INDIANAPOLIS (Sept. 16, 2023) – Corvette Racing’s Jordan Taylor qualified fifth in the GT Daytona (GTD) PRO class Saturday ahead of the team’s return to Indianapolis Motor Speedway for Sunday’s TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
It’s a key weekend for Taylor and teammate Antonio Garcia in the GTD PRO title race. The No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R won in its last race at Virginia International Raceway to solidify the Corvette program’s second-place standing in the Drivers, Manufacturers and Teams points battle with two races left in the season.
The weekend marks the first time in nearly a decade that Corvette Racing has turned laps around the famous Yard of Bricks but first trip with the mid-engine C8.R. The engineering and crew teams spent practice sessions Friday and Saturday tuning and tweaking the Corvette to the track surface and the 2.439-mile, 14-turn circuit.
The goal was to validate the pre-event virtual work, much of which was focused on efforts in the Chevrolet Driver in the Loop simulator. That – plus feedback from the manufacturer’s IndyCar program, which raced twice this year on the IMS Road Course – aided the team in establishing its baseline setup along and looking at the effects of predicted changes to help bridge the gap to the rest of the GTD PRO field.
Corvette Racing finished fourth and fifth in the GT Le Mans (GTLM) class in 2014 in the team’s only previous IMS appearance.
The TireRack.com Battle of the Bricks is scheduled for 1:10 p.m. ET on Sunday, Sept.17. The race will air live on NBC beginning at 1 p.m. ET and stream live on Peacock inside the United States and IMSA.com outside
JORDAN TAYLOR, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: "Not what we wanted but what we kind of expected. Practices were tough and that carried over to qualifying. The car feels good and pretty solid. We've gone quicker each session and we're getting closer to the front. But the gap in performance between us and the rest of the class is evident, though. We will see. It will take a perfect race, which we are capable of doing. After that, things are out of our control."
2023 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship – GTD PRO (After nine of 11 events)
Driver Standings
1. Ben Barnicoat/Jack Hawksworth – 3,165
2. Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor – 3,021
3. Klaus Bachler/Patrick Pilet – 2,915
4. Daniel Juncadella/Jules Gounon – 2,886
5. Alex Riberas/Ross Gunn – 2,774
Team Standings
1. No. 14 Vasser Sullivan – 3,165
2. No. 3 Corvette Racing – 3,021
3. No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports – 2,915
4. No. 79 WeatherTech Racing – 2,886
5. No. 23 Heart of Racing Team – 2,774
Manufacturer Standings
1. Lexus – 3,165
2. Chevrolet – 3,021
3. Porsche – 2,915
4. Mercedes-AMG – 2,886
5. Aston Martin – 2,785
CORVETTE RACING AT INDIANAPOLIS: By the Numbers
• 1: As in one team, one manufacturer and one model of car for 25 years of racing: Corvette Racing, Chevrolet and the Chevrolet Corvette
• 5: Combined starts for Corvette Racing’s Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor at Indianapolis in IMSA competition. Both placed fourth in their class in the 2014 event
• 9: Years since Corvette Racing’s only other appearance at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2014 with the C7.R
• 14: Manufacturer Championships for Chevrolet and Corvette Racing since 2001
• 27: Tracks at which Corvette Racing has won races – Baltimore, Charlotte Motor Speedway, COTA, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park/Mosport, Daytona, Detroit, Houston, Laguna Seca, Le Mans, Lime Rock, Long Beach, Miami, Mid-Ohio, Monza, Portimão, Portland, Road America, Road Atlanta, Sebring, Sonoma, St. Petersburg, Texas, Trois Rivieres, Utah, VIR, Washington DC and Watkins Glen
• 34: Number of drivers for Corvette Racing since 1999. Ben Keating and Nico Varrone joined that list with their participation – and victory – in the 1,000 Miles of Sebring for the World Endurance Championship
• 47: Combined victories for Chevrolet at Indianapolis in stock car (23), open-wheel (21) and sports car racing (three)
• 127: Victories worldwide for Corvette Racing – 115 in North America, nine at Le Mans and three in the FIA WEC
• 281: Event starts by Corvette Racing since 1999
• 360,480.64: Total number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing since its inception. To put that in perspective, Corvette Racing is more than halfway to the distance traveled by Apollo 13 – the longest manned spaceflight in history: 622,268 miles. That means Corvette Racing has raced to the moon and more than halfway back!
Corvette Racing at Indianapolis
2014
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Antonio Garcia/Jan Magnussen – 4th in GTLM
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 5th in GTLM
CORVETTE RACING AT FUJI: Runner-Up Run for No. 33 C8.R
Engineering strategy, quick pit work help return Corvette to GTE Am podium; post-race penalty elevates team from third to second
OYAMA, Japan (Sept. 10, 2023) – Corvette Racing returned to the GTE Am podium on Sunday with a second-place finish for the No. 33 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R.in the FIA World Endurance Championship’s Six Hours of Fuji.
Drivers Nicky Catsburg, Ben Keating and Nico Varrone continued their historic run in this year’s championship with their fourth podium finish in six races. It adds to a phenomenal year in which they locked up the class Drivers and Teams titles in the previous round at Monza and took key victories at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and 1,000 Miles of Sebring.
In its second appearance at Fuji – last year’s debut ended with a fifth-place finish in the GTE Pro category – the Corvette Racing team elected for an aggressive strategy of completing the race with only four pit stops compared to five for most of its competitors. That line of thinking appeared to be the winning call… were it not for two questionable in-race penalties that cost the Corvette team two minutes in the pitlane.
Keating began on pole in class following a stunning lap in Saturday’s qualifying session. He drove a pair of 70-minute stints while a majority of other GTE Am cars stopped 10-15 minutes earlier. His fuel economy with the Corvette’s flat-plane crank V8 engine put the team in prime position for a fourth victory of the season.
Unfortunately toward the end of his stint, Keating was involved in side-to-side contact with the eventual race-winning Ferrari that resulted in a damaged right-hand door. The crew quickly repaired the hinge system and swapped out the door on the C8.R’s second pit stop as Keating handed over to Varrone.
Adding insult to injury, though, Keating was judged by the race stewards to be responsible for the contact. The Corvette received a 30-second stop-and-go penalty, which Varrone served shortly after he got in the car at the two-and-a-half-hour mark.
The never-give-up spirit of Corvette Racing was evident once again as Varrone’s pace and fuel savings meant he was able to cycle back to the lead inside the final 90 minutes. However, the Corvette was assessed a 10-second pitlane penalty for contact with another GTE car toward the end of his stint.
That left Catsburg to drive the final 65 minutes with aims of moving from third to second, but a late-race full-course yellow period hurt his chances and slowed his progress. He crossed the line third in class, but a 10-second, post-race time penalty to the No. 57 Ferrari elevated the Corvette to second.
Corvette Racing closes its season in the FIA World Endurance Championship with the Eight Hours of Bahrain on Saturday, November 4.
NICKY CATSBURG, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – SECOND IN GTE AM: “It’s nice to come out of here with a podium. But it was clear that we should have won the race. Without the penalties, we by far had the best strategy. Ben and Nico did an amazing job fuel-saving. We had, I would say, two questionable penalties and without those we would have won by a country mile. It’s a shame but those are part of it. At least we have won the championship already, so we can’t complain too much. Those races are part of it as well. And it’s nice for the Ferrari boys to win as well. It was a good weekend in terms of execution but a bit of bad luck. But it doesn’t matter. It was a really nice time that we had here at Fuji, and I’m looking forward to coming back.”
BEN KEATING, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – SECOND IN GTE AM: "I think everything went according to plan. We came into the race hoping to do only four stops but it was five because of the penalty. But I still think we did our job the way we exactly planned to do it. I did 2.5 hours in the car; us and the 86 were the only two cars to go on that strategy, and I think it was the right strategy.
"The contact with the 54... I can understand why they (the race stewards) viewed it the way they did. To me, we came together. I was right up next to him (Thomas Flohr) and it was my intention to make his braking line tighter. As I went to get close to him, he came over to get into the braking line and the fact is that we came together. But because the normal line is to go out wide for the brake zone, they deemed I went into him more than he went into me. I felt like it was a racing incident.
"All I care about is our race and how we finished. I was not happy with the retaliation, either. They turned him up and gave him some extra speed. Then he caught up to me and ran me off the track at the last turn. I don't feel like that was the right way to go about a solution. I'm sure he's mad at me, and I'm mad at him. It's not the first time we've had this conversation. But I feel really good about the car and about our strategy."
NICO VARRONE, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – SECOND IN GTE AM: "It was a good stint and we managed to recover some time. Both stints were about saving fuel. I think we were doing good because as we saved fuel, we could start pushing and going for our target. We did a great job, and the car was very good. There were some penalties for Ben and me that we don't agree with and I don't think were fair. So that made us fall back. But I was really happy with the pace. The team was really, really good."
CORVETTE RACING AT INDIANAPOLIS: Back at the Brickyard
First Indy race for program since 2014 with major GTD PRO title implications
DETROIT (Sept. 12, 2023) – Corvette Racing and Indianapolis Motor Speedway. They are two of the most iconic names in motorsports and finally come together after nearly a decade apart when the team returns this weekend with the rest of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
Sunday’s TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks is the next-to-last IMSA race for the season and a critical event for Corvette Racing’s championship hopes. The No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R – in the hands of drivers Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor – enters off a victory in the most recent round at Virginia International Raceway.
It kept the Corvette team, its drivers and Chevrolet very much in the GT Daytona (GTD) PRO title hunt with Indy and Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta’s Petit Le Mans still to go. The gap to the championship-leading Lexus in the Drivers, Manufacturers and Teams standings is 144 points with 770 possible points available in the final two races.
The 2.439-mile, 14-turn road course inside the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway is the only track on the current IMSA calendar where Corvette Racing hasn’t recorded a victory. That should not be too much of a surprise considering that the team only competed at the Indy Road Course in 2014 – the first season of the Corvette C7.R.
Corvette Racing finished fourth and fifth in the GT Le Mans (GTLM) class that year. Garcia was part of that effort, and both he and Taylor have multiple starts in GT and prototype machinery at Indianapolis, although neither have been on the podium yet. Given the championship scenario, there’s no better time to fix that than Sunday.
Although the team hasn’t tested at Indianapolis, valuable information is available to Corvette Racing from Chevrolet’s NASCAR and IndyCar programs – both of which competed on the Indy Road Course earlier this year. Correlating data on track conditions and features as well as tire performance will be a focal point for the Corvette engineering team in order to arrive with an ideal baseline for the weekend’s two practice sessions ahead of Saturday qualifying.
Chevrolet has a sterling record at the Brickyard in stock car, open-wheel and sports car competition. The manufacturer’s NASCAR Sprint Cup and Xfinity teams have won 23 times in 42 races at Indianapolis dating back to the first Brickyard 400 in 1994. In IndyCar competition, Chevrolet teams have won 12 times at the Indy 500 with nine additional wins on the IMS Road Course.
In IMSA competition, Action Express Racing won the last time the series raced at Indy in a Corvette Daytona Prototype. A Chevrolet Camaro also won at IMS in the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge in 2012 and 2014.
The TireRack.com Battle of the Bricks is scheduled for 1:10 p.m. ET on Sunday, Sept.17. The race will air live on NBC beginning at 1 p.m. ET and stream live on Peacock inside the United States and IMSA.com outside the U.S. IMSA Radio will air all on-track sessions beginning with Friday’s practice at IMSA.com with the race call also on XM 207 and SiriusXM Online 992.
ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: “It will be good to go back to a historic place like Indianapolis. We just need to carry on doing what we are doing. I think we’ve shown that we know how to win over the last few races. Keeping the momentum is key. We haven’t tested at Indianapolis, but Corvette Racing is good enough to overcome and deal with that. Let’s keep everything running the same way and putting pressure on everyone. If we do our thing, people will focus on us and that’s what we need. If they are focusing on us, then maybe they will make mistakes and we can capitalize. That’s the strength of a team and reputation like Corvette Racing.
JORDAN TAYLOR, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: “I’ve driven a Camaro at Indianapolis in 2012 so there’s some of that experience there. I’ve good and bad memories from races there, but it’s always a fun place to compete. This is the first time they’ve opened the infield for camping, so that’s pretty cool. I’m sure we’ll draw a good crowd there. It’s a racing town, so to have a sports car race there is a really big deal. There’s been testing there that we didn’t do, but we’ve gotten some good simulation time to get ahead of it. Hopefully we’ll have a decent car there. I’m sure there is some track-dependent things that the engineers have correlated from IndyCar. That’s the good thing about a big GM family and a simulator that is shared between all the platforms so we can share information between all the different series as a manufacturer, especially with track details like curbing changes and things like that.”
2023 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship – GTD PRO (After nine of 11 events)
Driver Standings
1. Ben Barnicoat/Jack Hawksworth – 3,165
2. Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor – 3,021
3. Klaus Bachler/Patrick Pilet – 2,915
4. Daniel Juncadella/Jules Gounon – 2,886
5. Alex Riberas/Ross Gunn – 2,774
Team Standings
1. No. 14 Vasser Sullivan – 3,165
2. No. 3 Corvette Racing – 3,021
3. No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports – 2,915
4. No. 79 WeatherTech Racing – 2,886
5. No. 23 Heart of Racing Team – 2,774
Manufacturer Standings
1. Lexus – 3,165
2. Chevrolet – 3,021
3. Porsche – 2,915
4. Mercedes-AMG – 2,886
5. Aston Martin – 2,785
CORVETTE RACING AT INDIANAPOLIS: By the Numbers
• 1: As in one team, one manufacturer and one model of car for 25 years of racing: Corvette Racing, Chevrolet and the Chevrolet Corvette
• 5: Combined starts for Corvette Racing’s Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor at Indianapolis in IMSA competition. Both placed fourth in their class in the 2014 event
• 9: Years since Corvette Racing’s only other appearance at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2014 with the C7.R
• 14: Manufacturer Championships for Chevrolet and Corvette Racing since 2001
• 27: Tracks at which Corvette Racing has won races – Baltimore, Charlotte Motor Speedway, COTA, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park/Mosport, Daytona, Detroit, Houston, Laguna Seca, Le Mans, Lime Rock, Long Beach, Miami, Mid-Ohio, Monza, Portimão, Portland, Road America, Road Atlanta, Sebring, Sonoma, St. Petersburg, Texas, Trois Rivieres, Utah, VIR, Washington DC and Watkins Glen
• 34: Number of drivers for Corvette Racing since 1999. Ben Keating and Nico Varrone joined that list with their participation – and victory – in the 1,000 Miles of Sebring for the World Endurance Championship
• 47: Combined victories for Chevrolet at Indianapolis in stock car (23), open-wheel (21) and sports car racing (three)
• 127: Victories worldwide for Corvette Racing – 115 in North America, nine at Le Mans and three in the FIA WEC
• 281: Event starts by Corvette Racing since 1999
• 360,480.64: Total number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing since its inception. To put that in perspective, Corvette Racing is more than halfway to the distance traveled by Apollo 13 – the longest manned spaceflight in history: 622,268 miles. That means Corvette Racing has raced to the moon and more than halfway back!
Corvette Racing at Indianapolis
2014
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Antonio Garcia/Jan Magnussen – 4th in GTLM
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 5th in GTLM
We will be live streaming our alternative broadcast starting this Saturday, September 9th at 10p ET on our Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Twitch channels (Link in Bio).
Our team has never won in Fuji, and with the Championship locked up and in the immortal words of Larry Bird, “Well, we’re here, we might as well win.”
It will be a long night for Brad and Luke so we are sure sleep deprived shenanigans will ensue!
CORVETTE RACING AT FUJI: Keating Puts C8.R on Pole Position!
OYAMA, Japan (Sept. 9, 2023) – Corvette Racing’s Ben Keating put the team’s No. 33 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R on the GTE Am pole position Saturday ahead of Sunday’s Six Hours of Fuji – the sixth round of the FIA World Endurance Championship.
Keating, who is teaming with Nicky Catsburg and Nico Varrone, set a best lap of 1:38.338 (103.769 mph) in the championship-winning C8.R. Corvette Racing clinched the GTE Am Drivers and Teams titles in the last WEC round at Monza, Italy and is seeking its fourth victory of the season.
On Saturday, Keating was just 0.035 seconds clear of Sarah Bovy in the No. 85 Porsche of the Iron Dames team. The top half of the class was very close with the six fastest GTE Am cars separated by just 0.673 seconds around the 2.84-mile, 16-turn circuit at the base of Mount Fuji. Keating claimed his third pole position of the season and eighth in the class since the start of 2021 - more than any other GTE Am driver.
It was difficult for the full field of 36 cars to get a read on the track during the three practice sessions. Friday’s opening practice and Saturday’s final practice were in mixed conditions with periods of rain and dry weather. That left Friday’s second practice as the only fully dry running ahead of qualifying.
Still, Corvette Racing engineers made good use of each session with the conditions uncertain heading into qualifying with a variety of tuning and chassis changes in hopes of finding a good balance in the Corvette for not just the 15 minutes but also Sunday’s six-hour race.
As in previous races, the C8.R will race at Fuji with a level of rewards weight due to its successes earlier this year: 15 kilograms for winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans and 15 kilograms for leading the championship, plus 10 extra kilograms added to the car’s minimum weight ahead of the previous round at Monza for a total of 40 kilograms – 10 less than at the Italian round.
BEN KEATING, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – POLE-WINNER: “I don’t know why (race engineer) Tyler Neff has to wait until qualifying to give us the really good setup! I went more than two seconds per lap faster in qualifying today than I have at any other time this weekend. It’s because the setup is that much better. It was so confidence-inspiring. I could really push the car without losing grip, even on a damp track. I don’t know what they did, but the car was really nice to drive. I wasn’t expecting to be on the pole. It’s always so much fun to be that close with Sarah. She did a good job. I thought I had a pretty good lap and then the team said she did a 1:38.3, and I came across the line at a 38.3 and not knowing who was going to be in front. It was super, super close. Last year being with TF Sport and being teammates with Satoshi Hoshino in the Aston Martin… this is his home track and where he lives. I’m really happy for him to come in P3. It was a little bit of a reunion at tech after qualifying seeing Sarah and Hoshino down there. It’s a lot of fun. This season continues to be a fairy-tale season. Every time you think it can’t get any better, it keeps getting better. I’m just trying to soak up and enjoy every last minute.
“It was exciting before we left. They asked me what I thought, and I thought it would be the best thing to go out on a drying wet tire. To me, the frontstraight looked wet. We watched every car around me put on slicks, and so the engineers made the decision to go with slicks from the get-go. When I got around on the back half of the track, it was a lot drier than it was on the frontstraight. I came on the radio and congratulated them on making the right call. It was a matter of bringing them up to temperature slowly and not over-driving in the damp conditions. But you only have a 15-minute window to get them up to temperature and take advantage of the peak of the tire to get those extra few tenths.
“We made some big sweeping changes on the car. We had been chasing it a little bit. I give the engineers such a hard time because it seems like it’s the same at every race we go to! We’re not exactly sure where we are, but when we get to qualifying I have a really, really strong setup on the car. We made some really big changes and they got it really right. The car felt really good. I felt like I could really attack the corners without feeling like I’m walking on eggshells. Especially in Sector Three, you have to be able to have confidence going through there if you’re going to be fast. It’s the first time I’ve felt that here, and the car felt really good.”
NICKY CATSBURG, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: “As always, it was Ben and Sarah putting on a good show. We had to wait until her last lap to be finished, and Ben did an amazing job. To be fair, I didn’t predict him to be on pole because we were struggling quite a bit in the mixed conditions, but he once again delivered! I’m super happy with that.
“It’s always nice in Fuji. The location at Mount Fuji is an awesome place and Japan is one of my favorite places to go. So I always love coming to Fuji, and we’re looking forward to racing here. We’ve been struggling a little bit with the weather conditions as everyone else has. It’s always in between… wet-dry-wet-dry… We haven’t really gotten any valuable data yet, so it will be interesting in the race. You’re right below the mountain and right on the edge of where it starts. It wasn’t supposed to rain today and it’s been wet the whole day because the clouds just keep sitting here. It’s weird and difficult to prepare for this. You go with certain predictions and they just do whatever they want.”
NICO VARRONE, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: “This is really cool. Being in Japan for the first time, the people are great and the culture is so different. I’m really enjoying it and getting used to it. The track is really fun to drive. It’s really tricky; almost all the last sector is difficult to find where the lines are, so it is tough. But it is better than I expected. We have a great car and we worked through all the sessions. And now Ben has taken pole! It’s been really good so far, and we’re all very happy.”
2023 FIA World Endurance Championship – GTE Am (After five of seven events)
Driver Standings
1. Ben Keating/Nicky Catsburg/Nico Varrone – 145
2. Michelle Gatting/Rahel Frey/Sarah Bovy – 67
3. Ahmad Al Harthy/Charlie Eastwood/Michael Dinan – 65
4. Christian Ried/Julien Andlauer/Mikkel Pedersen – 60
5. Benjamin Barker/Michael Wainwright/Riccardo Pera – 54
Team Standings
1. No. 33 Corvette Racing – 145
2. No. 85 Iron Dames – 67
3. No. 25 ORT by TF – 65
4. No. 77 Dempsey-Proton Racing – 60
5. No. 86 GR Racing – 54
CORVETTE RACING AT Fuji: By the Numbers
• 1: As in one team, one manufacturer and one model of car for 25 years of racing: Corvette Racing, Chevrolet and the Chevrolet Corvette
• 3: Number of GTE Am wins in four FIA WEC races this season for Nicky Catsburg, Ben Keating and Nico Varrone with the No. 33 Corvette C8.R
• 13: Hours difference between Fuji and Detroit in the Eastern Time Zone. That means the race will begin Sunday morning in Japan but late Saturday night Eastern Time
• 14: Manufacturer Championships for Chevrolet and Corvette Racing since 2001
• 27: Tracks at which Corvette Racing has won races – Baltimore, Charlotte Motor Speedway, COTA, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park/Mosport, Daytona, Detroit, Houston, Laguna Seca, Le Mans, Lime Rock, Long Beach, Miami, Mid-Ohio, Monza, Portimão, Portland, Road America, Road Atlanta, Sebring, Sonoma, St. Petersburg, Texas, Trois Rivieres, Utah, VIR, Washington DC and Watkins Glen
• 34: Number of drivers for Corvette Racing since 1999. Ben Keating and Nico Varrone joined that list with their participation – and victory – in the 1,000 Miles of Sebring for the World Endurance Championship
• 40: Kilograms of success ballast for the Corvette C8.R at Fuji – 15 for winning Le Mans, 15 for leading the GTE Am championship and 10 additional kilograms added to the car’s minimum weight by the organizers
• 127: Victories worldwide for Corvette Racing – 115 in North America, nine at Le Mans and three in the FIA WEC
• 280: Event starts by Corvette Racing since 1999
• 359,884.24: Total number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing since its inception. To put that in perspective, Corvette Racing is more than halfway to the distance traveled by Apollo 13 – the longest manned spaceflight in history: 622,268 miles. That means Corvette Racing has raced to the moon and more than halfway back!
Corvette Racing at Fuji (wins in bold)
2022
No. 64 Corvette C8.R: Tommy Milner/Nick Tandy – 5th in GTE Pro
CORVETTE RACING, CORVETTE CORRAL COMING BACK TO INDY For the first time in nearly a decade, Corvette Racing is returning to the hallowed grounds of Indianapolis Motor Speedway. With that comes the chance to be a part of history with the first Corvette Corral at IMS since 2014.
Tickets remain on sale for the three-day Corvette Corral at the Battle of the Bricks – the next-to-last round of this year’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. In addition to watching Corvette Racing go for its second GTD PRO victory in a row, Corvette Corral ticket-buyers also have the chance to participate in a number of special activities including:
· Reserved parking and air-conditioned hospitality with food and drinks
· On-track parade laps Sunday around IMS - one of the world’s most iconic circuits
· Participation in Q&As with Corvette subject-matter experts from the Corvette Engineering Team, Corvette Racing management and partners, brand ambassadors and more
· An exclusive autograph session and photo opportunities with Corvette Racing drivers Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor
· Raffles, live television feeds throughout the weekend
For more information on Corvette Corral tickets, contact Indianapolis Motor Speedway at (317) 492-8500 or tickets@brickyard.com.
