Corvette Racing has dominated the opening two races of 2015, winning both the Rolex 24 at Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring with the No.3 machine of Jan Magnussen, Antonio Garcia and Ryan Briscoe.

Now the velocity yellow machine returns to the scene of another win streak – the Long Beach Grand Prix. Magnussen and Garcia won here last year and proceeded to dominate the championship for four consecutive races with additional wins at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, Watkins Glen and Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.

Magnussen challenged for the pole early yesterday before being pushed back in the final moments of qualifying.

The Danish/Spanish duo will now start fourth today but remain confident of a strong showing.

“It was a good lap. This was as fast as we have gone at Long Beach,” Magnussen said.

“We improved the car from this last practice to qualifying. It was a good step forward but it wasn’t quite enough in qualifying. We’ll race them tomorrow and see what comes out of that.

“This is more of a sprint race in every sense of the word. It’s one pit stop and the pit stop probably decides who wins. That’s how it usually goes at Long Beach. You need to be in the fight up front for that first pit stop and then you need to nail that pit stop. After that that’s when the real race starts, right after the only pit stop.”

Garcia will again be “The Closer” at Long Beach today after Magnussen starts the race. New TUDOR United SportsCar Championship rules dictate that the driver who qualifies the car must start the race.

The Spaniard shone at Daytona and Sebring – bringing the No.3 Corvette to victory lane despite heavy pressure.

“Long Beach seems to suit the Corvette very well. We should be pretty good for the race but so should the other manufacturers,” Garcia said.

“It’s a short race at only 100 minutes. Strategy again will be the key thing as well as getting your full service done as quickly as possible. It will likely be a one-stop race again. It’s very difficult to predict what will happen.

“You can be aggressive as possible and things could go your way. Or it could be like last year and be a smooth race.”

In the history of the series, Magnussen and Garcia has won six times out of 13 races – they have actually never finished second or third.