Garcia started the No. 3 Corvette C6.R from second on the grid, but had yet to drive a lap at Long Beach on a dry track. When a pair of prototypes tangled on the first lap, the closely following pack of GT cars accordioned. Garcia made contact with the car ahead of him, and was in turn hit by the car behind him. The chain reaction accident left the Corvette with a damaged front fascia, a missing hood, a broken rear wing, and a cracked diffuser. In spite of the altered aerodynamics, Garcia ran second for 12 laps before ceding the position to Milner.

"Everything was a little wild, especially with me not knowing the track very well," Garcia said. "I don't know how much losing the hood hurt us, but I was struggling with understeer. The Corvette is a very strong car - that's a good thing."

Garcia handed off the battered car to Magnussen under a full-course caution shortly before the halfway point. After challenging the No. 56 BMW for second, Magnussen was passed by the No. 01 Ferrari in the closing minutes.

"The car was a handful, but we hung on to the end," Magnussen said. "When I got in the car I was as fast as anybody, but I got caught up in a lot traffic. The aero downforce was gone after the first-lap incident - I made the tires last for a long time, but I was fighting hard with the BMW and in the end I didn't have anything left. If the car hadn't been damaged, we'd have been in with a good chance for a win."

The victory was Corvette Racing's first in the GT category in Long Beach, and its fourth since the team moved from the GT1 class in 2009.

"We felt very good about our baseline setup going into this event," said Doug Louth, Corvette Racing engineering director. "We didn't make any significant changes all weekend. The car engineers, Chuck Houghton and Kyle Millay, made major gains with our street course package at Baltimore last year, and today's result was a continuation of that success.

"Track conditions were a challenge early in the race with only one day of running," Louth noted. "The Long Beach circuit historically changes over the course of the weekend and tire performance and wear improve. After the track came in, we were good to go - our Michelin tires did the trick. All four