6 HOURS OF FUJI RACE SCHEDULE: September 7-10, 2023 Track Name Fuji International Speedway, Japan Track Length 2.84 miles Corners 16 Race Distance 6 Hours
TV Broadcast:
TV: Motor Trend Channel and Velocity Channel (Canada) September 9-10, 2023 Saturday: 9:30 pm-11:00 pm EDT part 1 Sunday ending: 3:00 am -4:30 pm EDT part 2
A live stream will be available on the Motor Trend + app with all 6 hours start: Saturday: 9:30 pm EDT end: 4:30 am EDT
WEC FIA has offered an app to you can download. You can also purchase the race for a premium package Program: https://www.fiawec.com/en/official-fia-wec-app/45 or download Google Play Store or Apple store.
Practice and Qualifying Thursday 7 September 2023 Free Practice 1: 10:00 pm (ET)
Friday 8 September 2023 Free Practice 2: 2:30 am (ET) Free practice 3: 9:20 pm (ET)
Saturday 9 September 2023 Qualifying GTE AM: 1:40 am (ET) Hypercar: 2:30 am (ET)
As a reminder Corvette Racing has already secured the Teams and Drivers crowns The #33 C8.R will of course be the heaviest car on the grid, weighing in at 1305kg. Will that be enough to keep the competition at bay? As a reminder, since the start of the season, the Keating / Varrone / Catsburg trio has a total of four podium finishes, including three wins from five races.
Championship in hand, No. 33 C8.R aiming to continue strong run during Fuji return
DETROIT (Sept. 5, 2023) – Corvette Racing returns to action in the FIA World Endurance Championship this weekend as the series resumes after a lengthy hiatus with Sunday’s Six Hours of Fuji. It’s the second consecutive appearance in the Far East for the newly crowned GTE Am championship-winning team with aims of continuing what has been a historic season so far.
As they have in the previous five rounds of this year’s championship, the trio of Nicky Catsburg, Ben Keating and Nico Varrone will share the No. 33 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R in its next-to-last race in the WEC. Together, the three drivers and the rest of Corvette Racing have put on a season-long show that ranks as one of the best in series history by any metric.
For starters, there is the collection of three victories – all of them significant: the season-opener at Sebring, a thrilling late-race drive by Catsburg to win in Portugal and, of course, the historic ninth victory at Le Mans for the Corvette program… coming from two laps down in the process. There also were pole-position runs by Keating at Portimão and Le Mans, and Varrone’s fastest GTE Am race lap at the 24 Hours.
All of this led Corvette Racing to clinch a class championship earlier than any previous team in the WEC, regardless of category. Still and even with all those accomplishments, Corvette Racing’s drive to keep collecting race victories with the C8.R remains.
To do so will require the team to win for the first time in Japan after making its debut at historic Fuji Speedway a year ago in the GTE Pro class with a fifth-place class finish.
As in previous races, the C8.R will run at Fuji with a level of rewards weight due to its successes earlier this year: 15 kilograms for winning Le Mans and 15 kilograms for leading the championship on top of 10 extra kilograms added to the car’s minimum weight ahead of the Monza round for a total of 40 kilograms – 10 less than at the Italian round.
The Six Hours of Fuji is scheduled for 11 a.m. JST on Sunday / 10 p.m. ET on Saturday. MotorTrend and MotorTrend Plus will provide both live television and streaming coverage, as will the FIA WEC app. Radio Le Mans will stream audio coverage of qualifying and the race.
NICKY CATSBURG, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: “I feel like with Fuji coming up, even though we’ve won the championship that it will not change our approach at all. We will still try to go for race wins. Personally I always find Fuji a very difficult track, especially the last sector. It’s very technical and very slow. I feel this could be good for our car, but it’s not a track where I feel like I am on top of things. It will be very challenging. But this is always one of my favorite countries to visit. Japan is a country that I really love, and I’ll stay a few days after in Tokyo just to spend some time there. I’m really looking forward to seeing all of the team again and continue where we left off. I don’t think there will be a different mood because we have already won the championship. So I’m looking forward to the challenge and cannot wait to get on the plane!”
BEN KEATING, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: "I absolutely love the experience of racing in Japan. Each year I've been in WEC, the Japanese fans have been some of the best around the world. They are extremely passionate about the racing, they know the competitors, and the level of respect that have for what we do is tremendous. We are all honored to compete for them this weekend.
"I also really enjoy the track at Fuji. It is a track where you don't necessarily need the fastest car, but you need one that is well-balanced in terms of pace and handling ability. I hope some of the previous success I've had at Fuji can be passed along to the Corvette team. Yes, we've won the championship already but in some ways I think it makes us want to have a solid run in Japan that much more. I expect a really strong and competitive race. All three classes in WEC are so close and super competitive that I am confident we will put on a good show for the fans."
NICO VARRONE, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: "It feels like I haven't been in the Corvette for quite a long time. For that reason, I'm excited to go to Fuji and Japan for the first time there in my career. I have heard from a lot of people on the team how great it is to race in Japan, how nice of a track this is and the warm reception of the fans there. I definitely want us to be big in Japan! This is one of the reasons I am excited to drive for Corvette Racing in WEC. Of course having secured the championship already is very nice, too! That doesn't mean we will simply show up. We want to keep racing hard and going for wins."
2023 FIA World Endurance Championship – GTE Am (After five of seven events)
Driver Standings
1. Ben Keating/Nicky Catsburg/Nico Varrone – 145
2. Michelle Gatting/Rahel Frey/Sarah Bovy – 67
3. Ahmad Al Harthy/Charlie Eastwood/Michael Dinan – 65
4. Christian Ried/Julien Andlauer/Mikkel Pedersen – 60
5. Benjamin Barker/Michael Wainwright/Riccardo Pera – 54
Team Standings
1. No. 33 Corvette Racing – 145
2. No. 85 Iron Dames – 67
3. No. 25 ORT by TF – 65
4. No. 77 Dempsey-Proton Racing – 60
5. No. 86 GR Racing – 54
CORVETTE RACING AT Fuji: By the Numbers
• 1: As in one team, one manufacturer and one model of car for 25 years of racing: Corvette Racing, Chevrolet and the Chevrolet Corvette
• 3: Number of GTE Am wins in four FIA WEC races this season for Nicky Catsburg, Ben Keating and Nico Varrone with the No. 33 Corvette C8.R
• 13: Hours difference between Fuji and Detroit in the Eastern Time Zone. That means the race will begin Sunday morning in Japan but late Saturday night Eastern Time
• 14: Manufacturer Championships for Chevrolet and Corvette Racing since 2001
• 27: Tracks at which Corvette Racing has won races – Baltimore, Charlotte Motor Speedway, COTA, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park/Mosport, Daytona, Detroit, Houston, Laguna Seca, Le Mans, Lime Rock, Long Beach, Miami, Mid-Ohio, Monza, Portimão, Portland, Road America, Road Atlanta, Sebring, Sonoma, St. Petersburg, Texas, Trois Rivieres, Utah, VIR, Washington DC and Watkins Glen
• 34: Number of drivers for Corvette Racing since 1999. Ben Keating and Nico Varrone joined that list with their participation – and victory – in the 1,000 Miles of Sebring for the World Endurance Championship
• 40: Kilograms of success ballast for the Corvette C8.R at Fuji – 15 for winning Le Mans, 15 for leading the GTE Am championship and 10 additional kilograms added to the car’s minimum weight by the organizers
• 127: Victories worldwide for Corvette Racing – 115 in North America, nine at Le Mans and three in the FIA WEC
• 280: Event starts by Corvette Racing since 1999
• 359,884.24: Total number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing since its inception. To put that in perspective, Corvette Racing is more than halfway to the distance traveled by Apollo 13 – the longest manned spaceflight in history: 622,268 miles. That means Corvette Racing has raced to the moon and more than halfway back!
Corvette Racing at Fuji (wins in bold)
2022
No. 64 Corvette C8.R: Tommy Milner/Nick Tandy – 5th in GTE Pro
CORVETTE RACING AT VIR: All the Right Calls in Overall Victory
Garcia, Taylor, No. 3 C8.R team take season’s second IMSA victory at VIR
ALTON, Va. (Aug. 27, 2023) – Corvette Racing claimed victory at Virginia International Raceway again as Jordan Taylor and Antonio Garcia drove the No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R to a win in the Michelin GT Challenge on Sunday.
Corvette Racing took the VIR triumph for the third time in four years as the Garcia/Taylor duo won for the second time in four years in the GT-only event for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Sunday’s result was critical as Corvette Racing and Chevrolet remained in the hunt for the GT Daytona (GTD) PRO championship with two races to go.
Sunday marked the second win for Corvette Racing in IMSA this season and it’s 126th worldwide victory – 114 coming in IMSA competition.
The race was one largely between two cars. Garcia, who qualified in the Corvette on Saturday, began the race third but moved to second place behind the pole-sitting No. 14 Lexus after the second lap. It stayed that way in class – and mostly in the overall order – for the next two-and-a-half hours.
Garcia brought in the C8.R for its first stop at the 54-minute mark with the Corvette team adding fuel and taking fresh Michelin tires. The team elected to change drivers with Taylor going the rest of the way as the pair of leading cars committed to a two-stop strategy.
Taylor was the first of the two leaders to pit for the final time with 57 minutes to go. Excellent pit work by the Corvette Racing crew – a quick tire change and fuel fill – proved crucial as Taylor got around Ben Barnicoat as the Lexus left the pitlane after stopping a lap later than the Corvette.
With a 3.7-second gap in-hand, Taylor set off for the final 54 minutes needing to save fuel while keeping the No. 14 at bay. He did just that in crossing the finish line by a little more than two seconds.
Corvette Racing’s next event in IMSA is the Battle of the Bricks on Sept. 15-17 from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course.
ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – RACE WINNER: “This is the perfect weekend for sure. Road America looked like a perfect weekend, too, before we lost the race. So this is the perfect turnaround. Even here, we didn’t look as competitive here as we did at Road America but the team did an amazing job. I was lucky enough to be up there with the Lexus at the start to keep some pressure on them. I knew they were strong, but that’s what we had to do. When the yellow came, Jordan obviously kept the pressure and it was time to do something different on the last stop like we always try to do. That undercut definitely help. I don’t know if that put pressure on them. They stalled coming out of the pits, so that was another two or three seconds. That buffer is kind of nice to be able to control your pace. If you have to save fuel, it’s not close enough for them to make a move. Jordan was fantastic today. It was very stressful for me! I’m not used to seeing that in the end! I prefer to be in the car, but you know when Jordan is in that he will do an amazing job. I’m glad he ended this weekend the way he did.”
On what it took to win: “I would say consistency. Yesterday we tried to do something different in qualifying because everyone seemed to be so close. That probably gave us an indication about how to set up the car for today. The morning warm-up was pretty good. I’m glad that during the first stint the car was where it needed to be. I was able to go up to second, and I knew the Lexus was very, very strong. In a way, we managed to stay in contention with not a lot of time behind them. We had to be there putting pressure and eventually someone would make a mistake. It wasn’t us today, and then Jordan drove really, really well for the rest of the race. It’s another great example of consistency and a good race from Corvette Racing.”
On the satisfaction of winning after Road America: “It’s very satisfying. It’s the best turnaround after what happened at Road America where we felt everything was done and everything slipped away. It’s a massive turnaround. We were not as competitive as we were at Road America, but again you can’t give up. You just need to be prepared, be consistent and put pressure on everybody. In the end, one little mistake in GTD PRO makes the difference. Today we weren’t the ones to make mistakes.”
On Taylor moving away in 2024 and getting at least one more win together: “It’s one more win with hopefully two more to go! So let’s make Indianapolis and especially Petit Le Mans the last two wins this year.”
JORDAN TAYLOR, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – RACE WINNER: “This win is down to Corvette Racing calling that strategy to get us track position. When they told me the fuel number, I was definitely worried but the car was so good in fuel-save mood that it helped me save the tires. I know the announcement (about going to GTP in 2024) has come out, but I’m glad to give these guys one back.
More on the win: “We were pushing the whole race even on the first cycle to close the gap to the Lexus to see if we could make them make a mistake. When the second yellow came out, I wasn’t sure what was going to happen. Those guys really restart strong so I thought we were kind of out of it. But the Corvette guys made an amazing call to short-fill on the last stop to get us out front and get the track position. It was down to saving fuel and managing tires from there. I was counting down the laps from about 25 to go, so I was very happy to see that checkered flag.”
On the next two races with Corvette: “It’s been an amazing run. This one is definitely for all the Corvette Racing fans out there. Since the announcement, the outpouring from the fans from the Corvette side has been the best part, just to see the appreciation and respect on my decision to move away. Corvette Racing will always be my family no matter where I am, what I drive and what I do. Deep in my heart, I’m a Corvette guy.”
How special is this win? “This will definitely be one of the most special wins I’ll ever have. This was a classic Corvette Racing victory. We didn’t have the fastest car. Antonio was able to stay in contention in that first stint, and we made some gains on fuel-savings in that first stint to get closer to the Lexus for when I was in the car. In that last pit cycle, the guys made an amazing call on the short-fill to get that track position. They gave me a fuel number to hit to get to the end, and it was my job to save that amount and not lose any laptime. We nailed it. The fuel reserve came on, but it must have been tight because I couldn’t do a burnout in the end! This win goes to Corvette Racing.”
On if the undercut strategy would have worked if the 14 didn’t stall: “If they had beaten us out, there’s no way I would have gotten by him unless he made some mistakes. In this series these days, one mistake can lose you the victory. We’ve seen that this year. We probably lost two or three this year that we could say that we could have won. They’re probably going to say the same thing after this one… that they could have won had they not stalled. Today was our day. It was a very deserving victory and down to our guys making that call.”
The attempted pass on the 14 on the second restart into T14: “I didn’t have a ton of confidence going in there. The lap before I braked kind of late and had a bunch of ABS interaction and almost hit the back of him. That lap, I knew I was going to be off-line so I wasn’t 100 percent confident that I’d make the corner. He did the exact same thing to me last year where I had a similar run. I knew he was going to go deep. At that point in the race, I knew that had we gotten track position then it would have transformed the race for us but I also didn’t want to throw away the race with an hour-and-a-half to go. I knew there was a lot of racing to go. We hadn’t done a full stint yet to see where all the cars were on tire deg. I knew we had a lot to play for, and it wasn’t worth taking that big risk.”
On seeing the 14 come out of pitlane after the last stop: “The engineers just told me to push on the out-lap, so I knew it was all down to my out-lap, my in-lap and the short fill and calculating how much we needed to jump them. They told me when he was leaving the pits, and it was quite early so they didn’t say he stalled; they said he’s leaving so I thought he’d be pretty far ahead of me by the time I got there. I crested the hill and saw he was still at pit-out, and I had so much momentum that I knew for sure I was going to go by him. I’m not sure what he was doing, but he drifted all the way across the racing line. He for sure saw me, so I’m not sure what that was about. But I wasn’t going to lift. I would have driven through him if I had to at that point to get the lead.
“It was a sigh of relief because I didn’t know I had to save fuel at that point. But they told me after that what the fuel number was, and the stress crept in until I kind of found a rhythm of hitting that number with my lift points and finding the laptime. Once I got into a rhythm, I felt pretty good. With about 15 laps to go, I felt pretty confident that the tires weren’t dropping too much.”
CORVETTE RACING AT VIR: Third-Place Start for Garcia, No. 3 C8.R
ALTON, Va. (Aug. 26, 2023) – Corvette Racing and driver Antonio Garcia weathered intense heat Saturday to qualify on the second row for Sunday’s Michelin GT Challenge at Virginia International Raceway – the second of two GT-only races this season for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
Garcia posted a best lap of 1:45.133 (111.972 mph) in the No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R to qualify third. It was a close and intense 15 minutes with the top seven cars within 0.667 seconds – almost a mirror of the final practice where the five fastest cars had just 0.172 seconds between them… with Garcia part of that group.
Saturday was another scorcher of a day at VIR with air temperatures approaching 100 degrees by the start of qualifying and high humidity. Sunday’s peak ambient temperature is expected to be about 10 degrees lower than Saturday.
Corvette Racing is hoping to improve on last year’s runner-up finish and record its seventh class victory at the highly challenging 3.4-mile, 17-turn circuit. Garcia and teammate Jordan Taylor were overall winners in 2020 and finished second the last two years.
Garcia and Taylor won earlier this year at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in GT Daytona (GTD) PRO, their lone win so far this season. They’ve been on the class podium in four other races. Returning to Victory Circle also would keep championship hopes alive for the No. 3 Corvette drivers, their team and Chevrolet. The group is second in points and badly in need of victories in any of the remaining three rounds to challenge for the GTD PRO Drivers, Teams and Manufacturers titles.
The Michelin GT Challenge at VIR is scheduled for 2:10 p.m. ET on Sunday, August 27. The race will air live on USA beginning at 2 p.m. ET and stream live on Peacock inside the United States and IMSA.com outside the U.S. IMSA Radio will air all on-track sessions beginning with Friday morning’s practice at IMSA.com with the race call also on XM 207 and SiriusXM Online 992.
ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – QUALIFIED THIRD: “These were tricky conditions. The track is warm, and it was difficult to gauge the lap and the grip together with the setup we decided to go with in qualifying. We probably didn’t do the correct thing. The car wasn’t doing as I was expecting, so that led to a few mistakes. Instead of leaving the car the way it was to try and do something different, we ended up losing time to how it felt in FP2. It’s only qualifying but we should be there for the race. We are still close.”
2023 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship – GTD PRO (After eight of 11 events)
Driver Standings
1. Ben Barnicoat/Jack Hawksworth – 2,810
2. Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor – 2,641
3. Daniel Juncadella/Jules Gounon – 2,594
4. Klaus Bachler/Patrick Pilet – 2,587
5. Alex Riberas/Ross Gunn – 2,468
Team Standings
1. No. 14 Vasser Sullivan – 2,810
2. No. 3 Corvette Racing – 2,641
3. No. 79 WeatherTech Racing – 2,594
4. No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports – 2,587
5. No. 23 Heart of Racing Team – 2,468
Manufacturer Standings
1. Lexus – 2,810
2. Chevrolet – 2,641
3. Mercedes-AMG – 2,594
4. Porsche – 2,587
5. Aston Martin – 2,479
CORVETTE RACING AT VIR: By the Numbers
• 1: As in one team, one manufacturer and one model of car for 25 years of racing: Corvette Racing, Chevrolet and the Chevrolet Corvette
• 3: Generations of Corvette Racing entries at VIR since 2012 – Corvette C6.R (2012-2013), Corvette C7.R (2014-2019) and the mid-engine Corvette C8.R, which races at VIR for the final time in IMSA competition this year
• 4: Overall VIR race wins for Corvette Racing – 2016, 2017, 2020 and 2021. Antonio Garcia was part of the first three
• 5: Class wins at VIR for Corvette Racing, the most among IMSA entrants. Tommy Milner and Oliver Gavin won in ALMS GT competition in 2012, and Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen won overall in 2016 and 2017. Garcia and Jordan Taylor drove the C8.R to a win in 2020 with Milner and Nick Tandy victorious in 2021.
• 9: Number of VIR victories for Chevrolet since 2002 covering both ALMS and the Rolex Series; that’s the most among manufacturers
• 14: Manufacturer Championships for Chevrolet and Corvette Racing since 2001
• 27: Tracks at which Corvette Racing has won races – Baltimore, Charlotte Motor Speedway, COTA, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park/Mosport, Daytona, Detroit, Houston, Laguna Seca, Le Mans, Lime Rock, Long Beach, Miami, Mid-Ohio, Monza, Portimão, Portland, Road America, Road Atlanta, Sebring, Sonoma, St. Petersburg, Texas, Trois Rivieres, Utah, VIR, Washington DC and Watkins Glen
• 34: Number of drivers for Corvette Racing since 1999. Ben Keating and Nico Varrone joined that list with their participation – and victory – in the 1,000 Miles of Sebring for the World Endurance Championship
• 126: Victories worldwide for Corvette Racing – 113 in North America, eight at Le Mans and one in the FIA WEC
• 279: Event starts by Corvette Racing since 1999
• 6,183.57: Number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing in its nine previous trips to Virginia International Raceway. It surpassed 6,000 miles after 30 laps in last year’s race
• 359,619.37: Total number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing since its inception. To put that in perspective, Corvette Racing is more than halfway to the distance traveled by Apollo 13 – the longest manned spaceflight in history: 622,268 miles. That means Corvette Racing has raced to the moon and more than halfway back!
Corvette Racing at VIR (wins in bold)
2012
No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 8th in GT (Garcia fastest race lap)
No. 4 Corvette C6.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 1st in GT (Clinched ALMS GT title)
2013
No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 3rd in GT (Clinch GT team, manufacturer titles)
No. 4 Corvette C6.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 6th in GT
2014
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor – 7th in GTLM (Taylor replaced Magnussen – injury)
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 9th in GTLM
2015
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 6th in GTLM
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 8th in GTLM
2016
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 1st in GTLM (Magnussen pole)
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 9th in GTLM (Gavin fastest race lap)
2017
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 1st in GTLM
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 6th in GTLM
2018
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 2nd in GTLM
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 6th in GTLM
2019
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 3rd in GTLM
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 4th in GTLM
2020
No. 3 Corvette C8.R: Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor – 1st in GTLM
No. 4 Corvette C8.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 4th in GTLM
2021
No. 3 Corvette C8.R: Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor – 2nd in GTLM
No. 4 Corvette C8.R: Tommy Milner/Nick Tandy – 1st in GTLM (Milner pole)
2022
No. 3 Corvette C8.R: Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor – 2nd in GTD PRO (Taylor fastest race lap)
Michelin GT Challenge at Virginia International Raceway Danville, VA Aug 25 - Aug 27, 2023 Track: Virginia International Raceway Race Duration: 2 hours 40 minutes Circuit Length: 3.27 miles Entry by Class: GTDPro: 5 GTD: 15 Live Qualifying: Saturday, August 27, 2022 03:45 to 04:00 pm EDT GTDPro/GTD Online Qualifying Coverage http://imsatv.imsa.com/ Race Broadcast: Sunday, August 28, 2022 US: TV: 2:00-5:00 PM ET USA US: Peacock Streaming 2:00-5:00 pm ET International: 2:05 -4:50 pm ET http://imsatv.imsa.com/
This corral includes exclusive reserved parking for Corvettes only. No exceptions. Additionally, parade laps, door prizes, race team visits, and food and refreshments will be provided throughout the weekend. (No lunch provided on Saturday) Car and Driver packages will include general admission for 1 and corral parking for 1 vehicle. Tickets for supplementary guests may be purchased as well and will include general admission and access to corral amenities. Parade lap-Sunday at 9:45 am ET Paddock autograph session, Sunday at 11:15 to 11:45 ET
One lap short a year ago, Garcia and Taylor eager for another shot at VIR win
DETROIT (Aug. 22, 2023) – After coming tantalizingly close a year ago, Corvette Racing’s Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor get another shot at their second victory together at Virginia International Raceway on Sunday in the Michelin GT Challenge, the ninth round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
Garcia and Taylor were runners-up 12 months ago in the GT-only race with Taylor finishing eight-tenths of a second from the victory in the pair’s No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R. It was a thrilling finish with the Corvette gaining more than two seconds on the eventual winning car on the final lap.
One more lap and the Garcia/Taylor duo might be entering VIR as defending race winners. A victory this weekend would be Corvette Racing’s sixth at VIR and third with the C8.R in its farewell season. Garcia ranks second in the field with three VIR wins – all of them overall – which gives him one more than Taylor.
Garcia and Taylor won earlier this year at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in GT Daytona (GTD) PRO, their lone win so far this season. They’ve been on the class podium in four other races.
Returning to Victory Circle also would keep championship hopes alive for the No. 3 Corvette drivers, their team and Chevrolet. The group is second in points and badly in need of victories in any of the remaining three rounds to challenge for the GTD PRO Drivers, Teams and Manufacturers titles.
The Michelin GT Challenge at VIR is scheduled for 2:10 p.m. ET on Sunday, August 27. The race will air live on USA beginning at 2 p.m. ET and stream live on Peacock inside the United States and IMSA.com outside the U.S. IMSA Radio will air all on-track sessions beginning with Friday morning’s practice at IMSA.com with the race call also on XM 207 and SiriusXM Online 992.
ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: "Going to VIR is nice because this is one of the first tracks I raced on in America. I liked it from the very start. It has some really fast and intense corners, long straights and some technical parts in the slower-speed turns. It’s like a test for both the driver and the car every lap. I've had many good races and wins there with Corvette Racing, and we came up just a little short last year. Hopefully we’re that much better this year and can get the win we need for the championship.”
