Chevrolet Racing

Chevy Racing–CAMARO Z/28.R AT VIR: Two Stevenson Motorsports Camaros on GS Podium

CAMARO Z/28.R AT VIR: Two Stevenson Motorsports Camaros on GS Podium
Fuel strategy pays off for pair of Camaro Z/28.Rs; Mantella Autosport fifth in class

DANVILLE, Va. (Aug. 22, 2015) – Strategy was the name of the game Saturday for Stevenson Motorsports’ two Chevrolet Camaro Z/28.R race cars in the eighth round of the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge at Virginia International Raceway. Both its Chevrolet Camaro Z/28.Rs finished on the Grand Sport (GS) podium as Chevrolet maintained its class Manufacturer Championship lead with two races to go.

Matt Bell and Lawson Aschenbach were runners-up in their Stevenson Motorsports No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28.R – their third podium finish of the season. GS Championship leaders Robin Liddell and Andrew Davis were third in Stevenson Motorsports’ No. 6 Camaro Z/28.R and maintained their GS points advantage.

All three of the Camaro Z/28.Rs entered in Saturday’s race placed in the top-five with Mantella Autosport’s No. 80 MBRP Camaro Z/28.R of Martin Barkey and Kyle Marcelli placing fifth despite mid-race contact that cost Marcelli at least 15 seconds.

“Today’s race was an example of excellent execution and strategy by our Chevrolet Camaro Z/28.R teams,” said Jim Lutz, Chevrolet Program Manager for the Camaro Z/28.R. “Congratulations to Stevenson Motorsports on a double-podium finish for Matt Bell and Lawson Aschenbach, and Robin Liddell and Andrew Davis. A fifth-place for Mantella Autosport adds to today’s success. The goal this weekend was to maximize our points total in the GS Manufacturer race. We exceeded our expectations with better-than-expected results.”

Race strategies began to develop before the midpoint of the two-hour, 30-minute race. After a couple of early-race, yellow-flag periods, the Stevenson Motorsports engineers decided to make their final stops well ahead of their competitors. The moves paid off as two lead cars ran out of fuel in the final laps, including one on the last lap while the field was under caution.

The strategy helped the Camaro Z/28.Rs improve their starting positions – Bell started fifth, Davis seventh and Barkey eighth.

The Camaro Z/28.R won five times during its 2014 debut season. It is based on the road-going Chevrolet Camaro Z/28, and the two share considerable traits:
Engine and displacement (7.0-liter V-8, 427 cubic inches)
Front splitter and rear spoiler with wickerbill
Hood extractor vent
Rockers, wheel-house extension and front tire deflectors
Belly pan

The next race for the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge is set for Friday, Sept. 18 from Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas with live coverage on IMSA.com and IMSA Radio. Television coverage on FOX Sports 1 is scheduled for 4 p.m. ET on Sunday, Sept. 27.

MATT BELL, STEVENSON MOTORSPORTS NO. 9 CHEVROLET CAMARO Z/28.R – FINISHED SECOND: “That’s the weirdest podium finish ever. Going into this we knew fifth or sixth place is where we were going to wind up which is kind of where we were sitting before everybody started running out of gas. We’ve got the best strategy, engineers and team in my opinion in this paddock but we need some help from the series if we’re going to consistently do more than where we’ve assumed we were going to wind up today. We’re going to need help going into COTA because it has really long straights.”

LAWSON ASCHENBACH, STEVENSON MOTORSPORTS NO. 9 CHEVROLET CAMARO Z/28.R – FINISHED SECOND: “Thanks to everyone at Stevenson Motorsports, our Chevy Camaro Z/28.R was fast all day. We didn’t quite have the pace we wanted to keep up with the leaders but once I got in the car I knew it was going to be a fuel strategy race and we were going to have to get to the end one way or another. So I’ve got to say thanks to everyone on the pit lane. Our guys made a great call. It was an interesting call early in the race to stay out, and in the end we ended up being able to short pit and jumped a couple people, got the lead. We knew we didn’t quite have the pace to stay up there, fell back a little bit, but once it became a fuel strategy race we hit the nail on the head.”

ANDREW DAVIS, STEVENSON MOTORSPORTS NO. 6 CHEVROLET CAMARO Z/28.R – FINISHED THIRD: “I guess we were better to be lucky than fast because we weren’t very fast today. We played a good fuel-saving strategy. We came in early, got topped off, gave Robin some left side tires, and knew we were good to go. Obviously that yellow came out which was unfortunate for us because we may have moved all the way up to the front and were pushing as hard as we could to close the gap. I would have liked to see what could have happened had it stayed green, but to be on the podium after the weekend we’ve had and the competitiveness of the car to have both Stevenson Motorsports’ Camaro Z/28.Rs up on the podium is a great day for everyone at Stevenson, Pratt & Miller and Team Chevy.”

ROBIN LIDDELL, STEVENSON MOTORSPORTS NO. 6 CHEVROLET CAMARO Z/28.R – FINISHED THIRD: “I ran most of my stint on my own but we obviously pitted out of sequence and took fuel which was the safe option and it played out for us at the end with getting on the podium with people running out of fuel. I guess people gambled on a yellow that didn’t come, and we were fortunate that it didn’t come. You need fuel in the car to finish the race and that’s what we had. We certainly didn’t have a car that could have driven to second- and third-place today, so I’m very happy with the result for Stevenson Motorsports and Team Chevy.”

KYLE MARCELLI, MANTELLA AUTOSPORT NO. 80 MBRP CHEVROLET CAMARO Z/28.R – FINISHED FIFTH: “A top-five finish is good but it could have been a lot better. We showed all weekend that we had really good pace and that we had a shot at the podium. When I first got in the car, we made our driver change under green-flag conditions so we were a ways back from the lead back. Shortly after that and on the first green-flag lap after a caution, the 158 Multimatic car drove into us pretty good into Turn 1 and pushed us off-track. We lost about 15 seconds to the group. At that point, we tried to be smart and save fuel. I knew it was going to be close and we started saving for about a half-hour but realized it wasn’t going to be enough. We made our stop and pushed to the end. We ended up fifth but nine seconds from third. If you take into account getting punted off and saving fuel for 30 minutes, we very well could have been on the podium. The contact and strategy didn’t work in our favor. The car was really good. The Mantella guys put a great Camaro on the track. It was a fun race and very interesting.”

Connect with Team Chevy on social media. Like us on Facebook at facebook.com/TeamChevy, follow us on Twitter @TeamChevy, and add +TeamChevy into your Google+ circles.