The new Corvette C7.R has shown strong speed all season, but today’s victory on the streets of Long Beach showed the new machine will be a force to be reckoned with throughout 2014.

Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia took the victory today – virtually leading every lap. Garcia charged at the start and passed the prototype of Ed Brown into turn one. With the prototype machines taking longer to warm up their tires, the “King of Spain” was able to open up a huge gap of more than 10 seconds.

The victory on the 1.968 mile circuit was the fifth GT category win for Corvette at Long Beach in eight years and the first win for the newest generation Corvette in its first season of competition.

“It’s been a really good race for us. We couldn’t expect more. Basically I think 50% of the race was done by Jan, including the qualifying,” Garcia said.

“That pole position made a big difference. I knew half the race was all about turn one and the first three laps. My agression was probably a bit on the high side, I knew the prototypes were struggling to warm up the tires, I almost passed both of the Patron cars.

“A little bit of risk made the rest of the race a little bit more relaxed. We were battling very hard in the beginning, I think all the Corvette guys and Chevy deserve this.

“The off season was really short for us and now its really good. In Sebring we showed we had the pace, we were a lap down, but got it back and into the lead at one time. It shows we just keep working, and the Corvette guys just keep working hard. Now we’ve showed we can’t just go fast, but we can win races. It’s falling back to our side and now we need to win more.“