JORDAN TAYLOR, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: “I’m looking forward to the weekend. I think we had pace to win at Road America, and VIR should be a similar type of track for us. Being a GT-only race, it’ll be another intense event without being able to rely on traffic to make some opportunities. VIR was one of the strongest races we had last year, so I think we should be in good shape this time around. We’ve had a few races slip through our fingers this year, so I’m hoping we can cap the season off with some wins. Let’s start this weekend.”
2023 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship – GTD PRO (After eight of 11 events)
Driver Standings
1. Ben Barnicoat/Jack Hawksworth – 2,810
2. Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor – 2,641
3. Daniel Juncadella/Jules Gounon – 2,594
4. Klaus Bachler/Patrick Pilet – 2,587
5. Alex Riberas/Ross Gunn – 2,468
Team Standings
1. No. 14 Vasser Sullivan – 2,810
2. No. 3 Corvette Racing – 2,641
3. No. 79 WeatherTech Racing – 2,594
4. No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports – 2,587
5. No. 23 Heart of Racing Team – 2,468
Manufacturer Standings
1. Lexus – 2,810
2. Chevrolet – 2,641
3. Mercedes-AMG – 2,594
4. Porsche – 2,587
5. Aston Martin – 2,479
CORVETTE RACING AT VIR: By the Numbers
• 1: As in one team, one manufacturer and one model of car for 25 years of racing: Corvette Racing, Chevrolet and the Chevrolet Corvette
• 3: Generations of Corvette Racing entries at VIR since 2012 – Corvette C6.R (2012-2013), Corvette C7.R (2014-2019) and the mid-engine Corvette C8.R, which races at VIR for the final time in IMSA competition this year
• 4: Overall VIR race wins for Corvette Racing – 2016, 2017, 2020 and 2021. Antonio Garcia was part of the first three
• 5: Class wins at VIR for Corvette Racing, the most among IMSA entrants. Tommy Milner and Oliver Gavin won in ALMS GT competition in 2012, and Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen won overall in 2016 and 2017. Garcia and Jordan Taylor drove the C8.R to a win in 2020 with Milner and Nick Tandy victorious in 2021.
• 9: Number of VIR victories for Chevrolet since 2002 covering both ALMS and the Rolex Series; that’s the most among manufacturers
• 14: Manufacturer Championships for Chevrolet and Corvette Racing since 2001
• 27: Tracks at which Corvette Racing has won races – Baltimore, Charlotte Motor Speedway, COTA, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park/Mosport, Daytona, Detroit, Houston, Laguna Seca, Le Mans, Lime Rock, Long Beach, Miami, Mid-Ohio, Monza, Portimão, Portland, Road America, Road Atlanta, Sebring, Sonoma, St. Petersburg, Texas, Trois Rivieres, Utah, VIR, Washington DC and Watkins Glen
• 34: Number of drivers for Corvette Racing since 1999. Ben Keating and Nico Varrone joined that list with their participation – and victory – in the 1,000 Miles of Sebring for the World Endurance Championship
• 126: Victories worldwide for Corvette Racing – 113 in North America, eight at Le Mans and one in the FIA WEC
• 279: Event starts by Corvette Racing since 1999
• 6,183.57: Number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing in its nine previous trips to Virginia International Raceway. It surpassed 6,000 miles after 30 laps in last year’s race
• 359,619.37: Total number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing since its inception. To put that in perspective, Corvette Racing is more than halfway to the distance traveled by Apollo 13 – the longest manned spaceflight in history: 622,268 miles. That means Corvette Racing has raced to the moon and more than halfway back!
Corvette Racing at VIR (wins in bold)
2012
No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 8th in GT (Garcia fastest race lap)
No. 4 Corvette C6.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 1st in GT (Clinched ALMS GT title)
2013
No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 3rd in GT (Clinch GT team, manufacturer titles)
No. 4 Corvette C6.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 6th in GT
2014
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor – 7th in GTLM (Taylor replaced Magnussen – injury)
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 9th in GTLM
2015
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 6th in GTLM
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 8th in GTLM
2016
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 1st in GTLM (Magnussen pole)
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 9th in GTLM (Gavin fastest race lap)
2017
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 1st in GTLM
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 6th in GTLM
2018
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 2nd in GTLM
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 6th in GTLM
2019
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 3rd in GTLM
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 4th in GTLM
2020
No. 3 Corvette C8.R: Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor – 1st in GTLM
No. 4 Corvette C8.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 4th in GTLM
2021
No. 3 Corvette C8.R: Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor – 2nd in GTLM
No. 4 Corvette C8.R: Tommy Milner/Nick Tandy – 1st in GTLM (Milner pole)
2022
No. 3 Corvette C8.R: Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor – 2nd in GTD PRO (Taylor fastest race lap)
Sims, Catsburg Joining IMSA Corvette Factory Lineup for 2024
Will form full-season GTD PRO crew along with IMSA program veterans Garcia, Milner
DETROIT (Aug. 17, 2023) – Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports confirmed today its full-season lineup for the 2024 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, which will see a pair of Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs compete in the GTD PRO class.
Alexander Sims returns as a Chevrolet Corvette factory driver, this time for a full season, along with returning veterans Antonio Garcia, Tommy Milner and Nicky Catsburg. The quartet of drivers will contest the 10-round GTD PRO championship for Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports in the debut year of the Corvette Z06 GT3.R.
Driver pairings will be confirmed at a later date, but the four drivers are well-known in the world of GT racing and specifically with Corvette. They have a combined 34 years of service with Corvette Racing and Chevrolet, and their records in IMSA competition are among the strongest of any lineup in the championship:
Nicky Catsburg: Two wins – the 2021 Rolex 24 and 2022 Sebring 12 Hours – plus three wins and the GTE Am Drivers Championship in this year’s FIA World Endurance Championship Antonio Garcia: 27 wins – two in the Rolex 24 and four in the Sebring 12 Hours – with five championships in 15 years with Corvette Racing Tommy Milner: 20 wins – the 2016 Rolex 24 and Sebring 12 Hours in 2013 and 2016 – and two championships in 13 years with Corvette Racing Alexander Sims: Six wins – including at Sebring this year plus 2017 Six Hours of the Glen and Petit Le Mans – and is second in the GTP Drivers Championship for Cadillac Racing
Sims replaces Jordan Taylor, who is electing to return to prototype racing after this season.
In more than 10 years as a factory driver for Corvette Racing and General Motors, Taylor compiled an outstanding record of 33 victories and four Drivers championships in both prototype and GT competition – including in 2020 and 2021 with Corvette Racing. He also was part of the team’s winning lineup for the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2015 and is a three-time Rolex 24 winner in GM-powered entries. The vast majority of his sports car career has come in GM racecars.
“We’re very pleased with the full-season IMSA lineup in the Corvette Z06 GT3.R for 2024,” said Mark Stielow, Director, Chevrolet Motorsports Competition Engineering. “The four drivers have exceptional records and history with Corvette.
“At the same time, we thank Jordan Taylor for his years of service and success with General Motors,” Stielow added. He has been an important part of Corvette Racing and a great ambassador for Chevrolet. We wish him well.”
The 2024 Corvette Z06 GT3.R race car, constructed by Pratt Miller Motorsports in New Hudson, Michigan, is based on the production Corvette Z06 with the two sharing common elements. The Z06 GT3.R’s aluminum chassis frame and the 5.5-liter, flat-plane crankshaft V8 engine both come from Chevrolet’s Bowling Green Assembly factory in Kentucky.
The current Corvette Racing program is in the midst of its 25th season with 126 race victories to date – 114 in IMSA with the most recent coming at the Chevrolet Grand Prix in July at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. Also for the second year in a row, Corvette Racing has programs in both IMSA and the FIA World Endurance Championship with the Corvette C8.R, now in its final season of competition.
The 2024 IMSA season begins with the Rolex 24 At Daytona on Jan. 27-28.
NICKY CATSBURG: “This will be my first full season in America, and it’s something I’ve been looking forward to for a long time. Some of the most notorious tracks like VIR, Road America, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park… I’ve never been to these. I’ve always wanted to do this because those are the events I enjoy watching always, and now I get to race there. When I joined Corvette Racing, the goal was to become a full-time driver. To have a chance to do full-season WEC this year and a full IMSA season next year is something I’m really looking forward to. This is something new and something that is a challenge. This will not be easy because some of these tracks are ones I don’t know. But I am ready for that challenge.”
ANTONIO GARCIA: “It’s hard to believe this will be my 16th year racing with Corvette Racing and Pratt Miller. We have grown a lot in our time together with many different versions of the Corvette. I think this Z06 GT3.R is a very good car. You can see that from the months of testing and development we’ve done on this car for 2024. I think it will be a very good racecar for us in what is going to be a tough GTD PRO category with some new teams and maybe some new manufacturers. More importantly it will be a very good car for the new customer Corvette race teams. I’m very happy to be part of the first group to race this car in this new era for Corvette Racing.”
TOMMY MILNER: “I’m very excited about being back full-time again, especially in this new era of Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports, with the new Corvette Z06 GT3.R and all that it brings – customer race cars and more Corvettes racing on the track. It’s an exciting time for us as drivers and an exciting time for Corvette fans. As this team has shown for 25 years, the Corvette Racing name means a lot to sports car racing. So to see more examples of Corvettes racing around the world is really exciting and something we are looking forward to.”
ALEXANDER SIMS: “It’s been fantastic to drive the Cadillac GTP car, but It’s great to be able to work with all the team at Pratt Miller again after two years as third driver. I know not only a lot of the engineers and team personnel but also the other full-time drivers and people I’ve worked with before within Corvette Racing. I’ve shared a Corvette with Tommy and shared a garage with Antonio and Nicky. It’s great to be going into a driver group where I know everyone and know that we get on well together. We will push each other hard, so from a performance point of view, it’s really good to know that we will all be on a similar level and eeking more performance out of one another all the time.”
Press Release: CORVETTE RACING AT ROAD AMERICA: Back on the Podium
Third-place in class for Garcia, Taylor, No. 3 C8.R
ELKHART LAKE, Wis. (Aug. 6, 2023) – Corvette Racing finished third Sunday in the GTD PRO class of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s feature event at Road America.
The No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R of Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor led multiple times in the two-hour, 40-minute race with strong pace and engineering strategy that elevated the team from its third-place starting spot.
Taylor got things started early by getting the jump at the drop of the green flag with a run from third to second place by the first corner. He moved into the class lead just shy of 40 minutes running when the class-leading and race-winning Aston Martin made its first stop as differing fuel strategies emerged in the first stint.
Taylor set his best lap of the race a lap later before handing off to Garcia at the 51-minute mark. Having been the last of the top three cars to pit, Garcia and the No. 3 Corvette carried a fuel advantage for the race’s second and final scheduled pit stop.
That happened with Garcia leading and taking on fuel and four tires with 52 minutes left. He emerged directly ahead of the Aston Martin and barely in the lead. The two cars raced nose-to-tail and side-by-side for a half-lap before Garcia took charge.
Things changed, however, as the No. 3 team was forced to serve a penalty for not meeting the minimum refueling time required by sanctioning body IMSA on the final stop. Team and series officials discussed the matter, but the call stood and Garcia had to give up the lead with 24 minutes left in order to drive through the pitlane.
The Corvette Racing team will continue to work with IMSA to understand its process of determining refueling penalties.
Corvette Racing’s next event is the Michelin GT Challenge at VIR on August 25-27 from Virginia International Raceway.
ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – FINISHED THIRD IN GTD PRO: “A very disappointing result and a shame about the penalty. We had strong pace and good strategy calls that put us in the lead late. It was a hard but fair fight with the Aston late. Instead of gaining points in the championship, now we have lost more. Winning races is our only goal from now on.”
JORDAN TAYLOR, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: “I was happy with my stint. The Corvette Racing guys did a great job giving us a good setup to move forward and eventually take the lead a couple of times. Things were looking great until the penalty on the last stop. Now we have to focus on getting maximum points in every race from here on."
CORVETTE RACING AT ROAD AMERICA: Taylor Third in Qualifying
Inside second-row starting position could prove beneficial in push for season’s second win
ELKHART LAKE, Wisc. (Aug. 5, 2023) – Jordan Taylor put Corvette Racing on the inside of the second row in class Saturday for qualifying ahead of Sunday’s feature event for the IMSA SportsCar Weekend at Road America.
Taylor set a best lap of 2:03.143 (118.340 mph) in the No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R that he shares with Antonio Garcia in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s GT Daytona (GTD) PRO class. Critically, the result put Taylor and the No. 3 C8.R on the inside of the second row of the GTD field on a track that is much more of a one-lane surface following a track repave late last year.
Just as key is that the Corvette gained critical class points as it qualified ahead of the GTD PRO championship-leading Lexus. The Taylor/Garcia duo, Corvette Racing and Chevrolet entered Road America second in the Drivers, Manufacturers and Teams championship standings with four races left in the season.
A victory Sunday would be the ninth class at the circuit for Corvette Racing.
This is the first time for the Corvette program on the recently repaved Road America track. Gone is the cheese-grater of a surface that promoted high levels of tire wear and degradation with high levels of grip available around the circuit… provided cars stay on the racing line. As a result, track position – and qualifying toward the front, as a result – has a higher level of importance this year compared to past Road America races.
Key was cross-program tire analysis from Chevrolet’s IndyCar teams, which provided valuable input from their race in June at the circuit. That, combined with pre-event work at GM’s Driver in the Loop simulator, played a prominent role in the results so far this weekend.
Road America and the Corvette brand have a lengthy history dating back nearly 60 years. Chevrolet routinely used the track to test and validate the performance of early-generation Corvettes with that tradition continuing into the present day. Road America was the site of the first on-track running of the Corvette C8.R in 2018.
The IMSA SportsCar Weekend race at Road America is scheduled for 10:10 a.m. ET on Sunday, August 6. The race will air live on USA beginning at 11 a.m. ET and stream live on Peacock inside the United States and IMSA.com outside the U.S. IMSA Radio will air all on-track sessions beginning with Friday morning’s practice at IMSA.com with the race call also on XM 207 and SiriusXM Online 992.
JORDAN TAYLOR, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – QUALIFIED THIRD IN GTD PRO: "We were quickest yesterday and made some gains in laptime from then, but everyone else made humongous jumps. We are where we thought we would be laptime-wise. It just wasn't enough for pole. It's kind of been the trend of the year where qualifying is a bit of struggle for us but we race better. Hopefully that plays out tomorrow. We're closer in qualifying now than we have been the past few rounds, so hopefully that's another good sign.
"It'll be tricky to race. Off-line around here is very slippery. Track position is very important and being somewhat defensive when guys are making moves not to be put in a precarious position is going to be tricky. There will be a lot of mistakes tomorrow because of that."
2023 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship – GTD PRO (After seven of 11 events)
Driver Standings
1. Ben Barnicoat/Jack Hawksworth – 2,462
2. Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor – 2,311
3. Daniel Juncadella/Jules Gounon – 2,302
4. Klaus Bachler/Patrick Pilet – 2,281
5. Alex Riberas/Ross Gunn – 2,083
Team Standings
1. No. 14 Vasser Sullivan – 2,462
2. No. 3 Corvette Racing – 2,311
3. No. 79 WeatherTech Racing – 2,302
4. No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports – 2,281
5. No. 23 Heart of Racing Team – 2,083
Manufacturer Standings
1. Lexus – 2,462
2. Chevrolet – 2,311
3. Mercedes-AMG – 2,302
4. Porsche – 2,281
5. Aston Martin – 2,094
CORVETTE RACING AT ROAD AMERICA: By the Numbers
• 1: As in one team, one manufacturer and one model of car for 25 years of racing: Corvette Racing, Chevrolet and the Chevrolet Corvette
• 4: Generations of Corvette Racing entries at Road America since 2002 – Corvette C5-R (2002-2004), Corvette C6.R (2005-13), Corvette C7.R (2016-19) and Corvette C8.R (2020-current). This year’s race is the second at the track for the GTD-spec, mid-engine racing Corvette
• 4: Number of cars Tommy Milner passed in the final 15 minutes of the 2016 Road America race. He and Oliver Gavin went on to win in class and capture the GTLM Drivers Championship
• 8: Number of victories at Road America for Corvette Racing, the most of any entrant in IMSA
• 8: Pole positions at Road America for Corvette Racing by four different drivers
• 10: Number of drivers who have won races at Road America for Corvette Racing – Gavin (four); Olivier Beretta (three); Johnny O’Connell (two); and Kelly Collins, Ron Fellows, Antonio Garcia, Jan Magnussen, Milner, Andy Pilgrim and Jordan Taylor (one each)
• 12: Fastest race laps for Corvette Racing drivers at Road America. That includes the last three of the last four seasons: Tommy Milner (2019 and 2021) and Antonio Garcia (2020)
• 14: Manufacturer Championships for Chevrolet and Corvette Racing since 2001
• 14: Number of IMSA victories at Road America for Chevrolet, the second-most of any manufacturer in IMSA
• 22: Number of Road America events for Corvette Racing counting this year’s IMSA race
• 27: Tracks at which Corvette Racing has won races – Baltimore, Charlotte Motor Speedway, COTA, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park/Mosport, Daytona, Detroit, Houston, Laguna Seca, Le Mans, Lime Rock, Long Beach, Miami, Mid-Ohio, Monza, Portimão, Portland, Road America, Road Atlanta, Sebring, Sonoma, St. Petersburg, Texas, Trois Rivieres, Utah, VIR, Washington DC and Watkins Glen
• 34: Number of drivers for Corvette Racing since 1999. Ben Keating and Nico Varrone joined that list with their participation – and victory – in the 1,000 Miles of Sebring for the World Endurance Championship
• 126: Victories worldwide for Corvette Racing – 113 in North America, eight at Le Mans and one in the FIA WEC
• 278: Event starts by Corvette Racing since 1999
• 12,395.03: Number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing in its 20 previous trips to Road America. That represents 3,054 laps or 105 trips across Lake Michigan.
• 359,327.91: Total number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing since its inception. To put that in perspective, Corvette Racing is more than halfway to the distance traveled by Apollo 13 – the longest manned spaceflight in history: 622,268 miles. That means Corvette Racing has raced to the moon and more than halfway back!
Corvette Racing at Road America (wins in bold)
2002
No. 3 Corvette C5-R: Ron Fellows/Johnny O'Connell/Oliver Gavin – 2nd in GTS (Fellows pole; Gavin fastest race lap)
No. 4 Corvette C5-R: Andy Pilgrim/Kelly Collins – 1st in GTS
2003
No. 3 Corvette C5-R: Ron Fellows/Johnny O'Connell – 2nd in GTS
No. 4 Corvette C5-R: Oliver Gavin/Kelly Collins – 5th in GTS (Gavin pole, fastest race lap)
2004
No. 3 Corvette C5-R: Ron Fellows/Johnny O'Connell – 2nd in GTS
**Alternative Broadcast Alert ** Make sure and tune-in August 6th to the Pratt Miller Motorsports alternative broadcast stream with a MODIFIED SCHEUDLE from Road America. Luke and Brad will be ON SITE in Wisconsin for the weekend and will be streaming several live hits throughout race day. (Pending a reliable cellular connection) The schedule is as follows. Times listed below are Central time: 9:30a – 9:40a – Fan Walk 10:10a – 10:20a – Green flag from pit 11:30a – 12:00p – Mid-race recap from the Thor Industries RV 12:40p – 12:50p – Checkered flag from pits 1:00 – Podium Celebration if we win/place/show OR 1:00 – Post race recap from the Thor Industries RV Stream will be carried on Facebook, YouTube, X and Twitch – Links below https://linktr.ee/prattmillermotorsports
IMSA SPORTSCAR WEEKEND-ROAD AMERICA August 3-August 6, 2023 Elkhart Lake, WI Times posted below are Eastern, Race track is on Central time Track: Road America Race Duration: 2 hours 40 minutes Circuit Length: 4 miles
Entry by Class: GTP - 10 LMP2 - 7 LMP3 - 8 GTD PRO - 5 GTD - 16
CORVETTE RACING AT ROAD AMERICA: ‘Going for Race Wins’
Second in GTD PRO points, No. 3 C8.R wants more starting in Elkhart Lake
DETROIT (Aug. 1, 2023) – It’s getting close to crunch time for Corvette Racing in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. And there’s no better place for the perennial powerhouse team to accelerate its title push than historic Road America.
The 4.048-mile, 14-turn road course is the site of the upcoming IMSA SportsCar Weekend, which culminates Sunday with the eighth round of this year’s GT Daytona (GTD) PRO championship. The Corvette Racing duo of Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor are hoping for a return to its winning ways in the No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R.
The pairing won last month in class at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park – the first victory of 2023. A second win this season would go along nicely with a 2020 triumph at Road America in the GT Le Mans (GTLM) class. With only four races to go, victories are what will help the Garcia/Taylor tandem and the No. 3 C8.R team most in the hunt for the GTD PRO title.
Although they finished fourth two weeks ago at Lime Rock Park, the result was enough to move into second in class championship standings – 151 points from the leaders with 1,500 points still available with four races left. However, pole positions and race wins are the most immediate goals for Garcia and Taylor with points taking care of themselves after that.
To get back on the top step of the class podium, Corvette Racing will need to come to grips – literally – with a recently repaved Road America surface. In years past, Road America was notorious for eating up tires with high levels of degradation. That very likely won’t be the case this year with substantially more grip available to the field of 46 cars.
Road America and the Corvette brand have a lengthy history dating back nearly 60 years. Chevrolet routinely used the track to test and validate the performance of early-generation Corvettes with that tradition continuing into the present day. Road America was the site of the first on-track running of the Corvette C8.R in 2018, and the mid-engine Corvette continues to write new chapters at each event.
The IMSA SportsCar Weekend race at Road America is scheduled for 10:10 a.m. ET on Sunday, August 6. The race will air live on USA beginning at 11 a.m. ET and stream live on Peacock inside the United States and IMSA.com outside the U.S. IMSA Radio will air all on-track sessions beginning with Friday morning’s practice at IMSA.com with the race call also on XM 207 and SiriusXM Online 992.
ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: “We don’t really know what to expect at Road America. It’s a kind of track where you can run a completely different configuration that is completely opposite than the rest. So maybe there’s more room to play with setup in order to go completely against everyone else. At most other IMSA tracks, everybody is kind of running the same full-downforce, full-everything. At Road America, there’s a little bit more play. I don’t know how the new surface will affect things. Tire degradation used to be very big there, but I anticipate the tire deg to not be as big as such a big thing there this year. Let’s see. We are definitely knocking on the door every single race.”
JORDAN TAYLOR, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: “Road America is great and has given me a lot of good memories. One of my first wins with the C8.R was there in a downpour late in the race. It wasn’t necessarily our strongest track last year, so hopefully with the new repave we can make some gains on everyone else. We’ve done some simulation work to perfect what we can do on our side to get as much performance out of the car as possible. From this point, it’s all about going for race wins."
