wilson. The ARX-04b will be the first full-carbon monocoque vehicle ever sanctioned for PPIHC entry and will be fitted with a 3.5-liter V6 twin-turbocharged engine. The ARX-04b will compete in the Unlimited class, which features highly-modified cars that can navigate the 156 turns of the 12.42-mile course in under 10 minutes. "This is an exploratory effort, to learn as much as we can in advance of a possible future assault on the outright record (a time of 8:13.878, set by Sebastien Loeb in 2013)," said Art St. Cyr, President of Honda Performance Development. "We want to see how well our ARX-04b chassis adapts to the rigors of the Climb, and the high-altitude demands placed on our production-based V6 engine. The Pikes Peak International Hill Climb has always been an interesting project for many Honda divisions. The diversity of classes and very open nature of the rulebook continues to be very appealing to Honda and the passions of its associates. We're looking forward to this. We hope to have a lot of fun, and we're certainly not holding back with Justin Wilson behind the wheel. We think the fans will enjoy the show, as well."

(Porsche images)
Porsche honored Vic Elford on June 10, his birthday. Known as “Quick Vic” to friends and competitors, Elford is one of the few drivers to excel in sports cars, rally cars, and Formula 1 at a championship level. Born in London on June 10, 1935, Elford was one of the fastest drivers in the glorious racing era encompassing the 60s and 70s. Elford’s lap records include Targa Florio, Nurburgring, Daytona, Sebring, Norisring, Monza, Road Atlanta, Laguna Seca, Riverside, and Le Mans - where he was the first driver to lap at over a 150mph average in the Porsche 917 long-tail in 1970. His memorable 1968 season began by winning the prestigious Monte Carlo Rally in a Porsche 911, followed by an overall win the next weekend in the Daytona 24 Hour race – Porsche’s first 24-Hour race victory. He finished second at the 12 Hours of Sebring a month later, then in May scored a sensational victory at the Targa Florio, considered the greatest win in Targa history. Despite beginning the second lap of the ten-lap, 450 mile race more than 18 minutes behind, Elford and co-driver Umberto Maglioli came back to win the 1968 Targa Florio with their Porsche 907 by over a minute. In recognition of his efforts, Porsche dedicated their traditional victory poster not to the car, but to the driver for the first and only time. Two weeks after his momentous victory in the Targa Florio, Elford won the Nürburgring 1000 Kilometers. Then in his first F1 race in July, Elford took an out-classed Cooper to a stunning fourth-place finish in the soaking-wet French Grand Prix. During the 1972 24 Hours of Le Mans, when a Ferrari crashed in front of him, Elford stopped mid-race to try to extricate the driver from his burning car. Television cameras caught the action and Elford was named “Knight of the National Order of Merit” or Chevalier de l'Ordre National du Mérite by French President Georges Pompidou for his act of courage and heroism. Elford has been a featured guest at all four previous Porsche Rennsport Reunions, and will attend the upcoming Rennsport Reunion V this September 25-27, 2015 at Laguna Seca (Mazda Raceway). Elford was elected to the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2001 and currently lives in South Florida, with his wife Anita.

(Porsche)
Porsche Cars North America has unveiled the official Rennsport Reunion V artwork for its gathering of historic and contemporary Porsche race cars, and their drivers, September 25 to 27, 2015. This year’s event will feature the decades-long success story of Porsche at Le Mans. The poster depicts the 356 of 1951, first Porsche entrant and first class winner at the famed 24 hour race; the 917, which garnered the first overall victory with Hans Herrmann and Dick Attwood in 1970; and the 919 hybrid prototype with which Porsche returned to the top category of sports car racing in 2014 after a 16-year absence. The painting is by automotive artist Dennis Simon, who created the posters for three of the previous four venues. Additional details about the Porsche Rennsport Reunion V along with images from the first four Rennsport Reunions will be published on the official Porsche Rennsport Reunion V website, www.porscherennsportreunion.com, and Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca’s website (www.mazdaraceway.com), as they become available. Ticket information is available by contacting 831-242-8200 or www.mazdaraceway.com.