Overall
finish – 8th
RON FELLOWS (#3 GM Goodwrench Service Plus Corvette
C5-R)
"The snake has been bitten in Texas! This is
just awesome. Thanks to all of the guys. We’re going to savor this
one. This has been a long time in coming. This is a track that no one
had been to so we thought it was going to be a straight up fight, and
the guys just had a tremendous effort. The Corvette was terrific, the
limiting factor was just Andy and I surviving and we managed. This feels
awesome.
"The Corvette was flawless, it was just a matter of
survival. I actually had to hold my breath at times because the air was
so hot to breathe. Andy did a terrific job going one and a half stints,
and then I got in at the end and we had a nice comfortable lead. I’d
like to make a call to Bob McGrauth and AER Manufacturing. They came on
board to help us this weekend. They’ve been supporting me for ten
years and they must be a good luck charm. We’ve won a number of races
together. The Corvette team has come close a few times, and we’ve
shown we had the speed this year. Five or ten more minutes of rain and
we would’ve won at Mosport (Ont.), so maybe this is a little payback
for those 3/10ths of a second."
ANDY PILGRIM (#3 GM Goodwrench Service Plus Corvette
C5-R)
"We look happy, don’t we? The GM Racing guys, GM
Goodwrench, Goodyear, Pratt & Miller, everyone involved, this has
been an incredible two years in the making. What can I say? Ron did a
phenomenal job. I’ve really enjoyed driving with him. He’s a total
professional, an excellent driver, and I’m just happy to have driven
with him these two races, here and at Mosport (Ont.).
"This probably wouldn’t mean so much if the
Vipers hadn’t been so good – I mean they’re the world champions
and have raised the bar, and we would raise it higher, so it means that
much more to have beaten them on an even playing field where no one had
been before. It couldn’t be better. I used to live here in Texas, so
it’s nice to come back here and win."
DOUG FEHAN – Corvette program manager
"Quite frankly, I didn’t have any interest of
coming to Texas in August, and with these temperatures, you can see why
I didn’t include it on our original schedule. But we had a very
generous sponsor step up that’s based here in Dallas, AER
Manufacturing, and they’re very close to Ron (Fellows), so that moved
me a little. But more importantly, when I looked at it, no one had been
here before, no one had raced here before. What that meant was that the
Vipers didn’t have four years of information gathered up with which
they could use to beat us. So this was a true test of crews, cars and
drivers. We’d be able to see what happens when we got matched up
straight away with nobody having an advantage, and I had every
confidence we could do this, I believed in our personnel, and they didn’t
let me down. It was a great job.
"The conditions with the heat provided challenges
to the team that they also had to step up to aside from the
technological ones. We incorporated some unique things to help the guys
out, including a lawn chair and garden hose that we used to cool the
drivers down – the Fehan special cooling technique. People laugh but
it worked. And the drivers had to be in great physical condition. Andy’s
stint through the middle was unbelievable, just an iron-man stint. He
really set the stage for Ron to recover and finish up. To be able to sit
in that car that long and do that good of a job is absolutely
remarkable. The guy’s unbelievable – I kid him that he’s part
reptile."
GARY PRATT – Corvette team manager, Pratt & Miller
"Oh man, this feels great. It might’ve been
longer than we thought and took a lot of hard work, but hard work always
pays off in the end. We sure felt we deserved this one, and all the guys
worked really hard – it was definitely a team effort. Without any one
of them we couldn’t have done it. My hat’s off to Ron (Fellows) and
Andy (Pilgrim). They did a great job. Andy did a good stint when he had
to stay in the car a little longer than we had planned with it being so
hot. I think we made the Vipers run harder than they wanted to, and the
Corvette ran flawless. Everything just worked perfect. And Goodyear, the
tires were the best they’ve been all year. You’d figure we might
have problems as hot as it was, but they were just fabulous. Thanks to
all the guys back in Akron – they did a great job."
GARY CLAUDIO – Group Marketing Manager, GM Racing
"All I can say is God bless Texas! The race was
unbelievable. The pit stops were flawless, the Corvette was flawless.
And I understand the engine that was in the car today was in the #64
Corvette at Le Mans, so the tradition continues for this engine –
podium finish the first time competing in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and
now the first win at Dallas. The guys performed excellently, and I think
the Corvette brand and all of the Corvette owners around the world
should be very proud of Team Corvette."
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