2023 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship – GTD PRO (After seven of 11 events)
Driver Standings
1. Ben Barnicoat/Jack Hawksworth – 2,462
2. Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor – 2,311
3. Daniel Juncadella/Jules Gounon – 2,302
4. Klaus Bachler/Patrick Pilet – 2,281
5. Alex Riberas/Ross Gunn – 2,083
Team Standings
1. No. 14 Vasser Sullivan – 2,462
2. No. 3 Corvette Racing – 2,311
3. No. 79 WeatherTech Racing – 2,302
4. No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports – 2,281
5. No. 23 Heart of Racing Team – 2,083
Manufacturer Standings
1. Lexus – 2,462
2. Chevrolet – 2,311
3. Mercedes-AMG – 2,302
4. Porsche – 2,281
5. Aston Martin – 2,094
CORVETTE RACING AT ROAD AMERICA: By the Numbers
• 1: As in one team, one manufacturer and one model of car for 25 years of racing: Corvette Racing, Chevrolet and the Chevrolet Corvette
• 4: Generations of Corvette Racing entries at Road America since 2002 – Corvette C5-R (2002-2004), Corvette C6.R (2005-13), Corvette C7.R (2016-19) and Corvette C8.R (2020-current). This year’s race is the second at the track for the GTD-spec, mid-engine racing Corvette
• 4: Number of cars Tommy Milner passed in the final 15 minutes of the 2016 Road America race. He and Oliver Gavin went on to win in class and capture the GTLM Drivers Championship
• 8: Number of victories at Road America for Corvette Racing, the most of any entrant in IMSA
• 8: Pole positions at Road America for Corvette Racing by four different drivers
• 10: Number of drivers who have won races at Road America for Corvette Racing – Gavin (four); Olivier Beretta (three); Johnny O’Connell (two); and Kelly Collins, Ron Fellows, Antonio Garcia, Jan Magnussen, Milner, Andy Pilgrim and Jordan Taylor (one each)
• 12: Fastest race laps for Corvette Racing drivers at Road America. That includes the last three of the last four seasons: Tommy Milner (2019 and 2021) and Antonio Garcia (2020)
• 14: Manufacturer Championships for Chevrolet and Corvette Racing since 2001
• 14: Number of IMSA victories at Road America for Chevrolet, the second-most of any manufacturer in IMSA
• 22: Number of Road America events for Corvette Racing counting this year’s IMSA race
• 27: Tracks at which Corvette Racing has won races – Baltimore, Charlotte Motor Speedway, COTA, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park/Mosport, Daytona, Detroit, Houston, Laguna Seca, Le Mans, Lime Rock, Long Beach, Miami, Mid-Ohio, Monza, Portimão, Portland, Road America, Road Atlanta, Sebring, Sonoma, St. Petersburg, Texas, Trois Rivieres, Utah, VIR, Washington DC and Watkins Glen
• 34: Number of drivers for Corvette Racing since 1999. Ben Keating and Nico Varrone joined that list with their participation – and victory – in the 1,000 Miles of Sebring for the World Endurance Championship
• 126: Victories worldwide for Corvette Racing – 113 in North America, eight at Le Mans and one in the FIA WEC
• 278: Event starts by Corvette Racing since 1999
• 12,395.03: Number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing in its 20 previous trips to Road America. That represents 3,054 laps or 105 trips across Lake Michigan.
• 359,327.91: Total number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing since its inception. To put that in perspective, Corvette Racing is more than halfway to the distance traveled by Apollo 13 – the longest manned spaceflight in history: 622,268 miles. That means Corvette Racing has raced to the moon and more than halfway back!
Corvette Racing at Road America (wins in bold)
2002
No. 3 Corvette C5-R: Ron Fellows/Johnny O'Connell/Oliver Gavin – 2nd in GTS (Fellows pole; Gavin fastest race lap)
No. 4 Corvette C5-R: Andy Pilgrim/Kelly Collins – 1st in GTS
2003
No. 3 Corvette C5-R: Ron Fellows/Johnny O'Connell – 2nd in GTS
No. 4 Corvette C5-R: Oliver Gavin/Kelly Collins – 5th in GTS (Gavin pole, fastest race lap)
2004
No. 3 Corvette C5-R: Ron Fellows/Johnny O'Connell – 2nd in GTS
CORVETTE RACING AT LIME ROCK: Tough Luck on Tight Track Garcia, Taylor move into second in points after fourth-place finish in GT-only fight
LAKEVILLE, Conn. (July 22, 2023) – Luck and track position went against Corvette Racing on Saturday at Lime Rock Park as Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor drove to a fourth-place finish in the FCP Euro Northeast Grand Prix presented by Liqui Moly.
The day wasn’t a complete loss, though, as the No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette finished high enough to move into second place in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s GT Daytona (GTD) PRO points standings with four events to go.
Saturday’s race was the first of two GT-only races on the schedule this year, and the packed hillsides of fans watched a fantastic show around the 1.474-mile, seven-turn bullring as the top four cars were separated by just 1.138 seconds at the end.
The first 90 minutes or so were full of differing pit strategy among the GTD PRO entries. Garcia maintained his third-place position from the start and led when he made his first stop at half-hour mark, rejoining third but second among the cars on a three-stop strategy.
A full-course yellow only minutes later jumbled up the strategy again with Garcia and the No. 14 Lexus stopping for fuel and left-side tires while the race-winning Aston Martin stayed out. Even with fresher tires, the difficulty for Garcia in third and the second-place Lexus to get around the Aston Martin was evident during a long green-flag run in the middle of the race. That meant a period of fuel-save to try and gain track position on the final pit stop.
Garcia brought the Corvette to the pitlane for the last time with 72 minutes left from third place. The swap to Taylor looked routine until the Corvette stalled leaving the pitbox, and Taylor lost nearly 10 seconds as the car wouldn’t go back into gear.
That cycled the Corvette back to fourth for the final run to the finish. A full-course yellow with a little more than an hour bunched up the field, but Taylor was unable to make in-roads on the tight and twisty Lime Rock circuit during the final 47 minutes.
Corvette Racing’s next event is the IMSA SportsCar Weekend at Road America on August 4-6.
ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R - FINISHED FOURTH IN GTD PRO: “A very frustrating race. It felt like it was impossible to pass anybody on track, and it was all about track position. It’s a shame we didn’t have a better starting position in qualifying, but that was kind of a key thing this year. We never had the ultimate pace to be upfront in qualifying, especially. I thought being P3 would’ve been enough just to have race pace, but everybody kind of had pretty much the same thing. Here, it seemed impossible to pass with what we had. On top of that, we had to play the strategy, and I think we probably had the Lexus covered because I was saving quite a bit of fuel behind them. I think it was the right call to pit behind them, but then the car had an issue (on the driver change). I don’t really know what happened there, but we lost six, seven, or eight seconds and we lost position even to the Porsche. So just frustrating. As we knew, Jordan (Taylor) did 70 laps behind them, and there’s nothing you can do. We didn’t seem to have anything extra to pass them. We need to look back and see what we can do different.”
JORDAN TAYLOR, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R - FINISHED FOURTH IN GTD PRO: “It was a pretty frustrating day. We didn’t have the fastest car, but with the way the strategy was looking, it looked like we were going to be able to jump a bunch of guys on that last stop and then something went wrong on the stop itself. I couldn’t get it back in gear, and we were sitting there for an extra 10 seconds. Once you lose all that track position, it’s impossible to pass around here. Even if we had a stronger car, you’re just sitting behind guys. We were just waiting for someone to make a mistake or something like that to cruise by. But that wasn’t the case. Everyone kind of drove around in a line, and that was it.”
Press Release: Garcia goes under old track record, will roll off third on grid in GT-only showcase
CORVETTE RACING AT LIME ROCK: Second-Row Start for No. 3 C8.R Garcia goes under old track record, will roll off third on grid in GT-only showcase
LAKEVILLE, Conn. (July 21, 2023) – Corvette Racing and Antonio Garcia will charge toward the first corner for the Northeast Grand Prix on Saturday from inside the second row after a third-place result in qualifying Friday at Lime Rock Park.
Garcia, in the No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R, set a best time of 50.897 (104.257 mph) in a record-breaking, 15-minute session around the 1.474-mile, seven turn Lime Rock layout.
He’ll start Saturday’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race and will team with Jordan Taylor – the same duo that won the GT-only race in 2021 with the No. 3 Corvette.
The five cars in the GTD PRO class were under the previous track record of 51.079; they were all separated by 0.481 seconds.
Garcia set the fastest GTD PRO lap in Friday’s first practice and was quickest overall in the final session prior to qualifying. That’s a good sign for the long-run pace of the Corvette, which won for the first time this year two weeks ago at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.
While the Garcia/Taylor pairing currently sits third in points, the No. 3 Corvette is in the thick of the GTD PRO championships with 109 points separating the team from the class-leading No. 14 Lexus in the standings.
With six victories at the 1.474-mile, seven-turn road course in northwestern Connecticut, no team in IMSA history has won more times at Lime Rock than Corvette Racing. In fact, no team in the paddock has half the number of victories at the circuit.
This is the first of two races this season to feature only GTD PRO and GTD cars, the second coming at Virginia International Raceway in August. Of note, six of Corvette Racing’s 126 victories worldwide have been overall wins, including the 2021 Lime Rock win for the No. 3 Corvette.
The FCP Euro Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park is scheduled for 12:10 p.m. ET on Saturday. The race will air live on USA and stream live on Peacock inside the United States and IMSA.com outside the U.S. IMSA Radio also will air the race beginning at 11:30 a.m. ET at IMSA.com with the race call also on XM 207 and SiriusXM Online 992.
ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – QUALIFIED THIRD IN GTD PRO:“It was a bit messy with the traffic, for sure. Obviously in practice it is way easier to find a rhythm and finding a gap. Here everyone was finding their way in, and I didn’t quite manage to do it. It doesn’t mean I would have done anything different. The balance of the car changed a tiny bit compared to practice. It just wasn’t quite there. We know that we can go from there and that we have a decent race car.”
2023 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship – GTD PRO (After six of 11 events) Driver Standings 1. Ben Barnicoat/Jack Hawksworth – 2,110 2. Daniel Juncadella/Jules Gounon – 2,014 3. Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor – 2,001 4. Klaus Bachler/Patrick Pilet – 1,955 5. Alex Riberas/Ross Gunn – 1,698
Team Standings 1. No. 14 Vasser Sullivan – 2,110 2. No. 79 WeatherTech Racing – 2,014 3. No. 3 Corvette Racing – 2,001 4. No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports – 1,955 5. No. 23 Heart of Racing Team – 1,698
Manufacturer Standings 1. Lexus – 2,110 2. Mercedes-AMG – 2.014 3. Chevrolet – 2,001 4. Porsche – 1,955 5. Aston Martin – 1,709
CORVETTE RACING AT LIME ROCK: By the Numbers • 1: As in one team, one manufacturer and one model of car for 25 years of racing: Corvette Racing, Chevrolet and the Chevrolet Corvette • 4: Generations of Corvette Racing entries at Lime Rock Park since 2004 – Corvette C5-R (2004), Corvette C6.R (2005-13), Corvette C7.R (2016-2019) and Corvette C8.R, which made its Lime Rock debut in 2021 • 6: Number of victories at Lime Rock for Corvette Racing, the most of any entrant in IMSA. • 7: Number of drivers who have won races at Lime Rock for Corvette Racing – Oliver Gavin (four), Olivier Beretta (three), Jan Magnussen (two), and Johnny O’Connell and Tommy Milner (one each). Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor joined the list with last year’s victory • 7: Fastest race laps for Corvette Racing drivers at Lime Rock. Antonio Garcia (2017) was the most recent • 7: Pole positions at Lime Rock for Corvette Racing, the most of any entrant in IMSA. Jordan Taylor (2021) was the most recent • 14: Manufacturer Championships for Chevrolet and Corvette Racing since 2001 • 27: Tracks at which Corvette Racing has won races – Baltimore, Charlotte Motor Speedway, COTA, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park/Mosport, Daytona, Detroit, Houston, Laguna Seca, Le Mans, Lime Rock, Long Beach, Miami, Mid-Ohio, Monza, Portimão, Portland, Road America, Road Atlanta, Sebring, Sonoma, St. Petersburg, Texas, Trois Rivieres, Utah, VIR, Washington DC and Watkins Glen • 34: Number of drivers for Corvette Racing since 1999. Ben Keating and Nico Varrone joined that list with their participation – and victory – in the 1,000 Miles of Sebring for the World Endurance Championship • 100: As in Corvette Racing’s 100th program victory at Lime Rock Park in 2016 • 126: Victories worldwide for Corvette Racing – 113 in North America, nine at Le and three in the FIA WEC. The most recent came in the last IMSA round at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park • 277: Event starts by Corvette Racing since 1999. • 6,708.24: Number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing in its 15 previous trips to Lime Rock Park. That represents 4,412 laps or 64 trips from the Empire State Building in New York City to the track • 359,080.28: Total number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing since its inception. To put that in perspective, Corvette Racing is more than halfway to the distance traveled by Apollo 13 – the longest manned spaceflight in history: 622,268 miles. That means Corvette Racing has raced to the moon… and then some!
Corvette Racing at Lime Rock Park (wins in bold) 2004 No. 3 Corvette C5-R: Ron Fellows/Johnny O'Connell – 2nd in GTS No. 4 Corvette C5-R: Olivier Beretta/Oliver Gavin – 1st in GTS (Beretta pole, fastest race lap)
2005 No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Ron Fellows/Johnny O'Connell – 2nd in GT1 No. 4 Corvette C6.R: Olivier Beretta/Oliver Gavin – 1st in GT1 (Beretta pole, fastest race lap)
2006 No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Ron Fellows/Johnny O'Connell – 2nd in GT1 No. 4 Corvette C6.R: Olivier Beretta/Oliver Gavin – 4th in GT1 (Beretta fastest race lap)
2007 No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Jan Magnussen/Johnny O'Connell – 2nd in GT1 (O’Connell fastest race lap) No. 4 Corvette C6.R: Olivier Beretta/Oliver Gavin – 1st in GT1
2008 No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Johnny O'Connell/Jan Magnussen – 1st in GT1 No. 4 Corvette C6.R: Olivier Beretta/Oliver Gavin – 2nd in GT1 (Gavin pole, Beretta fastest race lap)
2010 No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Olivier Beretta/Johnny O’Connell – 12th in GT2 No. 4 Corvette C6.R: Oliver Gavin/Jan Magnussen – 5th in GT2
2011 No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Olivier Beretta/Tommy Milner – 9th in GT No. 4 Corvette C6.R: Oliver Gavin/Jan Magnussen – 10th in GT
2012 No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 2nd in GT No. 4 Corvette C6.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 3rd in GT
2013 No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 2nd in GT No. 4 Corvette C6.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 6th in GT
2016 No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 2nd in GTLM No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 1st in GTLM (100tth Corvette Racing win; Gavin fastest lap)
2017 No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 4th in GTLM No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 8th in GTLM
2018 No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 2nd in GTLM (Garcia pole) No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 4th in GTLM
2019 No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 5th in GTLM No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Marcel Fässler – 6th in GTLM
2021 No. 3 Corvette C8.R: Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor – 1st in GTLM (Taylor pole) No. 4 Corvette C8.R: Tommy Milner/Nick Tandy – 2nd in GTLM
2022 No. 3 Corvette C8.R: Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor – 4th in GTD PRO
Pratt Miller Motorsports: Watch the Lime Rock IMSA race along with us! Please don’t hesitate to ask us questions during the stream! linktr.ee/prattmillermotorsports
Northeast Grand Prix Lakeville, CT July 21-22, 2023
Track: Lime Rock Park Race Duration: 2 hours 40 minutes Circuit Length: 1.5 miles
Entry by Class: GTDPRO - 5 GTD - 15 Qualifying: Friday, July 21, 2023 Live Streaming: http://imsatv.imsa.com/ 5:40 pm - 5:55 pm Qualifying - WeatherTech Championship (GTDPRO/GTD) Television Broadcast: Saturday, July 22, 2023 US: 12:00-3:00 pm ET Peacock 12:00 pm to 3:00 pm ET USA Online Coverage IMSA.com in-car cameras, live timings http://imsatv.imsa.com/ International: 12:05 pm to 2:50 PM ET http://imsatv.imsa.com/
No. 3 C8.R team will try to go back-to-back after class win in Canada
DETROIT (July 18, 2023) – Long tracks and short tracks… Corvette Racing has won at them both. It’s the latter that’s next on the team’s calendar as the longest-running sports car racing program in North America heads to Lime Rock Park for Saturday’s FCP Euro Northeast Grand Prix presented by Liqui Moly.
The No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R of Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor will look for back-to-back victories this weekend, having won the last time out at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park two weeks ago. As was the case then – and at most stops on the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship schedule – Corvette Racing owns a stellar record at Lime Rock.
With six victories at the 1.474-mile, seven-turn road course in northwestern Connecticut, no team in IMSA history has won more times at Lime Rock than Corvette Racing. In fact, no team in the paddock has half the number of victories at the circuit.
A seventh Lime Rock triumph would go a long way toward helping Garcia, Taylor, the No. 3 C8.R team and Chevrolet get back in prime position to fight for the GT Daytona (GTD) PRO championship. There are five rounds to go counting this weekend with the Corvette squad third in the Drivers, Manufacturers and Teams standings and within striking distance of first place.
The Garcia/Taylor pairing has stood on the top step at Lime Rock before, taking victory in the GT-only race in 2021. This is the first of two races this season to feature only GTD PRO and GTD cars, the second coming at Virginia International Raceway in August. Of note, six of Corvette Racing’s 126 victories worldwide have been overall wins, including the 2021 Lime Rock win for the No. 3 Corvette.
The FCP Euro Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park is scheduled for 12:10 p.m. ET on Saturday, July 22. The race will air live on USA and stream live on Peacock inside the United States and IMSA.com outside the U.S. IMSA Radio will air all on-track sessions beginning with Friday morning’s practice at IMSA.com with the race call also on XM 207 and SiriusXM Online 992.
ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: “It’s always good to go right back to racing after a win. Everyone I think gets to the track feeling better about things, so I hope that is the case for us at Lime Rock. This is a very intense and physical race usually. It’s so hard to pass and if we are stuck behind GTDs, especially early, then it can be a long and frustrating day. This race is all about track position, so we need to arrive at the track with everything right on our Corvette so we can start fine-tuning immediately. That will be the easiest and best way to start toward the front and hopefully stay there.”
JORDAN TAYLOR, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: “Lime Rock is such a unique race for us. It’s nothing like any of our other events, a true bullring of a track. I feel like we’ve had a few races in a row now that we’ve been executing on all levels, and everything fell into place for us at CTMP to get the win. With Lime Rock being such a big race on execution, I always like our chances with Corvette Racing. And if we need to make some positions on track, maybe some of my stock car experience from this year can come into play.”
2023 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship – GTD PRO (After six of 11 events)
Driver Standings
1. Ben Barnicoat/Jack Hawksworth – 2,110
2. Daniel Juncadella/Jules Gounon – 2,014
3. Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor – 2,001
4. Klaus Bachler/Patrick Pilet – 1,955
5. Alex Riberas/Ross Gunn – 1,698
Team Standings
1. No. 14 Vasser Sullivan – 2,110
2. No. 79 WeatherTech Racing – 2,014
3. No. 3 Corvette Racing – 2,001
4. No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports – 1,955
5. No. 23 Heart of Racing Team – 1,698
Manufacturer Standings
1. Lexus – 2,110
2. Mercedes-AMG – 2.014
3. Chevrolet – 2,001
4. Porsche – 1,955
5. Aston Martin – 1,709
CORVETTE RACING AT LIME ROCK: By the Numbers
• 1: As in one team, one manufacturer and one model of car for 25 years of racing: Corvette Racing, Chevrolet and the Chevrolet Corvette
• 4: Generations of Corvette Racing entries at Lime Rock Park since 2004 – Corvette C5-R (2004), Corvette C6.R (2005-13), Corvette C7.R (2016-2019) and Corvette C8.R, which made its Lime Rock debut in 2021
• 6: Number of victories at Lime Rock for Corvette Racing, the most of any entrant in IMSA.
• 7: Number of drivers who have won races at Lime Rock for Corvette Racing – Oliver Gavin (four), Olivier Beretta (three), Jan Magnussen (two), and Johnny O’Connell and Tommy Milner (one each). Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor joined the list with last year’s victory
• 7: Fastest race laps for Corvette Racing drivers at Lime Rock. Antonio Garcia (2017) was the most recent
• 7: Pole positions at Lime Rock for Corvette Racing, the most of any entrant in IMSA. Jordan Taylor (2021) was the most recent
• 14: Manufacturer Championships for Chevrolet and Corvette Racing since 2001
• 27: Tracks at which Corvette Racing has won races – Baltimore, Charlotte Motor Speedway, COTA, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park/Mosport, Daytona, Detroit, Houston, Laguna Seca, Le Mans, Lime Rock, Long Beach, Miami, Mid-Ohio, Monza, Portimão, Portland, Road America, Road Atlanta, Sebring, Sonoma, St. Petersburg, Texas, Trois Rivieres, Utah, VIR, Washington DC and Watkins Glen
• 34: Number of drivers for Corvette Racing since 1999. Ben Keating and Nico Varrone joined that list with their participation – and victory – in the 1,000 Miles of Sebring for the World Endurance Championship
• 100: As in Corvette Racing’s 100th program victory at Lime Rock Park in 2016
• 126: Victories worldwide for Corvette Racing – 113 in North America, nine at Le and three in the FIA WEC. The most recent came in the last IMSA round at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park
• 277: Event starts by Corvette Racing since 1999.
• 6,708.24: Number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing in its 15 previous trips to Lime Rock Park. That represents 4,412 laps or 64 trips from the Empire State Building in New York City to the track
• 359,080.28: Total number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing since its inception. To put that in perspective, Corvette Racing is more than halfway to the distance traveled by Apollo 13 – the longest manned spaceflight in history: 622,268 miles. That means Corvette Racing has raced to the moon… and then some!
Corvette Racing at Lime Rock Park (wins in bold)
2004
No. 3 Corvette C5-R: Ron Fellows/Johnny O'Connell – 2nd in GTS
Garcia, Taylor, No. 3 Corvette C8.R claim season’s first GTD PRO victory
BOWMANVILLE, Ontario, Canada (July 9, 2023) – Corvette Racing broke through with a long-awaited victory Sunday at the Chevrolet Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, the team’s first win of the season in the GT Daytona (GTD) PRO class of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor teamed for the victory in the No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R, which was racing for the second time at CTMP. It’s the first win for Corvette at the circuit since 2014 and gave the team an even dozen victories at the historic Canadian venue.
It’s also the 126th win all-time for Corvette Racing and 114 in North American competition. The victory capped a day where Corvette Racing clinched the FIA WEC GTE Am Drivers and Teams World Championships at the Six Hours of Monza.
The groundwork for the Canadian Corvette victory began early. Taylor began from fourth and held his position until diving in for a pit stop at the 33-minute mark. He got out and Garcia got in as the Corvette Racing crew changed tires and added fuel. The move set off a chain reaction with three other GTD PRO cars following suit, and the C8.R emerging after the cycle in third place – but second among cars in class that stopped early.
An even more critical moment came with 70 minutes remaining. Garcia moved to the lead on a restart with 70 minutes left as the two cars ahead of him fought off-track at the exit of the first corner. The Corvette held the proper line and moved by each. The championship-leading 14 Lexus suffered damage in the incident while the No. 9 Porsche emerged behind Garcia.
The top three cars ran within less than four seconds apart for the final 24 minutes with the Corvette taking the win under yellow after a late-race safety car period – the fourth of the day.
Corvette Racing’s next event is the FCP Euro Northeast Grand Prix on Saturday, July 22 from Lime Rock Park.
ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – GTD PRO RACE-WINNER: “It was not easy. Probably on the last restart I knew we had the pace to win. Up to that point, the whole class was pretty close. Since the start, everyone was bunched up. We made a good call early just to put stress on everybody to see what they did. Almost everybody followed us on that strategy, which was OK. I believe it’s also smart to follow what Corvette Racing does! We did that expecting the leaders to stay out maybe, but they all came in and I knew from that point that I had to do a good job… especially at the start of the stint when I passed the Mercedes and got very close to the Lexus on cold tires. From that point on, they had really good pace but we were close. On the restart (with 70 minutes left), I knew the Porsche was the only one that gambled on the strategy and jumped us. I was kind of a front-row spectator into Turn One when the 9 and 14 went side-by-side, which I think never works here. Once I saw that, I was alert and went for it to make the move for the lead. We had strong pace at the front, but it was difficult to be at the back of the GTD field with the safety car rules where we cycle completely back to the rear of the GTDs or are always there fighting for positions. It’s always a nightmare. I’m glad we had the pace and nothing against us happened like what happened at Sebring when we were in the middle of the GTDs. That’s the way it is. I don’t think they want us to be there while we are racing, and we don’t want them there while we are racing other PRO cars.”
JORDAN TAYLOR, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – GTD PRO RACE-WINNER: “It has been awhile. The Sebring 12 Hours was the last one. We’ve struggled here and there, but I feel like we executed very well at a lot of the races and the results haven’t been there. We’ve had a lot of podiums here and there so it’s nice for everything to click and go our way. The guys called a great strategy and undercut everyone at the beginning, picked up a couple more spots and Antonio had a great restart to jump to the lead. Once he got to the lead, it was kind of stressful to watch with him mixed in with the GTDs. He did a great job staying out of trouble and thankfully we had a quick car in clean air. It’s really nice to get a Corvette back in victory lane back here at CTMP for the Chevrolet Grand Prix.”
