The Callaway-built Corvette C7 GT3 at long last debuted in Germany’s ADAC GT Masters with an up-and-down weekend at Oscherscleben, but this past weekend brought the car’s maiden victory at Sachsenring. The menacing-looking C7 started ninth in field of proven GT3 machinery. However, Callaway Competition veteran Daniel Keilwitz ripped through the field at the green flag, finishing the first lap in third place. Within seven laps, he would take first position, from which there was no looking back.
“If you put your foot down at just the right moment in a flying start, you’re always in with a chance of gaining some positions,” Keilwitz told ADAC. “This went perfectly for me today.”
The mid-race driver change to 21-year-old Jules Gounon went smoothly after inheriting a seven-second lead. That lead was erased with a safety car, but Gounon aced the restart and the Corvette cruised to its first victory by a cool 4.5 seconds at the twisty German track in Saxony, which had troubled the young Frenchman earlier in the week.
“This was my first time here at Sachsenring, and in the free practice sessions I was having problems getting used to the track,” Gounon said.
That victory followed a solid fourth-place finish in the weekend’s opening race, where Gounon started the car from second-place, but couldn’t convert on a first podium just 0.7 seconds behind the third-place Audi R8. Elsewhere, American driver Connor De Philippi co-drove the Land Motorsport Audi R8 to second-place in the first race. De Philippi has driven brilliantly on several international levels, mostly with Audis, so far this year.