ON WINNING THE RACE AND THE WEC TEAM WINNING THE GTE AM CHAMPIONSHIPS: “It was a very good day. I don’t think it could have gone much better. We have our remote operations here too, and during our pre-race meeting and warmup, we were listening to their intercom of what was going on there. Kyle Millay (chief engineer) is usually on the WEC side but he came here this weekend. They were still talking to him here during our pre-race meeting for their strategy there. It’s a team effort from both sides. Nicky (Catsburg) just texted us and said they were on our intercom during our race. It’s one big family. They’ve had an unbelievable year winning as much as they did, winning Le Mans and clinching the championship. It was a good decision for Corvette to stay in the WEC to execute that championship and open some doors for the future.
“They were bouncing some questions off Kyle. He’s been around for so long and seen pretty much everything there is to see even though he’s so young. Ben Johnson (IMSA team manager and program technical director) was on the intercoms too. Both teams on both sides of the ocean are working together. If we have an electronics issues, Neil (Schreiber), who set up our car is on the WEC side now so we can bounce questions off him. It’s nice to have that constant communication between the two.”
LAURA WONTROP KLAUSER, GM SPORTS CAR RACING PROGRAM MANAGER: "I can't think of a better weekend for Corvette Racing. A World Championship in the WEC and a race win in IMSA on the same day is something we all will remember. It shows how strong this program is in both series and how much both sides work together to get the most out of these Corvette race cars. I'm incredibly proud of both the No. 33 and No. 3 Corvette teams on this unbelievable day."
Corvette Racing clinched the GTE Am Drivers and Teams titles in the FIA World Endurance Championship on Sunday with a fourth-place finish at the Six Hours of Monza for the trio of Nicky Catsburg, Ben Keating and Nico Varrone. The No. 33 Corvette C8.R team finished ahead of its closest championship competitors to wrap up the program’s first title in WEC competition.
It’s been a dream season for Corvette Racing with three victories – the 24 Hours of Le Mans, 1000 Miles of Sebring and Six Hours Portimão – in addition to a runner-up finish at the Six Hours of Spa.
"Congratulations to Ben Keating, Nicky Catsburg and Nico Varrone on their championship in the first year for Corvette Racing in the World Endurance Championship’s GTE Am class,” said Mark Stielow, Director, Chevrolet Motorsports Competition Engineering. “This was not an easy accomplishment despite the results this season. The strategy and execution by the entire Corvette Racing team – the drivers, the crew and the engineers – has been excellent throughout the season. This was a deep and competitive class and we are grateful that Corvette Racing has come out on top. It gives us great momentum going into the end of the season and 2024 when the Corvette Z06 GT3.R customer program arrives in WEC."
There were a number of scenarios in play to clinch the title. The most straight-forward options were to win or finish second Sunday, or place ahead of its two nearest challengers – the No. 25 TF Sport and No. 85 Iron Dames entries. The latter worked just fine.
Keating set the tone for the Corvette team early. He started sixth but picked up spots on consecutive laps to run third prior to a safety-car period at the 15-minute mark. The Corvette crew elected to bring the C8.R into pitlane for a fuel top-off. By the time Keating made his second stop at 80 minutes running, he had worked his way back up to second as the varying pit strategies came into view.
He gave way to Varrone just past the two-hour mark but a rare in-race mistake meant the C8.R was called in for a drive-through penalty due to speeding in the pitlane. Varrone slid back to sixth but steadily worked his way back to the lead with strong pace and the pit stop cycle. By the time his driving time was complete just prior to the four-hour mark, the C8.R ran third but less than four seconds from the leader.
Catsburg drove the final 92 minutes but was unable to make in-roads to the podium finishers – all of which were from the same manufacturer and ran more than 100 pounds lighter than the Corvette. The C8.R carried 40 additional kilograms of “success ballast” in accordance with GTE Am sporting rules. That is due to the victory in the previous race at Le Mans, 10 kilograms for taking the runner-up spot at Spa (the race prior to Le Mans) and another 15 for leading the championship. In addition, the C8.R received 10 additional kilograms of pre-event weight by the rules-makers, making the Corvette 50 kilograms (110 pounds) heavier than how it began the season at Sebring.
The next round for Corvette Racing in the FIA WEC is the Six Hours of Fuji on Sunday, September 10.
NICKY CATSBURG, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – FIA WEC GTE AM CHAMPION: “Honestly, this season might have been one of my nicest in motorsport. It has been so cool, right from the start. It was always very relaxed with not a lot of pressure. Somehow the results just kept coming. I cannot deny that we have a great car, a great team and we have an awesome lineup. But we still need to execute, and I feel like we did that really well. Today I feel like we should have come away with a podium. We got a little bit unlucky with some of the safety car situations, but we did great. It’s super, super cool to be able to call myself a World Champion. I think I had won it before with a team but not as a driver. So I’m really, really happy!”
BEN KEATING, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – FIA WEC GTE AM CHAMPION: “I’ve said it over and over, but in this championship and in each one of the five races we’ve had, it has been a true team performance overall. You win as a team and you lose as a team, but we’ve also been lucky in quite a lot of places. It’s just been a magical season. Everyone kept talking about us needing to finish first or second in order to clinch the championship here. I kept saying it was more about where the 25 and 85 finished rather than where we finished. We weren’t really racing for that. We were racing to be as far up in the order as we possibly could be. We had a really good race. It’s been an amazing season. I keep on joking that because we’ve finished fourth, we get to lose 10 kilograms in success ballast! Now we can really start pushing hard because we don’t have to be conservative. Just kidding! It’s been a great season. I’m really proud of everyone on the Corvette Racing team.”
NICO VARRONE, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – FIA WEC GTE AM CHAMPION:“This means quite a lot. It feels very weird at the moment but means so much. To say that we are World Champions is just an amazing feeling. I’ve been working for this since I was 8 years old and started driving karts. I didn’t imagine it was going to be so early. As Ben said, this was all teamwork all season. We’ve all done a great job – the three of us as teammates, the engineers and the pit crew has been amazing. We did a fantastic job. Today we weren’t racing for the win and couldn’t make it. But finishing fourth and sealing the title already with two rounds to go is just amazing.”
LAURA WONTROP KLAUSER, GM SPORTS CAR RACING PROGRAM MANAGER: "How cool is this? The Corvette Racing team joined the WEC full-time last year to learn the championship and had some great successes. We enjoyed it so much and had an opportunity this year with Ben, Nicky and Nico to have a Corvette in the GTE Am class. This group couldn't say no! Now to be able to walk away champions and win the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the final year of GTE and the C8.R is a dream come true."
CORVETTE RACING AT MONZA: Third-Row Start for Title Push
Keating qualifies sixth in GTE Am with an eye toward championship clinch
MONZA, Italy (July 8, 2023) – Corvette Racing will roll off from the third row of the GTE Am grid Sunday in its push to wrap up FIA World Endurance Championship class titles at the Six Hours of Monza.
Ben Keating qualified the No. 33 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R sixth with a lap of 1:48.519 during Saturday’s 15-minute session at the 3.60-mile, 11-turn Autodromo Nazionale Di Monza circuit with a red-flag period in the middle. He, Nicky Catsburg and Nico Varrone can wrap up the Drivers and Teams championships in a number of different scenarios – the easiest being finishing first or second in class Sunday.
Keating ended 0.887 seconds off Sarah Bovy’s class pole-winning time in the No. 85 Porsche.
The trio and the No. 33 Corvette team have been nearly perfect all season with three wins and runner-up finish in four races. It’s a remarkable achievement for a first-year trio and the team’s first season in GTE Am.
A podium finish this weekend would be just as impressive. The Corvette will carry 40 additional kilograms of “success ballast” in accordance with GTE Am sporting rules. That is due to the victory in the previous race at Le Mans, 10 kilograms for taking the runner-up spot at Spa (the race prior to Le Mans) and another 15 for leading the championship.
In addition, the C8.R received 10 additional kilograms of pre-event weight by the rules-makers, making the Corvette 50 kilograms (110 pounds) heavier than how it began the season at Sebring. On a positive note, the No. 33 C8.R raced at Spa with 45 extra kilograms over its minimum weight and placed second, highlighted by a furious late-race defense by Catsburg to hold on to the second position.
In addition to a championship, Corvette Racing is going for its second straight class win at Monza. It was the site of the program’s lone 2022 WEC victory in GTE Pro for the duo of Tommy Milner and Nick Tandy.
The Six Hours of Monza is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. CET / 6:30 a.m. ET on Sunday, July 9. MotorTrend and MotorTrend Plus will provide both live television and streaming coverage, as will the FIA WEC app. Radio Le Mans will stream audio coverage of the race, as well.
BEN KEATING, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – QUALIFIED SIXTH IN GTE AM: “I had hoped we would be higher than P6. It was an unfortunate red flag in the middle of qualifying. I was on my best lap at the peak of the tire and had the best sector one and a pretty good sector two before I had to shut it down at the end. I think that was going to be a really good lap. Because we’re at the end of pitlane, we made the decision to go to the pit exit and queue up there rather than go to the box and change tires. It’s hard to know whether having track position is more important or having the peak of the tire one more time is more important. Hindsight being 20-20, I think I would have preferred to have new tires. The tires just didn’t feel the same to get those last three- or four-tenths out of a lap. We’re carrying 50 kilograms more weight than we were at the beginning of the season. That’s the penalty of the amazing success that we’ve had. If you look at how much 50 kilograms is worth around this track, it’s probably not far from the pole. From a points perspective, I’d rather Sarah Bovy got the pole instead Ahmad Al-Harthy. That gives us a little bit more margin in the championship, but the fact that both will start up front means they will have a little bit of an advantage at the beginning of the race. We’ll see. We have a really, really good racecar. As a team and a car, we carry the weight well. We’ll have to work our way up one hour at a time. We’ve got a lot of experience doing that.”
2023 FIA World Endurance Championship – GTE Am (After four of seven events)
Driver Standings
1. Ben Keating/Nicky Catsburg/Nico Varrone – 133
2. Ahmad Al Harthy/Charlie Eastwood/Michael Dinan – 59
3. Michelle Gatting/Rahel Frey/Sarah Bovy – 56
4. Francesco Castellacci/Thomas Flohr/Davide Rigon – 47
Corvette Racing’s Ben Keating was part of the FIA World Endurance Championship’s pre-event press conference today ahead of Sunday’s Six Hours of Monza. Keating and teammates Nicky Catsburg and Nico Varrone share the No. 33 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R and can wrap up the GTE Am Drivers and Teams championships this weekend on the strength of wins at Sebring, Portimao and Le Mans:
BEN KEATING, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: “It’s obviously been a fairy-tale season. You’d be crazy to expect it to go this way. Things just seem to have fallen into our hands, really. We haven’t always had the fastest car, and we’ve gotten extremely lucky many times throughout the season. What really makes this kind of unique is that I can look back at every race and I can point to different people on the team where I feel like they have made a specific difference. It’s really been much more of a team win throughout the season, which has been really nice. It’s a really well-run team but a tight-knit group of people who all love to do well and love to perform for each other. It’s a really fun team to be part of. There have been plenty of races so far this season where I feel like I have let everybody down but other people have picked up and covered it for me. It’s been great. Our plan is to do what we've been doing – put one step in front of the other, do our job well and hopefully we get enough points to close it out at some point in the next three races.”
ON LAST YEAR’S RACE AT MONZA WITH TF SPORT AND IF THERE IS ANY UNFINISHED BUSINESS: “I really love this track. I feel like I have always been quick here. Unfortunately it has not loved me back. I had a blowout on the backstraight in 2021 and blew the whole front of the car off – the bonnet, the splitter, the floor, the exhaust… it was a big explosion. And of course last year we had a rock that broke the bleeder noodle off the caliper. Going into the braking zone at the second chicane, we had no brakes which ended our race last year in dramatic fashion. I don’t believe this place owes me anything. But we’re going to go back at it again and see if we can change that luck.”
The Six Hours of Monza is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. CET / 6:30 a.m. ET on Sunday, July 9. MotorTrend and MotorTrend Plus will provide both live television and streaming coverage, as will the FIA WEC app. Radio Le Mans will stream audio coverage of qualifying and the race.
2023 FIA World Endurance Championship – GTE Am (After four of seven events)
Driver Standings
1. Ben Keating/Nicky Catsburg/Nico Varrone – 133
2. Ahmad Al Harthy/Charlie Eastwood/Michael Dinan – 59
3. Michelle Gatting/Rahel Frey/Sarah Bovy – 56
4. Francesco Castellacci/Thomas Flohr/Davide Rigon – 47
• 1: As in one team, one manufacturer and one model of car for 25 years of racing: Corvette Racing, Chevrolet and the Chevrolet Corvette
• 3: Generations of Corvette Racing entries at CTMP since 2000 – Corvette C5-R (2004), Corvette C6.R (2005-13) and Corvette C7.R (2016-2019). The Corvette C8.R raced at the track for the first time last season.
• 3: Number of GTE Am wins in four FIA WEC races this season for Nicky Catsburg, Ben Keating and Nico Varrone with the No. 33 Corvette C8.R.
• 6: Hours difference between the IMSA team competing at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park and the Corvette Racing WEC team competing at Monza on the same days.
• 7: Number of drivers who have won races at CTMP for Corvette Racing. Johnny O’Connell (six), Jan Magnussen (five), Oliver Gavin (four), Ron Fellows (three) and Olivier Beretta (two) each have multiple wins there with the team.
• 7: Pole positions for Corvette Racing drivers at CTMP. Oliver Gavin leads with three with Antonio Garcia (2016) being the most recent.
• 11: Class victories at Corvette Racing at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park – all since 2001.
• 14: Manufacturer Championships for Chevrolet and Corvette Racing since 2001
• 27: Tracks at which Corvette Racing has won races – Baltimore, Charlotte Motor Speedway, COTA, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park/Mosport, Daytona, Detroit, Houston, Laguna Seca, Le Mans, Lime Rock, Long Beach, Miami, Mid-Ohio, Monza, Portimão, Portland, Road America, Road Atlanta, Sebring, Sonoma, St. Petersburg, Texas, Trois Rivieres, Utah, VIR, Washington DC and Watkins Glen
• 34: Number of drivers for Corvette Racing since 1999. Ben Keating and Nico Varrone joined that list with their participation – and victory – in the 1,000 Miles of Sebring for the World Endurance Championship.
• 125: Victories worldwide for Corvette Racing – 113 in North America, nine at Le Mans – including two weeks ago – and three in the FIA WEC.
• 275: Event starts by Corvette Racing since 1999.
• 11,080.25: Number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing in its 20 previous trips to Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. That represents 4,506 laps.
• 358,144.93: Total number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing since its inception. To put that in perspective, Corvette Racing is more than halfway to the distance traveled by Apollo 13 – the longest manned spaceflight in history: 622,268 miles. That means Corvette Racing has raced to the moon… and then some!
Corvette Racing at Monza (wins in bold)
2022
No. 64 Corvette C8.R: Tommy Milner/Nick Tandy – 1st in GTE Pro
6 HOURS OF MONZA RACE AND CHEVROLET GRAND PRIX RACE INFO
Pratt Miller Motorsports- A big weekend with both IMSA and WEC teams in action...watch along with us this Sunday as we will cover all things #CorvetteRacing in real time!! #6HMonza #WEC #ChevroletGrandPrix #IMSA (click below and choose your favorite link to watch. Best way to know what is happening in the race)
6 HOURS OF MONZA RACE SCHEDULE: July 9, 2023 Monza, Italy Track Name Autodromo Nazionale di Monza Track Length 5.763 km Corners 11 Race Distance 6 Hours
*********************************************** TV Broadcast:
Motor Trend Channel July 9, 2023 Sunday: 6:00 am -7:30 am EDT Sunday ending: 11:30 am -1:00 pm EDT
A live stream will be available on the Motor Trend + app with all 6 hours Sunday: 6:00 am -1:00 pm EDT
Velocity Canada Sunday: 6:00 am-1:00 pm EDT
WEC FIA has offered an app to you can download. You can also purchase the race for a premimum package Program: https://www.fiawec.com/en/official-fia-wec-app/45 or download Google Play Store or Apple store.
DETROIT (July 6, 2023) – Winning a race as big of the 24 Hours of Le Mans is something special. It’s the culmination of a year’s worth of work, preparation and execution.
In the case of Corvette Racing, winning this year’s GTE Am class didn’t just validate all of that effort. It also exorcised some very painful memories of near-misses, most notably the team’s end to the 2022 race. Ahead of this weekend’s Six Hours of Monza in the FIA World Endurance Championship, a few Corvette Racing team members shared their thoughts on a sweet and redemptive victory…
NICKY CATSBURG, DRIVER, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: "We’ve been trying to win Le Mans with the C8.R for a couple of years. We managed to get P2 in 2021, and last year Alex (Sims), Tommy (Milner) and Nick (Tandy) seemed to have it all sorted before a crazy spell of bad luck took them out of the race. We knew this was our last chance for our car to win it before the end of the GTE category. It’s clear with Ben and Nico that we have a strong lineup, and we had an insanely successful season in WEC going into Le Mans. But that never means winning there is easy. All the ingredients were there, but you still need to make it happen. We lost a lot of time at the beginning of the race, and I really felt like that was the end of it. But this team never gives up. Corvette Racing is an insane team with a lot of young guys so incredibly eager to win races. They were on top of their game! The flawless pitlane work and flawless drives by both Nico and Ben brought us to the top step of the podium. It was the one big 24-hour race that I didn’t have on my CV, and now I do. I can’t begin to thank everyone on this program enough. The whole team has such a good dynamic going on, and the atmosphere is so cool. I’m very thankful and grateful.”
LAURA WONTROP KLAUSER, GM SPORTS CAR RACING PROGRAM MANAGER: "Any Le Mans win is incredible, but this year’s was above and beyond. After the heartbreak of 2022 and with this year being the last year of the C8.R, the win was extra special to honor the team and our Corvette racecar. From the first hour, I think many believed there was no possibility for us to overcome the time we spent in the garage. But by sticking with the plan and staying focused, we again demonstrated that never-give-up spirit that defines Corvette Racing. What a great way to close the chapter at Le Mans with the C8.R while we look forward to writing the next one with the Z06 GT3.R.”
KYLE MILLAY, CORVETTE RACING CHIEF ENGINEER: “This Le Mans had a much different feel than years past. We always had the same two-car effort, garages, engineering offices, hospitality, driver rotations and so on. This year, not having that feel of familiarity while not impacting our approach added to the feeling of finality from the 2022 event. With about six hours to go we found ourselves with a comfortable lead that would have allowed us to easily bring the car home. I can distinctly remember feeling the buzz that we can win this race from here, but tempering that with knowing that six hours is a long way to go. What seemed like not five minutes later, I happened to look up at the TV feed and saw a yellow car spearing into the wall. I quickly glanced at my telemetry screen and confirmed it was us. The next thing was the radio call to Sims asking if he was ok and confirming our day was done. After sitting there for a few minutes letting it sink in, you close your computer and walk back from the wall. It went the way a lot of Le Mans have gone for us: with good cars not making it to the end. For me personally, it stung as much or more than 2017 when we lost the lead coming to the white flag.
“As with all Le Mans I headed into this year’s race anticipating some kind of setback that we would need to recover from. It came in Hour Two with a suspension issue. When something like that happens, you assess the situation and move on. In this case, I felt we had 22 hours to make up two laps and with the new safety car regs, that was a possibility. Everyone kept focused and knew that we still had options to get us back in the fight. We stuck to our plan to try and execute our driver and tire strategy as planned and see what would happen. We didn’t have to wait too long when the first of a few rain storms came to bring out a safety car. This was our first opportunity to get one of our laps back except race control executed the pit exit sequence incorrectly and it kept us trapped two laps back. The weather of the next few hours was pretty messy with car starting to drop out due to heavy accidents and issues. Nico had to drive a crazy stint in mixed conditions and then heavy rain while on slick tires after a gamble didn’t pay off. Over the next few hours, we just slowly narrowed the gap, and more cars dropped out. We luckily caught another safety car which did bring us a lap closer. That was it for safety cars giving us the freebies, and we had to race are way back for the rest. The car was fast and we were in a position with the driver rotation where we could really take out massive chunks of time to the leaders. We raced ourselves back on the lead lap, and then got the lead while building the gap.
“In the last few hours of the race, time seems to slow to a crawl when you are at the front. The last hour can be excruciating because there is nothing left to do but watch and think about everything that can go wrong. This time it was smooth sailing. This win had some extra meaning for the guys who had been so close over the last eight years, the ones who worked so hard to develop and build the C8.R and to see it check this one off the list. It was super special, and I was glad I could be a part of it.”
TIM KAVANAGH, CAR CHIEF, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: “For me, the events of last year at Le Mans served as a reminder of how tough this race can be. It’s just like the events of our crash at the end of the first practice this year and the suspension issue early in the race. This group never gives up. We don’t know how.
“Our success in Le Mans came down to every single person involved executing to their maximum potential and staying determined to achieve our goals together. This is truly the best group of men and women I have ever had the privilege to work with.
“We came into the 2023 season not knowing what to expect but proud to be part of the final season of GTE competition and of the C8.R. So many people at GM and Pratt Miller have poured their hearts and souls into this project. A proper send off with a Le Mans win and championship is the only option.”
The Six Hours of Monza is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. CET / 6:30 a.m. ET on Sunday, July 9. MotorTrend and MotorTrend Plus will provide both live television and streaming coverage, as will the FIA WEC app. Radio Le Mans will stream audio coverage of qualifying and the race.
2023 FIA World Endurance Championship – GTE Am (After four of seven events)
Driver Standings
1. Ben Keating/Nicky Catsburg/Nico Varrone – 133
2. Ahmad Al Harthy/Charlie Eastwood/Michael Dinan – 59
3. Michelle Gatting/Rahel Frey/Sarah Bovy – 56
4. Francesco Castellacci/Thomas Flohr/Davide Rigon – 47
• 1: As in one team, one manufacturer and one model of car for 25 years of racing: Corvette Racing, Chevrolet and the Chevrolet Corvette
• 3: Generations of Corvette Racing entries at CTMP since 2000 – Corvette C5-R (2004), Corvette C6.R (2005-13) and Corvette C7.R (2016-2019). The Corvette C8.R raced at the track for the first time last season.
• 3: Number of GTE Am wins in four FIA WEC races this season for Nicky Catsburg, Ben Keating and Nico Varrone with the No. 33 Corvette C8.R.
• 6: Hours difference between the IMSA team competing at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park and the Corvette Racing WEC team competing at Monza on the same days.
• 7: Number of drivers who have won races at CTMP for Corvette Racing. Johnny O’Connell (six), Jan Magnussen (five), Oliver Gavin (four), Ron Fellows (three) and Olivier Beretta (two) each have multiple wins there with the team.
• 7: Pole positions for Corvette Racing drivers at CTMP. Oliver Gavin leads with three with Antonio Garcia (2016) being the most recent.
• 11: Class victories at Corvette Racing at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park – all since 2001.
• 14: Manufacturer Championships for Chevrolet and Corvette Racing since 2001
• 27: Tracks at which Corvette Racing has won races – Baltimore, Charlotte Motor Speedway, COTA, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park/Mosport, Daytona, Detroit, Houston, Laguna Seca, Le Mans, Lime Rock, Long Beach, Miami, Mid-Ohio, Monza, Portimão, Portland, Road America, Road Atlanta, Sebring, Sonoma, St. Petersburg, Texas, Trois Rivieres, Utah, VIR, Washington DC and Watkins Glen
• 34: Number of drivers for Corvette Racing since 1999. Ben Keating and Nico Varrone joined that list with their participation – and victory – in the 1,000 Miles of Sebring for the World Endurance Championship.
• 125: Victories worldwide for Corvette Racing – 113 in North America, nine at Le Mans – including two weeks ago – and three in the FIA WEC.
• 275: Event starts by Corvette Racing since 1999.
• 11,080.25: Number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing in its 20 previous trips to Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. That represents 4,506 laps.
• 358,144.93: Total number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing since its inception. To put that in perspective, Corvette Racing is more than halfway to the distance traveled by Apollo 13 – the longest manned spaceflight in history: 622,268 miles. That means Corvette Racing has raced to the moon… and then some!
Corvette Racing at Monza (wins in bold)
2022
No. 64 Corvette C8.R: Tommy Milner/Nick Tandy – 1st in GTE Pro
After Le Mans win, No. 33 C8.R team can wrap up GTE Am championships
DETROIT (July 3, 2023) – Fresh off a stunning class victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans – its ninth since 2001 – Corvette Racing can add one more major honor this weekend with the resumption of the FIA World Endurance Championship.
Depending on its finish and those of other title contenders, Corvette Racing can wrap up the GTE Am Drivers and Teams championships at the Six Hours of Spa. Nicky Catsburg, Ben Keating, Nico Varrone and the team of the No. 33 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R have won three of the first four WEC rounds to open a commanding 74-point advantage with 91 possible points remaining in the final three races of the season.
Corvette Racing media information is updated and available ahead of the FIA WEC's Six Hours of Monza.
Such a position likely was incredibly optimistic for even the biggest Corvette Racing fan before the season began. Not only is this season the first for the Catsburg/Keating/Varrone trio, but it also is the in GTE Am for Corvette Racing. The new challenge hasn’t been too big for the team, which largely has nailed every pit stop and strategy call during this year’s campaign.
That was part of the story last year at Monza for the Corvette squad, which won in its debut at the circuit in the GTE Pro class. Tommy Milner and Nick Tandy were winners that day in the C8.R on a strategic masterpiece by the Corvette squad.
The team will need to rely on some of that quick and clever thinking this time around as the Corvette will carry 40 additional kilograms of “success ballast” in accordance with GTE Am sporting rules. That is due to the victory in the previous race at Le Mans, 10 kilograms for taking the runner-up spot at Spa (the race prior to Le Mans) and another 15 for leading the championship.
On a positive note, the No. 33 C8.R raced at Spa with 45 extra kilograms over its minimum weight and placed second, highlighted by a furious late-race defense by Catsburg to hold on to the second position.
The Six Hours of Monza is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. CET / 6:30 a.m. ET on Sunday, July 9. MotorTrend and MotorTrend Plus will provide both live television and streaming coverage, as will the FIA WEC app. Radio Le Mans will stream audio coverage of qualifying and the race.
NICKY CATSBURG, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: "Coming into the season, we were confident that we could compete for race wins and the championship. We knew we had a good team and a good car. But I couldn't have expected the success we have had so far with three wins - Le Mans among that - and a chance to win the championship this early. Even though we are in this position, we cannot take anything for granted or lose focus. Fortunately I have teammates in Ben and Nico and a team behind us in Corvette Racing that won't let that happen. Monza is a very good and fast track. We may be a little limited by the success ballast but it will not change our approach and mindset. I'm ready to get there and go for the best result we can get."
BEN KEATING, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: “I love Monza. On the WEC calendar, Le Mans and Monza are my best tracks. Interestingly enough in my first year at Monza in WEC, I rented a bicycle and was riding around. On the grandstand side, there is a driver development simulator company. I spent four or five hours there on a whim. At the time, my chief competitor was a Ferrari with Alessio Rivera, and in the sim he was my coach! So every year since then, I always book time. Monza is one of my best tracks, but I’ve yet to finish a race there. It’s been my unluckiest track. One year we had a blowout at 170 mph, and it blew apart the car so much that it bent the exhaust, blew the floor out and blew the hood off. Then last year, we lost brakes and flipped the car. Even though I feel really good about my performance at Monza, the track has not always loved me back. I have a lot of faith in the Corvette and the Corvette Racing team. I really feel like in this season, the team’s performance has been key to our results. This race will be no different. We’ll be carrying 40 extra kilograms for the race, but the other teams chasing us have weight, too. I’m hopeful we can clinch a championship there. It doesn’t require a podium finish but does require some points for us and the 25 and 85 cars having a bad race. With the 40 extra kilograms, it would be a lot to expect us to win. I’m not saying it’s impossible because anything is possible with this car and this team.”
NICO VARRONE, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: “I love Monza! It’s a fast track with a lot of history. We have been doing a great job all year. I feel like the pressure from ahead of Le Mans is gone with the victory there. We will arrive at Monza with less pressure and I think enjoying the moment. We will do what we do every race – do what we do, do what we know, keep it clean, be as fast as we can and get the pit stops and strategy right. Everything will come to us after that. If we are champions in Monza, then great. But we are not going in with that mindset. We are going to do our best and trying to win.”
2023 FIA World Endurance Championship – GTE Am (After four of seven events)
Driver Standings
1. Ben Keating/Nicky Catsburg/Nico Varrone – 133
2. Ahmad Al Harthy/Charlie Eastwood/Michael Dinan – 59
3. Michelle Gatting/Rahel Frey/Sarah Bovy – 56
4. Francesco Castellacci/Thomas Flohr/Davide Rigon – 47
• 1: As in one team, one manufacturer and one model of car for 25 years of racing: Corvette Racing, Chevrolet and the Chevrolet Corvette
• 3: Generations of Corvette Racing entries at CTMP since 2000 – Corvette C5-R (2004), Corvette C6.R (2005-13) and Corvette C7.R (2016-2019). The Corvette C8.R raced at the track for the first time last season.
• 3: Number of GTE Am wins in four FIA WEC races this season for Nicky Catsburg, Ben Keating and Nico Varrone with the No. 33 Corvette C8.R.
• 6: Hours difference between the IMSA team competing at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park and the Corvette Racing WEC team competing at Monza on the same days.
• 7: Number of drivers who have won races at CTMP for Corvette Racing. Johnny O’Connell (six), Jan Magnussen (five), Oliver Gavin (four), Ron Fellows (three) and Olivier Beretta (two) each have multiple wins there with the team.
• 7: Pole positions for Corvette Racing drivers at CTMP. Oliver Gavin leads with three with Antonio Garcia (2016) being the most recent.
• 11: Class victories at Corvette Racing at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park – all since 2001.
• 14: Manufacturer Championships for Chevrolet and Corvette Racing since 2001
• 27: Tracks at which Corvette Racing has won races – Baltimore, Charlotte Motor Speedway, COTA, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park/Mosport, Daytona, Detroit, Houston, Laguna Seca, Le Mans, Lime Rock, Long Beach, Miami, Mid-Ohio, Monza, Portimão, Portland, Road America, Road Atlanta, Sebring, Sonoma, St. Petersburg, Texas, Trois Rivieres, Utah, VIR, Washington DC and Watkins Glen
• 34: Number of drivers for Corvette Racing since 1999. Ben Keating and Nico Varrone joined that list with their participation – and victory – in the 1,000 Miles of Sebring for the World Endurance Championship.
• 125: Victories worldwide for Corvette Racing – 113 in North America, nine at Le Mans – including two weeks ago – and three in the FIA WEC.
• 275: Event starts by Corvette Racing since 1999.
• 11,080.25: Number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing in its 20 previous trips to Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. That represents 4,506 laps.
• 358,144.93: Total number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing since its inception. To put that in perspective, Corvette Racing is more than halfway to the distance traveled by Apollo 13 – the longest manned spaceflight in history: 622,268 miles. That means Corvette Racing has raced to the moon… and then some!
Corvette Racing at Monza (wins in bold)
2022
No. 64 Corvette C8.R: Tommy Milner/Nick Tandy – 1st in GTE Pro
CORVETTE RACING AT CTMP: Jordan Taylor Zoom Transcript
Media Q&A ahead of Chevrolet Grand Prix and team’s lone Canadian stop
Corvette Racing’s Jordan Taylor was part of a media Zoom today to talk about next week’s Chevrolet Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park and the sixth round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. He will team with Antonio Garcia in the No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R, which raced at CTMP for the first time a year ago. The duo finished third in the GTD PRO class last weekend at the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen
JORDAN TAYLOR, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R
ON THE FOLLOWING AND SUPPORT OF CORVETTE RACING AT CANADIAN TIRE MOTORSPORT PARK.
“It’s always a big weekend for us. Obviously being the Chevrolet Grand Prix, there’s a lot of Chevy supporters and Corvette supporters. The Corvette Corral that we have there every year is massive. It’s always exciting for us. Corvette Racing has 11 wins there over the year with the last one being in 2014. So we’re due for another win there. It’s been awhile, and last year we finished second. I feel like this year we’re a little bit stronger compared to this time last year when we first entered GTD PRO. This past weekend was a little bit of a struggle at Watkins Glen, but I don’t see why we can’t be a little bit closer to the front next weekend. It’s a big weekend for Corvette and Chevrolet every year we go there, and they are true sports car fans when we go north of the border.”
DOES THE MOVE TO CORVETTE RACING BY PRATT MILLER MOTORSPORTS FOR NEXT YEAR IN GT3 CHANGE ANYTHING FOR YOU AS A DRIVER?
“We kind of knew this was coming over the past year or two with the class going to GT3 and a customer-based program. Our history has always been in the GTLM and GTE classes, so with it going to GT3 it makes sense to rename it how they did. For me, it doesn’t change a whole lot. It’s still run by Pratt Miller. Corvette Racing always had Pratt Miller behind the scenes running the program from their shop in Michigan. Now it’s all going to be the same guys running the program. We deal with the same exact people on the management and contract side, so from the drivers perspective it changes nothing. The only thing that changes for us as Corvette drivers is that there will be more Corvettes on the track that we have to race with. It’s going to be interesting to see how it is. Obviously it makes it trickier when there are more cars on track in your class of car. But I think it’s great for the brand. There are so many Corvette fans in sports car racing worldwide that now going to this GT3 platform, we can see them racing at Le Mans, Nürburgring, Bathurst, Spa… it’s available to go anywhere now. For me, that’s super exciting to see. Obviously we’ve been locked down to IMSA and WEC the last few years. But with this new class for us, it opens things up a lot for drivers. I’m not sure what it holds for us as drivers, but for sure it would be cool to mix in some of these other races. You see other manufactures have their drivers going to Bathurst around Daytona time, Nürburgring around Le Mans time and Spa coming up this weekend. It would be cool to add some of those races to our calendar. I know a lot of guys in the Corvette stable are looking forward to that.”
HOW TOUGH IS TO TURN REALLY FAST LAPS AT A TRACK LIKE THIS THAT IS SO DAUNTING?
“It’s a place where you need a lot of confidence in yourself and in your car. If you’re lacking any of that, it’s definitely going to show up at a place like this. It’s nice that it’s in the middle of the season. I’d say that if this was the first race of the year when you’re getting back in the swing of things, it would be quite a shock to the system to get up to speed there. It’s always nice to have it back-to-back with Watkins Glen where you’ve come from a high-speed track, you’ve done six hours in your car and you kind of know the limits of it so when you get to CTMP, you’re mostly ready to go. It’s a high-risk, high-reward type of place especially when it comes to traffic. Having driven there in prototypes and now GT cars, you kind of see the perspective from both sides and see how much you can gain or lose in those situations. That definitely ramps up the intensity, especially the last hour of the race when guys don’t want to wait around. I’m sure it will be another classic IMSA fight all race long.”
THERE ARE SIX RACES STILL TO GO. WHAT DO YOU NEED TO DO IN ORDER TO TRACK DOWN THE 14?
“We’ve had a pretty good year. Other than Sebring when we got knocked off the track and our penalty at Laguna Seca, it’s been a pretty flawless season. At Daytona, we had a flawless race and finished second. At Long Beach, we had a good fight and had the third-fastest car and finished second. This weekend (at Watkins Glen), we had the fifth-fastest car and finished third. I feel like we are kind nailing our races pretty really and calling super-strong strategies. Our guys in the pits have been doing an unbelievable job on pit stops to jump guys when we can. Everything is going well – we just need to tick that last little box. Hopefully this weekend we can get it done.”
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE SPEED DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE GTP CARS TO THE GTD CARS WILL BE LIKE?
“It’s made it a little tricker in traffic to understand the capabilities of the GTP cars. We’re still used to DPis coming by us, and they used to fly by us in a lot of spots. You can tell guys are a little more hesitant with some of their moves especially with their tire allocation now; if they’re double-stinting their tires, they can be quite slow in some of the corners. At Sebring in some of the medium-speed corners, they’d be slower than us if we were on new tires. I’m not sure what their allocation is for next week for race stints, but I’d say if they are on a second stint on tires, they’ll struggle to get by us in some spots where they usually fly by us. It’s something for sure to think about and learn. It’s definitely a new challenge to figure out where they can pass you and where you need to defend. You can tell when they’re getting frustrated or they know certain spots where they need to get by or else they’re going to get stuck is where they start getting aggressive because they don’t want to wait around either. Understanding that is a big part of it so hopefully we’ll have a good amount of practice to get an understanding.”
WITH THE DYNAMICS BETWEEN GTP AND GTD PRO, IS THERE MORE PRESSURE RACING FOR WINS AND CHAMPIONSHIPS BECAUSE THE PERFORMANCE DIFFERENCES ARE UNDERSTOOD?
“For us, we haven’t won since Sebring 2022. If there are any openings to get a win, we’re definitely going to pounce at it. At the same time, we’re still racing for a championship and there is still a long way to go. If we have a third-place car, we need to finish second or third and not take a risk to finish fifth. Our race is against the Lexus at this point, so we might strategize a little bit around those guys to maybe make some moves.”
IS THERE A PART OF THE TRACK THAT’S HARD TO GET RIGHT EVERY TIME, AND IS THERE A FAVORITE SECTION?
“Turn Three. There’s also a bump on entry which makes it tricky to have a lot of confidence to attack. I’d say the best part about it is the flow between Turn One and Turn Two. It’s an amazing sequence of corners with blind entries and lots of elevation change. The fans in general at CTMP are also always special. I can’t remember what year – maybe 2017 or 2018 – but I went out to Turn Three and Turn Four to watch and the fans that camp there just love sports car racing. Not all tracks have authentic fans like that, so it’s always cool to see fans who have been going back since back in the day when old-school drivers and old-school cars were racing around there.”
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Podium finish in wild Sahlen’s Six Hours for Garcia, Taylor, No. 3 C8.R
CORVETTE RACING AT WATKINS GLEN: Third… Against All Odds
Podium finish in wild Sahlen’s Six Hours for Garcia, Taylor, No. 3 C8.R
WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. (June 25, 2023) – Corvette Racing’s Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor recorded their third podium finish of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season Sunday in the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen.
The duo drove the No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R to a third-place finish in GT Daytona (GTD) PRO, an improvement of three spots from their sixth-place starting position. Garcia and Taylor inched up a spot in the class Drivers Championship to third after five races.
Despite two penalties and a pace deficit to the class front-runners, Garcia found himself leading inside the final 30 minutes thanks to some great strategic calls, fuel-saving and maximizing performance out of the No. 3 Corvette. Nevertheless, the C8.R team left Watkins Glen encouraged with a solid points day.
Three early full-course yellows and a pace deficit made it tough to establish a rhythm early. The Corvette pit crew did its part, however, and jumped three cars on the first pit stop at the 46-minute mark to move Taylor to fourth on the restart.
Unfortunately for the Corvette squad, IMSA officials penalized the No. 3 team after the No. 23 Aston Martin drove through the Corvette’s pitbox and hit a tire that clearly was inside the C8.R’s pit space. The Corvette team provided the series with evidence that its tire was within the pitbox boundary, but the penalty stood.
That knocked Taylor down one position in class but well down the order in the overall GTD category. Undeterred, he battled back through the slower traffic and passed eight GT cars prior to the halfway mark. Misfortune struck again as officials required the No. 3 Corvette to stop about seven laps early due to a faulty tire pressure sensor.
The team elected to make the change from Taylor to Garcia, who was in the Corvette for the final three-plus hours.
Despite the setback, the No. 3 Corvette cycled back up to fourth in class and gained back a considerable amount of track position due to the race’s fourth full-course yellow with a little more than two hours to go. That caution period moved Garcia to third when the No. 63 Lamborghini was caught up in a prototype crash that necessitated the full-course yellow.
Garcia gained another spot when the then-second place Aston Martin had to pit to correct a tire pressure problem. The Corvette crew called him in with 62 minutes remaining – on the same lap as the class-leading No. 14 Lexus. However, it had to serve a penalty for a drive-through penalty, which elevated Garcia to the lead.
It was a small lead, though, as the No. 14 re-emerged from the pitlane with 59 minutes left and right on the Corvette. Forced to save fuel and hold off the No. 14 and the hard-charger No. 62 Ferrari, Garcia did a masterful job keeping the two challengers at bay before they found their way past with a little more than 30 minutes left.
Corvette Racing’s next event in GTD PRO is the Chevrolet Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park on Sunday, July 9.
ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: “Corvette Racing has always been good at Watkins Glen. We usually are quite decent there, and it seems like we always have a chance in this race. Watkins Glen is a track that I’ve always liked, and it’s always good to turn laps there. Being part of the Michelin Endurance Cup adds something extra for us. We are in contention in that and in the regular championship, so this weekend has added importance. This is six hours, so it’s one of those races that has something extra for the competitors.”
JORDAN TAYLOR, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: “It feels like we haven’t been at the track in months since Laguna, so it’ll be great to get back to racing at Watkins Glen. We didn’t have the fastest car there last year, but we somehow found ourselves in contention. I feel like we’ve made some big gains this season that should benefit us there. We haven’t had the results to show our true performance this year, so hopefully we can have a clean weekend and start getting back into the championship fight.”
CORVETTE RACING AT WATKINS GLEN: Looking for the Way Forward
Fifth in GTD PRO, ninth in GTD category for No. 3 Corvette
WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. (June 24, 2023) – Corvette Racing will roll off from the third row of the GTD PRO grid Sunday for the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen – the fifth round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship – following a challenging qualifying session Saturday.
Jordan Taylor drove the No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R in the 15-minute session and posted a best lap time of 1:46.168 (115.288 mph) to start the race fifth in class and ninth among all GTD cars. He’ll drive Sunday with Antonio Garcia as the duo looks for its second victory in the Six Hours in three years.
It was a tough qualifying in a couple of ways. The ultimate pace of the Corvette has it nearly two seconds off the overall GTD pole-winning Lamborghini, which took three of the top six positions. The track also was partially dry and partially wet with rain impacting both prototype sessions after the GTD qualifying concluded.
The No. 3 Corvette team and its drivers sit fourth in GTD PRO points after four rounds. They are second, however, in the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup standings following long-distance races at Daytona and Sebring. The IMEC is a four-race championship made up of the Rolex 24 At Daytona, Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, Watkins Glen and the 10-hour Petit Le Mans to end the season.
At The Glen, points are earned at three and six hours with strategic decisions factoring in for both points in the IMEC as well as the regular class championship.
The Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen is scheduled for 10:40 a.m. ET on Sunday, June 25 and airs live on USA from 2 to 5 p.m. ET with full streaming coverage on Peacock beginning at 10:30 a.m. ET. IMSA Radio will have live audio coverage on XM 207, SiriusXM Online 992 and IMSA.com, which will have IMSA Radio coverage.
JORDAN TAYLOR, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: “You always want to be competing at the front. I feel like we haven’t qualified well here in a couple of years now, so it’s all down to race pace, strategies and pit stops. It’s a good thing our guys are always strong at that, but it’s always a little demoralizing leaving a qualifying session almost two seconds off the pace. I don’t think we’ve forgotten how to drive or set up a car. It felt good, there’s just no laptime in it.”
2023 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship – GTD PRO (After four of 11 events)
Driver Standings
1. Ben Barnicoat/Jack Hawksworth – 1,415
2. Daniel Juncadella/Jules Gounon – 1,374
3. Klaus Bachler/Patrick Pilet – 1,324
4. Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor – 1,297
5. Alex Riberas/Ross Gunn – 1,136
Team Standings
1. No. 14 Vasser Sullivan – 1,415
2. No. 79 WeatherTech Racing – 1,374
3. No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports – 1,324
4. No. 3 Corvette Racing – 1,297
5. No. 23 Heart of Racing Team – 1,136
Manufacturer Standings
1. Lexus – 1,415
2. Mercedes-AMG – 1,374
3. Porsche – 1,324
4. Chevrolet – 1,297
5. Aston Martin – 1,146
CORVETTE RACING AT WATKINS GLEN: By the Numbers
• 1: As in one team, one manufacturer and one model of car for 25 years of racing: Corvette Racing, Chevrolet and the Chevrolet Corvette
• 2: Wins at Watkins Glen International in 2021 for Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor: the Sahlen’s Six Hours and the WeatherTech 240 in consecutive weeks
• 2: Wins and pole positions in the Sahlen’s Six Hours for Antonio Garcia. He won GTLM in 2014 and 2021 and was the GTLM pole-sitter in 2019 and 2021
• 3: Victories at Watkins Glen for Corvette Racing since its debut there in 2014: 2014 and 2021 Sahlen’s Six Hours, and 2021 WeatherTech 240
• 5: Consecutive podium finishes for Antonio Garcia at Watkins Glen from 2017-2021
• 9: Class victories for Corvette Racing at Le Mans – all since 2001. Ben Keating and Nico Varrone from this year’s GTE Am-winning Corvette are entered in separate entries at Watkins Glen
• 14: Manufacturer Championships for Chevrolet and Corvette Racing since 2001
• 18: Victories for Chevrolet in the Sahlen’s Six Hours, ranking second among all manufacturers
• 27: Tracks at which Corvette Racing has won races – Baltimore, Charlotte Motor Speedway, COTA, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park/Mosport, Daytona, Detroit, Houston, Laguna Seca, Le Mans, Lime Rock, Long Beach, Miami, Mid-Ohio, Monza, Portimão, Portland, Road America, Road Atlanta, Sebring, Sonoma, St. Petersburg, Texas, Trois Rivieres, Utah, VIR, Washington DC and Watkins Glen
• 34: Number of drivers for Corvette Racing since 1999. Ben Keating and Nico Varrone joined that list with their participation – and victory – in the 1,000 Miles of Sebring for the World Endurance Championship.
• 125: Victories worldwide for Corvette Racing – 113 in North America, nine at Le Mans – including two weeks ago – and three in the FIA WEC.
• 274: Event starts by Corvette Racing since 1999.
• 8,976: Number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing in its nine previous trips to Watkins Glen. That represents 2,640 laps… or 1,360 laps around the original Watkins Glen historic circuit.
• 357,522.73: Total number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing since its inception. To put that in perspective, Corvette Racing is more than halfway to the distance traveled by Apollo 13 – the longest manned spaceflight in history: 622,268 miles. That means Corvette Racing has raced to the moon… and then some!
Corvette Racing at Watkins Glen (wins in bold)
2014
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Antonio Garcia/Jan Magnussen – 1st in GTLM (Team’s first race at Watkins Glen)
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 4th in GTLM
2015
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Antonio Garcia/Jan Magnussen – 4th in GTLM
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 7th in GTLM (Ret., Accident)
2016
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Antonio Garcia/Jan Magnussen – 7th in GTLM
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 4th in GTLM
2017
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Antonio Garcia/Jan Magnussen – 3rd in GTLM
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 5th in GTLM
2018
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Antonio Garcia/Jan Magnussen – 2nd in GTLM
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 5th in GTLM
2019
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Antonio Garcia/Jan Magnussen – 2nd in GTLM (Garcia pole, fastest race lap)
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 8th in GTLM (Accident on first lap)
2021
No. 3 Corvette C8.R: Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor – 1st in GTLM (Garcia pole)
No. 4 Corvette C8.R: Tommy Milner/Nick Tandy – 4th in GTLM (Tandy fastest race lap)
2021*
No. 3 Corvette C8.R: Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor – 1st in GTLM (Taylor pole, fastest race lap)
No. 4 Corvette C8.R: Tommy Milner/Nick Tandy – 2nd in GTLM
2022
No. 3 Corvette C8.R: Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor – 6th in GTD PRO
Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Press Conference Transcript
Oicials met with members of the media Friday at Watkins Glen International to announce the Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports GTD PRO program for the 2024 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s GT Daytona (GTD) PRO class:
Christie Bagne, Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R Program Manager
Brandon Widmer, Vice President, Pratt Miller Motorsports
Marc Maurini, Corvette Racing Program Director, Pratt Miller Motorsports
Full transcript:
CHRISTIE, THIS IS A BIG DAY FOR EVERYONE AT CHEVROLET AND PRATT MILLER.
C. Bagne: “We’re proud to announce that next year in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, we will be running two Corvette Z06 http://GT3.Rs" target="_blank">GT3.Rs in GTD PRO as Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports. We’re looking forward to working with the same team that has designed and built these GT3 cars, knows them intimately and will now be racing the cars in IMSA. We’re looking forward to this program benefitting our entire customer program as this team races these cars, learns about them and efficiently transfers those learnings into the customer race program in order to elevate the level of all Z06 http://GT3.Rs" target="_blank">GT3.Rs on the grid globally.”
THIS IS NOT THE ONLY TEAM RUNNING CORVETTES NEXT YEAR?
C. Bagne: “You can look forward to more team announcements next summer. We’re continuing to target four cars on the grid in IMSA at the Rolex 24 and throughout the season, as well as two cars in the FIA WEC and two Corvettes in SRO Motorsports America.”
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR PRATT MILLER MOTORSPORTS GOING FORWARD?
B. Widmer: “It’s definitely a very exciting day for us at Pratt Miller Motorsports. For us, it’s the next chapter in a very storied history with Corvette Racing, this year being the 25th season of racing continuously. The relationship will continue very strongly with Chevrolet and everyone at Corvette. We’ll continue to work with all the great folks on the engine side from Chevrolet as well, plus all the technical partners that we’ve worked with for many years. For us on the way we will operate, it will be very similar to what we’ve done for many years at Pratt Miller Motorsports – running out of New Hudson, Michigan. We’ll be back with a two-car effort in IMSA, which will be welcomed by a lot of our friends in North America who ask us at every race why there is only one car. Certainly we are enjoying our time in the World Endurance Championship, as well, and having a lot of great success there. But we’re very excited to have two cars running in GTD PRO here in IMSA next year.”
CAN YOU GIVE A SENSE OF WHERE TESTING AND DEVELOPMENT FOR THE Z06 GT3.R IS RIGHT NOW?
M. Maurini: “Currently the car is undergoing final homologation in Europe. We have a group of individuals from both Pratt Miller and Chevrolet who are supporting that… a lot of the same folks that you'd typically see in both the IMSA paddock and the WEC paddock. It’s a pretty matrixed team from the crews to the engineers, as well. Regarding the testing, the car has gone through a pretty extensive testing and development program. We’ve tried to take all the learnings from the past 25 years of Corvette Racing and apply that to the test program. The car has run more than 5,500 miles on tracks varying from Daytona, Sebring, Mid-Ohio and Road Atlanta, and we have two additional track tests upcoming in the next 30 days. We’re proud to be able to present a car that is at the top level of sports cars and, as just announced, we’re proud to be racing it ourselves, as well.”
LOOKING BACK A LITTLE BIT, HOW SPECIAL WAS THE WIN AT LE MANS?
M. Maurini: “That was a pretty big effort by the entire team. I’m really proud of everyone at Chevrolet and Pratt Miller to be able to get the job done and get the victory with the C8.R and the ninth one for Corvette Racing. It was a year’s worth of effort to get there. The 2022 race didn’t end the way hoped, so to go back in 2023 and get the victory was a job well done by everyone involved.”B. Widmer: “I’ve been quite a few times at Le Mans, and we’ve had a lot of success there and a lot of ups and downs. This year, it felt like all those emotions were rolled into one race. We had a fantastic season leading up to Le Mans in leading the championship with two wins and a second-place. So we felt really confident going into the race. We showed great pace, but we also had some challenges. We had a crash a few minutes before the end of practice Wednesday. The team rallied and scrambled to get the car back together and we were able to get a few laps in during qualifying to get us into Hyperpole, then we went out and set the fastest lap time to start the race in first. We had a good race going for the first hour and 35 minutes but had to pull the car in the garage for some suspension repair. The guys did a phenomenal job, but we still lost around nine minutes so there was a lot of digging to do. Between the execution, the strategy, the driving in some challenging conditions from wet to dry. … It was quite an emotional one to overcome all that adversity and go out and win the 100th anniversary of the race with the C8.R. It was an amazing day for the team. It definitely ranks up there at the top as one of the greatest wins we’ve had.”
C. Bagne: “This whole team worked together so well as they’ve done in the WEC to overcome that adversity. It was a well-deserved win for the team and important for the legacy of the C8.R program. The C5-R won at Le Mans, the C6.R won at Le Mans, the C7.R won at Le Mans and we fought so hard to for that win with the C8.R. Last year obviously was very challenging for the team, so it’s a testament to the strength of this team that every time you throw adversarial events at them, they just dig deeper. Everyone came together, rallied like Brandon said in the week leading up to the event and in the race. It definitely was an emotional win for all of us.”
GM AND PRATT MILLER HAVE BEEN INTERTWINED FOR 25 YEARS. CAN YOU CLARIFY THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THIS ARRANGEMENT AND A FULL FACTORY TEAM?
C. Bagne: “As we move into the GT3 space, in general there are often other commercial partners working teams in GT3. This is an opportunity for us to expand our presence, expand the Corvette Racing umbrella, bring in more customer teams and have more Corvettes on the grid for our fans. It’s also an opportunity for Pratt Miller Motorsports to expand their commercial opportunities, whereas in the past it’s been a fully controlled GM program.”
B. Widmer: “For us, it’s a new chapter. We’ve been quite happy being the name behind the scenes and the Corvette Racing name in the forefront. We spent quite a bit of time with the Chevrolet folks on what this team name should be. It sounds pretty simple, but Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports actually took a lot of time. For us, it’s important to have that continuation of the heritage of Corvette Racing and all the success we’ve had collectively for the last 25 years, but also put the Pratt Miller Motorsports name out there as well in the headlines. As Christie said, we’ll be bringing on commercial partners to help with the program. It’s a great opportunity for our company directly and for partners that have shown interest in the past and maybe those opportunities just weren’t quite there with the way the program was structured. For us, it’s not only a new chapter with the new GT3 car but it’s also a new chapter for our business as well. We’re excited with how it’s structured and how we are moving forward.”
IS THERE A CONSCIOUS EFFORT TO MAKE PRATT MILLER MORE OF A HOUSEHOLD NAME OUTSIDE OF ITS CONNECTION TO GM?
B. Widmer: “We started in motorsports and we’ll be in motorsports as long as we can. But we have been sort of the silent partner in the background, so for us part of the excitement is to get the name out there a little more. We have other divisions within the company outside of motorsports. Motorsports is a great platform for us to market those other segments, to attract talent and retain talent, and also technology transfer. Obviously technology has transferred with GM and Chevrolet for many years on the Corvette Racing program. It’s always been the case behind the scenes with our other business segments as well in terms of tools and processes, not necessarily the hard parts coming off the racecars. So absolutely this gives us the opportunity to expand the brand and name for Pratt Miller as a whole and certainly for Pratt Miller Motorsports.”
Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Set for 2024 Debut
New factory-supported program is first confirmed for new Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R
WATKINS GLEN, NY (June 23, 2023) – Chevrolet and Pratt Miller Motorsports officials announced today the formation of a program that will lead competition and development efforts with the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R – Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports.
Starting with the 2024 Rolex 24 At Daytona, Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports will campaign a pair of the new-for-2024, GT3-spec Corvettes for a full season in the GT Daytona (GTD) PRO category of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
The factory-supported effort is the first of two 2024 WeatherTech Championship programs that feature the Corvette Z06 GT3.R with additional customer programs set to announce in the coming weeks. Drivers for the GTD PRO effort will be announced at a later date, as well.
The link-up between Chevrolet and Pratt Miller Motorsports (PMM) is a natural fit. The current full-factory Corvette Racing program is in the midst of its 25th season with 125 race victories to date, the most recent coming at the 24 Hours of Le Mans for the team’s ninth class win at the famed French classic. Also for the second year in a row, Corvette Racing has programs in both IMSA and the FIA World Endurance Championship with the Corvette C8.R, now in its final season of competition.
“Chevrolet and Pratt Miller have collaborated for more than 25 years on the Corvette Racing program, and we are thrilled that we are able to continue together into the GT3 era,” said Christie Bagne, Corvette Z06 GT3.R Program Manager.
Corvette Z06 GT3.R customer teams will compete under the umbrella of Corvette Racing, which also will include customer and technical support to help carry on the tradition of Corvette Racing excellence that began in 1999.
With an eye toward the future, Chevrolet Motorsports Competition Engineering and Pratt Miller began planning more than two years ago for the Corvette GT3 era. Pratt Miller – located in New Hudson, Michigan – is the constructor of the Z06 GT3.R. Pratt Miller engineers have worked hand-in-hand with Chevrolet Motorsports engineers on development, build and testing to date. With Pratt Miller dedicated to chassis builds and engineering on the Z06 GT3.R, GM Propulsion Performance and Racing Center in Pontiac, Michigan, also has been busy with development and refinements on the 5.5-liter, flat-plane crankshaft DOHC LT6 V8 engine that will power the racecar.
The LT6 engine for the Z06 GT3.R originates from the Performance Build Center in Bowling Green, the same line on which all production Corvette Z06 engines are built. The racing engines are delivered to the Performance and Racing Center where they are fitted with certain race-specific components.
The 5.5-liter powerplant shares more than 70 percent of its parts with the production Z06 engine, including the crankshaft, connecting rods, cylinder heads, fuel injectors, coils, gaskets and a variety of other sensors.
“It makes sense to have Corvette Racing with Pratt Miller Motorsports lead the competition element of the Z06 GT3.R program in the GTD PRO championship starting in 2024,” Bagne said. “We couldn’t have a better representative than the same group that has been part of the development, build and testing processes for our new Corvette racecar. The learnings we will take from testing and competition will flow to our other Z06 GT3.R customer teams to ensure that the Corvette brand is a championship contender around the world.”
Since September of last year, Corvette Racing and Pratt Miller have accumulated nearly 9,000 kilometers (5,500 miles) with the Corvette Z06 GT3.R. The car currently is undergoing its final homologation testing in Europe with additional testing planned for the summer and fall to fine-tune the Z06 GT3.R to multiple brands of tires for use across an array of championships around the world. “This is an exciting time for everyone at Pratt Miller,” said Brandon Widmer, Pratt Miller Vice President, Motorsports. “We’ve experienced a lot of successes, race wins and championships with Chevrolet through the Corvette Racing program. Now we move into the GT3 era. Everyone is pleased with the progress of our testing and development programs, and new car builds are under way.
“We’re appreciative of the decades-long relationship with Chevrolet. Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports is looking forward to continue showing our expertise in race operations and management to our fans, our commercial partners and new prospects as we go forward.”
This Sunday, Pratt Miller Motorsports will be live streaming their alternative broadcast for the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen. The first streaming event of its kind by a motorsports team was piloted two weeks ago during the 24 Hours of LeMans and was extremely well received…this time Luke and Brad will provide commentary, insight, interviews, and team communications for the IMSA race at WGI. An ideal viewing experience includes watching the main feed from Peacock on a primary screen and then pulling up the Pratt Miller Motorsports alternative broadcast on a second screen (phone, laptop, tablet, etc) and then adjusting the volume to hear how the Yellow Corvette is doing throughout the entire event. Link is in the bio as this alternative broadcast will be streamed on Facebook, YouTube, Twitch and Twitter. Thanks for watching along and don’t forget to ask questions in the chat during the broadcast!
CORVETTE RACING AT WATKINS GLEN: Back on Track First race in more than a month for GTD PRO contending team, drivers
DETROIT (June 21, 2023) – Corvette Racing’s team in the FIA World Endurance Championship is coming off an epic endurance victory. Now it’s time for the program’s squad in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship to try and follow suit.
Antonio Garcia, Jordan Taylor and the rest of the No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R race team resume its push for the IMSA GT Daytona (GTD) PRO title this weekend with the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen. The event is the first for the team since mid-May and starts a stretch of four races in seven weekends – a run that will largely determine this year’s GTD PRO champions.
Corvette Racing has three victories at Watkins Glen, including two in the Sahlen’s Six Hours. Last year’s race was the first at Watkins Glen for the team in the GT3-based GTD PRO class, which provided plenty of lessons for this year’s return visit.
Both Garcia and Taylor are past winners at the Glen. They won together in 2021 – both the Six Hours of a two-hour, 40-minute sprint race – with Garcia also winning in 2014 with Jan Magnussen. The rapid Spaniard also is a two-time pole winner at The Glen (2019 and 2021 Six Hours) while his American teammate was the pole winner and set the fastest race lap in the ’21 sprint race.
Corvette Racing Media Advisory Corvette Racing will hold a press conference on its future plans in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship at 11:15 a.m. ET on Friday, June 23 in the Watkins Glen Media Center Deadline Room.
The No. 3 Corvette team and its drivers sit fourth in GTD PRO points after four rounds. They are second, however, in the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup standings following long-distance races at Daytona and Sebring. The IMEC is a four-race championship made up of the Rolex 24 At Daytona, Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, Watkins Glen and the 10-hour Petit Le Mans to end the season.
At The Glen, points are earned at three and six hours with strategic decisions factoring in for both points in the IMEC as well as the regular class championship. In the Sebring round Garcia, Taylor and endurance teammate Tommy Milner scored the most points of any driving competition in GTD PRO.
The Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen is scheduled for 10:40 a.m. ET on Sunday, June 25 and airs live on USA from 2 to 5 p.m. ET with full streaming coverage on Peacock beginning at 10:30 a.m. ET. IMSA Radio will have live audio coverage on XM 207, SiriusXM Online 992 and IMSA.com, which will have IMSA Radio coverage of all practice sessions, Saturday’s qualifying and Sunday’s race.
ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: “Corvette Racing has always been good at Watkins Glen. We usually are quite decent there, and it seems like we always have a chance in this race. Watkins Glen is a track that I’ve always liked, and it’s always good to turn laps there. Being part of the Michelin Endurance Cup adds something extra for us. We are in contention in that and in the regular championship, so this weekend has added importance. This is six hours, so it’s one of those races that has something extra for the competitors.”
JORDAN TAYLOR, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: “It feels like we haven’t been at the track in months since Laguna, so it’ll be great to get back to racing at Watkins Glen. We didn’t have the fastest car there last year, but we somehow found ourselves in contention. I feel like we’ve made some big gains this season that should benefit us there. We haven’t had the results to show our true performance this year, so hopefully we can have a clean weekend and start getting back into the championship fight.”
2023 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship – GTD PRO (After four of 11 events) Driver Standings 1. Ben Barnicoat/Jack Hawksworth – 1,415 2. Daniel Juncadella/Jules Gounon – 1,374 3. Klaus Bachler/Patrick Pilet – 1,324 4. Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor – 1,297 5. Alex Riberas/Ross Gunn – 1,136
Team Standings 1. No. 14 Vasser Sullivan – 1,415 2. No. 79 WeatherTech Racing – 1,374 3. No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports – 1,324 4. No. 3 Corvette Racing – 1,297 5. No. 23 Heart of Racing Team – 1,136
Manufacturer Standings 1. Lexus – 1,415 2. Mercedes-AMG – 1,374 3. Porsche – 1,324 4. Chevrolet – 1,297 5. Aston Martin – 1,146
CORVETTE RACING AT WATKINS GLEN: By the Numbers • 1: As in one team, one manufacturer and one model of car for 25 years of racing: Corvette Racing, Chevrolet and the Chevrolet Corvette • 2: Wins at Watkins Glen International in 2021 for Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor: the Sahlen’s Six Hours and the WeatherTech 240 in consecutive weeks • 2: Wins and pole positions in the Sahlen’s Six Hours for Antonio Garcia. He won GTLM in 2014 and 2021 and was the GTLM pole-sitter in 2019 and 2021 • 3: Victories at Watkins Glen for Corvette Racing since its debut there in 2014: 2014 and 2021 Sahlen’s Six Hours, and 2021 WeatherTech 240 • 5: Consecutive podium finishes for Antonio Garcia at Watkins Glen from 2017-2021 • 9: Class victories for Corvette Racing at Le Mans – all since 2001. Ben Keating and Nico Varrone from this year’s GTE Am-winning Corvette are entered in separate entries at Watkins Glen • 14: Manufacturer Championships for Chevrolet and Corvette Racing since 2001 • 18: Victories for Chevrolet in the Sahlen’s Six Hours, ranking second among all manufacturers • 27: Tracks at which Corvette Racing has won races – Baltimore, Charlotte Motor Speedway, COTA, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park/Mosport, Daytona, Detroit, Houston, Laguna Seca, Le Mans, Lime Rock, Long Beach, Miami, Mid-Ohio, Monza, Portimão, Portland, Road America, Road Atlanta, Sebring, Sonoma, St. Petersburg, Texas, Trois Rivieres, Utah, VIR, Washington DC and Watkins Glen • 34: Number of drivers for Corvette Racing since 1999. Ben Keating and Nico Varrone joined that list with their participation – and victory – in the 1,000 Miles of Sebring for the World Endurance Championship. • 125: Victories worldwide for Corvette Racing – 113 in North America, nine at Le Mans – including two weeks ago – and three in the FIA WEC. • 274: Event starts by Corvette Racing since 1999. • 8,976: Number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing in its nine previous trips to Watkins Glen. That represents 2,640 laps… or 1,360 laps around the original Watkins Glen historic circuit. • 357,522.73: Total number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing since its inception. To put that in perspective, Corvette Racing is more than halfway to the distance traveled by Apollo 13 – the longest manned spaceflight in history: 622,268 miles. That means Corvette Racing has raced to the moon… and then some!
Corvette Racing at Watkins Glen (wins in bold) 2014 No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Antonio Garcia/Jan Magnussen – 1st in GTLM (Team’s first race at Watkins Glen) No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 4th in GTLM
2015 No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Antonio Garcia/Jan Magnussen – 4th in GTLM No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 7th in GTLM (Ret., Accident)
2016 No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Antonio Garcia/Jan Magnussen – 7th in GTLM No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 4th in GTLM
2017 No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Antonio Garcia/Jan Magnussen – 3rd in GTLM No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 5th in GTLM
2018 No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Antonio Garcia/Jan Magnussen – 2nd in GTLM No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 5th in GTLM
2019 No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Antonio Garcia/Jan Magnussen – 2nd in GTLM (Garcia pole, fastest race lap) No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 8th in GTLM (Accident on first lap)
2021 No. 3 Corvette C8.R: Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor – 1st in GTLM (Garcia pole) No. 4 Corvette C8.R: Tommy Milner/Nick Tandy – 4th in GTLM (Tandy fastest race lap)
2021* No. 3 Corvette C8.R: Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor – 1st in GTLM (Taylor pole, fastest race lap) No. 4 Corvette C8.R: Tommy Milner/Nick Tandy – 2nd in GTLM
2022 No. 3 Corvette C8.R: Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor – 6th in GTD PRO
CORVETTE RACING AT LE MANS: WIN NO. 9… AT LONG LAST!
Stunning comeback story for No. 33 Corvette C8.R at Le Mans
• Keating, Catsburg, Varrone capture GTE Am class victory
• First win in the final Le Mans appearance for Corvette C8.R
• Crew, engineers, drivers come back from early two-lap deficit
LE MANS, France (June 11, 2023) – Corvette Racing has won the 24 Hours of Le Mans… again!
Nicky Catsburg, Ben Keating and Nico Varrone drove the No. 33 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R to the program’s ninth class victory at Le Mans and first for the mid-engine Corvette sports car.
The victorious trio won for the third time in the FIA World Endurance Championship this season and increased its points lead to sxx with three events and 91 remaining in the season.
“Corvette Racing has won Le Mans in class for the ninth time, and it is even more special during the centenary celebration of this race," said Mark Stielow, Chevrolet Director, Motorsports Competition Engineering. "The skill by the drivers, the strategic decisions by the engineers and the execution of the Corvette Racing pit crew all came together for this GTE Am victory in the final race at Le Mans for the Corvette C8.R. Congratulations to everyone at Corvette Racing!”
This weekend’s Le Mans marked the 23rd start of Corvette Racing’s successful run at Le Mans. Its last victory came in 2015 with the seventh-generation Corvette, although the mid-engine C8.R led each of the last two years. The 2022 race was particularly cruel as the No. 64 Corvette was knocked out of the race with six hours to go.
Keating captured pole position Thursday, the second time this year the Corvette started a WEC race out front. Disaster struck not long after as the Corvette crew had to replace the right-front damper after Catsburg, who started the race, radioed in that something didn’t feel right.
The service in the garage was a quick change but it still put the C8.R down two laps. Class pole-winner Keating – who got in the Corvette while the damper was still being fixed – began to claw back time before heavy rain pelted parts of the circuit.
Keating survived the deluge, and Corvette race engineers called him to the pitlane for wet tires. The race’s second safety car period came out moments later, giving the team hope of gaining a lap back because the C8.R would be ahead of the class leader in a train behind one of the three safety cars. For reasons unknown to the team, a group of cars – including the GTE Am leader – were allowed to exit pit lane before the next of the three safety cars came around. The mistake meant that the Corvette was trapped behind the class leader and couldn’t advance around the track to catch back up after all the safety car queues moved.
Undeterred, Varrone drove a speedy triple stint that saw him make up more than a half-lap on the field with times between four and seven seconds quicker than the rest of GTE Am.
The heroics continued into the overnight session as Keating drove a triple-stint in the middle of darkness and kept hope going for a miraculous turnaround. It eventually came – albeit gradually – through fast laps by all three drivers, quick decisions by the engineering team and fast pit stops by the Corvette Racing crew, which never had to bring the C8.R back in the garage, change brakes or do anything much beyond adding fuel and tires.
Daybreak saw the Corvette come alive as the gap came down to one lap, then two minutes, then less than 60 seconds as the drivers, crew and engineers worked their magic. Critically, the No. 33 C8.R gained a full pit-stop advantage over the other GTE Am contenders inside the final hours to give Corvette Racing a lead they didn’t relinquish the rest of the way.
Corvette Racing’s next event in the FIA WEC is the Six Hours of Monza – where it won a year ago in GTE Pro – on Sunday, July 9.
Corvette Racing media information in both English and French is updated and available ahead of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Materials include, Le Mans race advance and quotes, Corvette Racing stats and figures, Corvette Racing racecar comparisons, Corvette Racing Fast Facts and driver biographies
NICKY CATSBURG, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – GTE AM WINNER: “This is the one race that I wanted. Now I have all the big ones, so this is super awesome. Even yesterday afternoon, I didn’t think this was possible. But somehow we made it back to the front. These two guys drove unbelievably fast and all of a sudden we were back in contention and won with a massive lead. It’s an unbelievable feeling.
“I could see we were very fast. The only really worry was that I didn’t use our Bronze yet. But whenever we put him in the car, he’s just as fast as anyone else. All of a sudden, there was no deficit anymore.”
(Taking the finish at Le Mans): “This was awesome. I’ve never taken the finish here. I didn’t know it was so super-crazy on the in-lap, so that was nice. That it’s the 100th anniversary makes it special. That it’s the last year of GTE makes it extra special. That it’s the last year of the C8.R makes it extra special. I’m so happy for the whole team because I feel like we should have already won it in the years before. So it’s sweet for this to happen this year.”
BEN KEATING, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – GTE AM WINNER: “You can look at all the stats about it being the last year of GTE, the Centenary of Le Mans, the 25tth season of Corvette Racing, an American driver racing an American car with an American team… that even doesn’t do this justice. After the first hour when we had to replace the right-front damper, I thought there was no chance. Even when I went to sleep at midnight angry because we didn’t get our lap back because race control messed up, I thought it was over and I was so mad. To wake up and I think we were running in P4 a few hours later, I was baffled. I didn’t understand how in the world we were there. All of our strategy completely went out the window. We had everything lined up and planned exactly how we were going to do it. Nico got sick and I didn’t plan on doing any driving, and I ended up driving from 2 a.m. to 5 a.m. I didn’t plan on doing any driving in the rain, and I ended up having a stint in the rain. Everything got turned on its head. It turned out that it was exactly what we needed to get our laps back. The way we won it is special. To feel like it was out of reach and then watch this team claw back and get victory out defeat’s grasp was really special. It was really nice to feel like I was a part of that. It’s one of those deals where you can look at every member of the team on this win, and you know everyone contributed. That makes it special.”
NICO VARRONE, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – GTE AM WINNER: “I have no words even though it’s only just been an hour from the end. It’s just been incredible. Our race basically started two laps down early, but the team was so fast in managing to repair it. We went back out and had great pace and a great car. The Corvette Racing team, the engineers and strategy, my teammates Nicky – he’s a legend and did a lot of stints and was really quick – Ben – even though he’s a Bronze, he was flying – all of GM and Chevrolet, my family and everyone… there are a lot of people involved in this. It’s a dream come true.”
(On garage reception from the crew) "They are amazing. The support I get from them is great. It's like a family here. Every time I jump in the car or when I get out, they're always there hugging me. Even on the pit stop, they are telling me that I'm doing great. This is really good for a racing driver and for your feelings. It's great."
(Did you think you'd be in this position after your first stint?) "I thought it was OK and it's a long race and we would maybe have a chance. But it was really optimistic to think it would be like this. We are in this position and have to try to manage it and get to the end."
The drive back through the GTE Am field still under way
CORVETTE RACING AT LE MANS: Sixteen-Hour Update The drive back through the GTE Am field still under way
LE MANS, France (June 11, 2023) – Dawn broke at the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Corvette Racing continuing to scratch and claw and fight its way back onto the lead lap of the GTE Am category.
Ben Keating drove a triple-stint in the middle of the night, and Nico Varrone added a double as the sun came up at the Circuit de la Sarthe with the No. 33 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R and Nicky Catsburg running seventh in class. That was a far cry from 21st barely two hours in when the Corvette went into the garage to replace a broken right-front damper.
That and a safety car miscue by race officials – allowing a group of cars including the GTE Am leader leave the pit exit ahead of the Corvette instead of behind – put the C8.R down more than two laps, but solid driving by all three drivers before, during and out of the night had the Corvette charging toward the class leader and – finally – the lead lap.
The next Corvette Racing update will come after the race.
BEN KEATING, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: "I love doing long runs at Le Mans. I literally think I would do my whole six hours at once if they'd let me. I get into a groove then go and go and go. It's not a track that's super physical so I don't have a problem going a long time. I feel like doing a triple at Sebring is a big deal, but doing a triple here is no big deal. It's a weird year in terms of the rules. In the all the previous years with the old safety car rules, you never get a chance to make up a lap. I'd always do all of my drive time at the end of the race. Because of the new safety car rules, we decided to try and switch it around. Because of the rain, I did an hour and 15 minutes, and I didn't want any more! It felt like the car was really hard to drive. The plan was to wait until it got light on Sunday morning to use Nicky and Nico back-to-back-to back to get our lap back because when the sun comes up, I can be quicker than I can be quicker than I can at night. So it wasn't ideal but we did what we needed to do. Nico wasn't feeling good (after his first stint). The good news is he is feeling a lot better and is quick in the car. We're hanging around. At this point in time, you don't want to give up any time that you have to go give up. I think we would have been in a better position if I had done my drive time in the daylight, but we didn't have that luxury. We're rolling with the punches, and we'll see where that ends up."
NICO VARRONE, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: “It's nice out there. I started in the night and now we're in daylight, which is nice to see the sun come up and us back in this position. I think everyone is pushing and we are doing the same. We are pushing and have to catch up. There is no time to rest or time to do anything except go as fast as we can. Those were two good stints, I think. Our team has done a great job. We need to keep pushing and see where we end up.”
No. 33 C8.R driving back through field after early-race mechanical, safety car issues
CORVETTE RACING AT LE MANS: Six-Hour Update No. 33 C8.R driving back through field after early-race mechanical, safety car issues
LE MANS, France (June 10, 2023) – Corvette Racing on a mission – attempting to drive back through the field after a couple of issues in the opening quarter of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Ben Keating was back in for his second run the No. 33 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R, which ran 15th in the GTE Am class as the Centenary Le Mans race entered the seventh hour. Keating, Nico Varrone and starting driver Nicky Catsburg rotated through the Corvette as dusk began to fall on the 8.5-mile track.
Catsburg established a strong pace early from the lead before the first of two safety-car periods in the first six hours. The team elected to take fuel early to gain an advantage in the first stint and re-emerged in 12th. Disaster struck not long after as the Corvette crew had to replace the right-front damper after Catsburg radioed in that something didn’t feel right.
The service in the garage was a quick change but it still put the C8.R down two laps. Class pole-winner Keating – who got in the Corvette while the damper was still being fixed – began to claw back time before heavy rain pelted parts of the circuit.
Keating survived the deluge, and Corvette race engineers called him to the pitlane for wet tires. The race’s second safety car period came out moments later, giving the team hope of gaining a lap back because the C8.R would be ahead of the class leader in a train behind one of the three safety cars. For reasons unknown to the team, a group of cars – including the GTE Am leader – were allowed to exit pit lane before the next of the three safety cars came around. The mistake meant that the Corvette was trapped behind the class leader and couldn’t advance around the track to catch back up after all the safety car queues moved.
Undeterred, Varrone drove a speedy triple stint that saw him make up more than a half-lap on the field with times between four and seven seconds quicker than the rest of GTE Am.
The next Corvette Racing update is scheduled for 4 a.m. CT/10 p.m. ET.
NICKY CATSBURG, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: "It was very strange. Everything was going fine. The car was running great and was all good. Out of nowhere, prototypes passed me and after that I had a weird feeling. Maybe this was because I had to go off-line and had some pickup, but it wouldn't disappear. The car was moving around a lot and it wouldn't disappear. The car was moving around a lot under braking and at all speed. So I told the guys that I think we had an issue. When we got it into the pitlane, it was the damper and we lost two laps. The crew still did an awesome job and couldn't have done it quicker. It's really tough, though, to come back from this spot. It seems like a disastrous race with the safety cars. But our main competitors in the championship are out of the race, so even with zero points we will still lead the championship. So we need to focus and get as many points as possible. Maybe we can get back on the lead lap. I kind of doubt it, but we will never give. Let's see. The car is definitely fast, and everything went well. So I know we have a good car."
BEN KEATING, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: "We had a great start but also an unexpected mechanical issue on the car. We are racing back. The team decided that I should get some of time out of the way. It was so treacherous. There were cars going off everywhere. Before they said anything about rain, I went into the Porsche Curves and it was a downpour. I just went straight and didn't want to turn the wheel because I was afraid I'd be afraid. The next time around there, I was tip-toeing around and told the guys that I thought I was giving up too much time. They told me I was going to box and have a driver change, and I was very grateful for that news! The moved looked brilliant at the time. We put wet tires on and everyone else should have had to stop for wet tires. But the long safety car and the officials' messing up the safety car procedure at pit exit didn't help us and we didn't get our lap back. But there's a lot of time left. We'll keep going."
GENERAL MOTORS IN SPOTLIGHT AT 24 HOURS OF LE MANS
Entries from Cadillac Racing, Corvette Racing and Garage 56 Camaro ZL1
in world’s biggest motorsports endurance race
LE MANS, France (June 9, 2023) – General Motors is a prominent figure at the Centenary 24 Hours of Le Mans with entries in three different categories of the world-famous French sports car classic.
Chevrolet and Cadillac each are well-represented in this weekend’s twice-around-the-clock race:
Three Cadillac V-Series.R prototypes for the top Hypercar class – Nos. 2, 3 and 311 from Cadillac Racing The No. 33 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R in the GTE Am category as Corvette Racing goes for its ninth Le Mans class victory The No. 24 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for the innovative Garage 56 entry – a partnership between Hendrick Motorsports, NASCAR, Chevrolet and Goodyear. It’s the first time a NASCAR stock car has raced at Le Mans since 1976.
GM is the only manufacturer to have brands and entries in three different categories at Le Mans this year.
“I’m thrilled to have five racecars representing General Motors at the centenary 24 Hours of Le Mans,” said Mark Reuss, president, General Motors. “Cadillac is returning to Le Mans in full force with three V-Series.R prototypes on the grid, Corvette Racing is aiming for its ninth class victory and the Garage 56 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 – in partnership with NASCAR, Hendrick Motorsports, IMSA and Goodyear – is something that will live in the memories of all those who see it run, for generations to come. Motorsports is core to us at GM, so I’m thankful for the many people across our company and our partners who have worked so hard to get these cars race-ready.”
The 24 Hours of Le Mans is scheduled for 4 p.m. CET / 10 a.m. ET on Saturday, June 10. MotorTrend and MotorTrend Plus will provide both live television and streaming coverage. Radio Le Mans will stream audio coverage on radiolemans.com with the race call also on Sirius 136 and XM 202.
CORVETTE RACING AT LE MANS: Keating, No. 33 C8.R Take Hyperpole! Perfect storm of tow, tires and team talent earn GTE Am pole
LE MANS, France (June 8, 2023) – A tow, tires and talent. Those all came together Corvette Racing as Ben Keating put the No. 33 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R on the GTE Am pole position during Thursday’s Hyperpole session ahead of this weekend’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Keating – teaming in the Corvette with Nicky Catsburg and Nico Varrone – posted a best lap of 3:52.376 (131.171 mph) to take Corvette Racing’s second straight pole position at Le Mans. The GTE Am championship-leading trio increased their points advantage by one with the P1 finish.
The stellar work by the Corvette Racing team continued after Wednesday’s heroics that saw Catsburg get the C8.R into Hyperpole following a fast repair job by the crew after a crash at the end of the first practice. The storybook result kept going even on Keating’s first lap Thursday when he picked up a tow from another GTE car all the way down the Mulsanne Straight. He cleared his competitor going into Mulsanne Corner to take provisional pole after the opening flyer.
Keating improved his time slightly before a red flag halted the session with five minutes to go. As the session went green again, Corvette Racing engineers decided to fit the C8.R with fresh, soft compound Michelin tires – the only team to do so during the stoppage.
Keating made the decision pay off with his best lap of the weekend and put Corvette Racing out front to start its biggest race of the season.
The 24 Hours of Le Mans is scheduled for 4 p.m. CET / 10 a.m. ET on Saturday, June 10. MotorTrend and MotorTrend Plus will provide both live television and streaming coverage. Radio Le Mans also will stream audio coverage of the race.
BEN KEATING, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – GTE AM POLE-WINNER: "I wanted to find a gap on my out-lap. I thought the GT cars were driving really slow for having hot tires. I was thinking that we have hot tires, it's time to push. They were all going slow and I was push, push, push. So I had a big gap and I didn't think I would ever catch the Ferrari ahead of me because he was so far up there. But the LMP2 cars, when they got to the chicane, just stopped to get a window. So I was right on the Ferrari and he gave me a perfect tow down every straight away. I passed him into Mulsanne, and he didn't slow me down any. It was incredible and I thought that was as good as it gets, almost to the point that I was wondering why we were out there!
"I did a cool-down lap and the team told me that the 25 was 0.3 seconds behind. I thought then that I'd better get it in gear! I pushed really hard for another lap and had one in the bank because of no track limits. So I could push a little more, and the Corvette was set up so well that I didn't have to worry about track limits. The car went exactly where I wanted it to go. I could push the car harder in every corner. I got better in Porsche Curves and came over the line at 3:53.0. I didn't think there was any way anyone was going to touch me. But we came in for the red flag, and I didn't understand the point of putting new tires on it because I didn't think I could improve. But it makes sense now.
"The sun had gone down and the tires really came into the window. The air was a little cooler, and we were at bare minimum of fuel. So I got one out-lap and then one flyer. I got the peak of the tire, the peak of low fuel, the peak of the temperature, and I put a lap together. It was pretty magical, especially considering how close we were to not even making qualifying yesterday. The team did an amazing job to get the car out where Nicky could do what we needed to get us into Hyperpole. So I'm incredibly excited and happy for the entire team. This is the best way I can think of to go into the race!"
No. 33 Corvette C8.R makes top-eight for run at GTE Am pole position
LE MANS, France (June 7, 2023) – Corvette Racing fought its way into the Hyperpole session ahead of the 24 Hours of Le Mans with a heroic effort to advance from Wednesday’s initial qualifying round in the GTE Am class.
Nicky Catsburg set a best time of 3:52.228 (131.233 mph) in the No. 33 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R that he shares with Nico Varrone and Ben Keating. The laptime was 0.351 seconds off the quickest car in GTE Am – the No. 83 Ferrari – but well inside the top-eight that move on to Thursday’s 30-minute Hyperpole session to set the grid for Saturday’s race.
That Corvette Racing even made the session was astounding as the crew repaired damage from a crash in the final hour of Wednesday’s opening practice session. All facets of the team went into repairing or replacing a number of right-side components including suspension pieces, brakes, front and rear fenders, door and rocker, plus the wing, rear facia and decklids, among other items.
Catsburg rewarded the team’s hard work with a time that put him P1 with a little more than 10 minutes left in the session and set off a loud cheer in the Corvette Racing garage.
Thursday’s Hyperpole session is scheduled for 8 p.m. CET / 2 p.m. ET with live coverage on MotorTrend Plus in the United States, and audio coverage via Radio Le Mans.
NICKY CATSBURG, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – THIRD IN GTE AM QUALIFYING: “I was concerned if we would make it! But if anyone could do it, it’s these guys. And they did it again! This wasn’t easy at all. We only barely made qualifying and got slightly lucky with the red flags. I had to pit again because we had some issues still with the car and there was really no time to really check before we went out. Luckily I got a lap in that was good enough to go P3 and we are in the top-eight; that was the goal. So now we can leave behind what happened in practice and just focused forward. It was super, super nice and cool to see. It sounds weird now, but it was a nice boost actually for everyone. It’s a good feeling to know we have made it.”
Test Day sessions provide positive steps toward upcoming 24 Hours
LE MANS, France (June 4, 2023) – Corvette Racing went through its paces Sunday to wrap up its preparations for the 24 Hours of Le Mans with six hours of running around the famous 8.5-mile track.
All three Corvette drivers – Nicky Catsburg, Ben Keating and Nico Varrone – cycled through the No. 33 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R in the pair of three-hour test sessions. It was the only track time for the Corvette trio and the rest of the 62-car field for next weekend’s Centenary celebration of Le Mans.
Catsburg turned in the Corvette’s best time and placed the C8.R 14th among the 21 entries in the GTE Am category. He, Keating and Varrone arrived at Le Mans with two wins in three races and the Drivers Championship lead in the class.
The morning session was a little difficult with time spent in the garage to correct a mechanical problem. In contrast, the afternoon running was smooth sailing. Keating got valuable seat time to familiarize himself with the C8.R in Le Mans trim after a baseline run by Catsburg to tune the car for his teammates.
The No. 66 Ferrari was the fastest car in class across both sessions. The first official practice and qualifying sessions are Wednesday.
The 24 Hours of Le Mans is scheduled for 4 p.m. CET / 10 a.m. ET on Saturday, June 10. MotorTrend and MotorTrend Plus will provide both live television and streaming coverage, the latter beginning with Wednesday’s opening practice. Radio Le Mans will stream audio coverage of free practice, qualifying and the race.
NICKY CATSBURG, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: “We had some small mechanical issues in the morning that we solved quickly. Right now everything feels pretty normal. We are getting the car in the window again. I feel like the track is a little different than last year so balance-wise it is a little different, but we are working on it. The Corvette feels good. It seems like the Ferraris are a bit too fast for us right now, but in general we can’t complain too much. We are getting back up to speed with everything, so I am quite happy.”
BEN KEATING, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: “It’s amazing how quickly the Test Day goes. The lap is so long that you never get that many laps in. We had slow zones and safety cars in the morning and afternoon, and each of those take about 30 minutes out of your day. This morning, I think each one of us got three to four laps. In the afternoon, I had the luxury of doing two stints, and I loved it. I still feel like I’m learning and getting better and better. It was a big benefit to me in order to learn how to find lap-time in this car and this track. I feel good about the times I ran and that I will continue to improve. I’m looking forward to watching video of not only my driving but also the driving by Nicky and Nico. It was a very successful Test Day, I’d say. We had a nice recovery this afternoon from the morning. I’m looking forward to getting a start on the real race week!”
NICO VARRONE, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: “It was a tough day in the way red flags worked and the new safety car rules that the organizers were trying. So we lost quite a lot of green-flag track time. In my case, I think I did five laps total so that’s not so many. Luckily I know the track from Road to Le Mans and this race last year. So it is a different car, different team and different setup. I’m getting comfortable and things were quite OK. It was a positive day for us. We still have a few things to work on. We weren’t strong in low-speed and mid-speed corners, but this is nothing that we cannot improve. Now the engineers have all the data and info from today to work from and get the car ready for Wednesday.”
Yes, the corral use to be far away. We had to walk a good ways from the corral to the track. However, I heard that they were able to move the corral much closer. Gerard Panche is the one you would need to talk to and he can tell you where the corral will be this year.
Corvette WEC, IMSA drivers work together at Chevrolet Driver in the Loop simulator
CORVETTE RACING AT LE MANS: All Hands on Deck!
Corvette WEC, IMSA drivers work together at Chevrolet Driver in the Loop simulator
LE MANS, France(June 2, 2023) – Corvette Racing really,REALLYwants to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans this year. So much so that after last year’s near-miss, there is a focused, full-team effort to put the No. 33 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette in the best position possible to win the GTE Am category this time around.
Much of the preparation centers around work at the GM Technical Center in Charlotte, North Carolina where Corvette Racing drivers from the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship have helped their brethren from the FIA World Endurance Championship in Chevrolet’s Driver in the Loop (DiL) simulator with multiple sessions to test different configurations for the C8.R around Le Mans.
Nicky Catsburg, Ben Keating and Nico Varrone will drive the No. 33 Corvette in the 24 Hours. Each of the three has spent time in the simulator alongside Antonio Garcia and Tommy Milner from Corvette Racing’s IMSA program in the lead up to the 24 Hours.
NICKY CATSBURG, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – FIA WEC:“The IMSA guys are always following us and are always in touch about what’s going on during our weekends in WEC. Tommy has been on the sim a lot and Antonio every now and then, and they have been doing some test work for us. If it works on the sim, we have been implementing that on the track and evaluating their changes. It’s definitely helpful and beneficial. It’s cool that even though we are in two different programs, it still feels like we are all working together. That’s very cool and in the spirit of the team. It’s nice to have everyone involved and keep all the links close. They all have so much experience in this car, so it’s nice to have their help.”
BEN KEATING, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – FIA WEC:“I spent a couple of days at the sim and spent a lot of time on Le Mans and also Monza. It was really interesting for me and my engineers. I’ve raced a lot of cars at Le Mans. I have enough time in the Corvette now. I’m able to run the C8.R on my sim at home. I thought there wasn’t going to be much value going to the (Chevrolet) sim. But I was there for two days and I left there feeling there was a lot of value. As far as my communication with the engineers that are running the car, I felt like we got a much better understanding of what I like and don’t like. If we can figure that out, it can make a huge difference in our results at Le Mans.”
NICO VARRONE, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – FIA WEC:“I was really impressed with the facility in my first time. The GM Technical Center is very cool. You can see that it is next-level. I personally love it. I’m a big sim fan and do a lot of sim racing at home. So I really like this kind of stuff. I always tested other sims and it doesn’t feel so realistic with how the motion works and things like that. I have to say that I was able to jump in the Chevrolet sim right away and it was great. The feeling you get from the car is very similar to real life. It was cool for me to practice for Le Mans – not only driving but also feeling setup changes. I think that’s one of the best things that you can do – try different setups and feel those as a driver. It lets you develop setup changes before you get to the track.
“Le Mans is a track where you cannot test. You go there once a year for one test day and then the race-week starts. It’s really difficult to get laps in and everything nailed for the race. So these sims sessions make it easier to establish a baseline. From this, we can work on the car as the track develops, the weather gets warmer and other things. There aren’t so many big changes to do because you know what to use from the start. Between the sim and the experience of Corvette Racing at Le Mans, we are in a great place to start and work from there to get the best car possible for the race.”
ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – IMSA:“It’s always good to be back driving the GTE spec and revisit what we raced last year. There was a tiny bit of difference in the setups between the 63 and 64 cars. With only one car now, we need to know what the best options are and see which car was best at certain points. We are re-evaluating things we learned late last year and early this year in the WEC. There is a ton of data to analyze. It’s important to be ahead of things to see what direction you want to take and especially what to discard when you find changes that don’t work. A read at Le Mans is super-long because it’s a four-minute lap. If you want to try something and it doesn’t work, you’ve lost 40 minutes or more on the Test Day, for example. So it’s important to maximize your time not just at the track but in the sim, as well.”
TOMMY MILNER, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – IMSA:“Where I’ve been able to help at the sim is my knowledge from last year about what the car felt like and correlating what they have in the sim now versus what we had last year and made sure the preparations they are doing for this year are getting off on the right foot. They’re using every bit of information that they can get their hands on to improve the car to help Ben, Nico and Nicky be as prepared as possible for the race.
“There’s a bit more attention paid to Le Mans and all the work we’ve put in at the sim to make it as reliable as we can for feedback from drivers will pay off the most this year with someone like Ben and Nico, who haven’t raced this car at Le Mans. The DiL is quite valuable for us in this situation to get the opportunity to get their feet wet before they get to the track for the first time in the C8.R.”
2023 FIA World Endurance Championship – GTE Am(After three of seven events)
4. Christian Ried/Julien Andlauer/Mikkel Pedersen – 35
5. Michelle Gatting/Rahel Frey/Sarah Bovy – 32
Team Standings
1. No. 33 Corvette Racing – 82
2. No 83 Richard Mille AF Corse – 43
3. No. 21 AF Corse – 36
4. No. 77 Dempsey-Proton Racing – 35
5. No. 85 Iron Dames – 32
CORVETTE RACING AT LE MANS: By the Numbers
• 1:As in one team, one manufacturer and one model of car for 22 appearances at Le Mans: Corvette Racing, Chevrolet and the Chevrolet Corvette
• 3:Number of wins for the Corvette C5-R – 2001, 2002, 2004
• 4:Number of wins for the Corvette C6.R – 2005, 2006, 2009, 2011
• 4:Generations of Corvette Racing entries since 2000 – Corvette C5-R (2000-04), Corvette C6.R (2005-13), Corvette C7.R (2014-2019) and Corvette C8.R (2021)
• 8:Class victories for Corvette Racing at Le Mans – all since 2001
• 9:Number of drivers who have won races at Le Mans for Corvette Racing – Olivier Beretta, Ron Fellows, Antonio Garcia, Oliver Gavin, Jan Magnussen, Tommy Milner, Johnny O’Connell, Scott Pruett and Jordan Taylor
• 14:Manufacturer Championships for Chevrolet and Corvette Racing since 2001
• 25:Number of drivers to compete for Corvette Racing at Le Mans. That number grows this year with the additions of Ben Keating and Nico Varrone
• 27:Tracks at which Corvette Racing has won races – Baltimore, Charlotte Motor Speedway, COTA, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park/Mosport, Daytona, Detroit, Houston, Laguna Seca, Le Mans, Lime Rock, Long Beach, Miami, Mid-Ohio, Monza, Portimão, Portland, Road America, Road Atlanta, Sebring, Sonoma, St. Petersburg, Texas, Trois Rivieres, Utah, VIR, Washington DC and Watkins Glen
• 34:Number of drivers for Corvette Racing since 1999. Ben Keating and Nico Varrone joined that list with their participation – and victory – in the 1,000 Miles of Sebring for the World Endurance Championship.
• 124:Victories worldwide for Corvette Racing – 113 in North America, eight at Le Mans and three in the FIA WEC.
• 272:Event starts by Corvette Racing since 1999.
• 108,358.22:Number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing in its 21 previous trips to Le Mans. That represents 12,850 laps… or more than four full trips around the Earth at its equator. The two Corvettes combined togo over the 100,000-mile markat Le Mans in the 2021 race.
• 354,262.62:Total number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing since its inception. To put that in perspective, Corvette Racing is more than halfway to the distance traveled by Apollo 13 – the longest manned spaceflight in history: 622,268 miles. That means Corvette Racing has raced to the moon… and then some!
Corvette Racing at the 24 Hours of Le Mans(wins in bold)
2000
No. 63 Corvette C5-R: Ron Fellows/Chris Kneifel/Justin Bell – 4th in GTS
No. 64 Corvette C5-R: Andy Pilgrim/Kelly Collins/Franck Freon – 3rd in GTS
2001
No. 63 Corvette C5-R: Ron Fellows/Johnny O'Connell/Scott Pruett – 1st in GTS
No. 64 Corvette C5-R: Andy Pilgrim/Kelly Collins/Franck Freon – 2nd in GTS
2002
No. 63 Corvette C5-R: Ron Fellows/Johnny O'Connell/Oliver Gavin – 1st in GTS
No. 64 Corvette C5-R: Andy Pilgrim/Kelly Collins/Franck Freon – 2nd in GTS
2003
No. 53 Corvette C5-R: Ron Fellows/Johnny O'Connell/Franck Freon – 3rd in GTS
No. 50 Corvette C5-R: Oliver Gavin/Kelly Collins/Andy Pilgrim – 2nd in GTS
2004
No. 63 Corvette C5-R: Ron Fellows/Johnny O'Connell/Max Papis – 2nd in GTS
CORVETTE RACING AT LE MANS: This is It! Team going for ninth class win at final Le Mans for C8R
• Keating, Catsburg, Varrone enter as GTE Am championship leaders • Twenty-third appearance for Corvette Racing at famed French endurance classic • Another class victory would come during Centenary celebration of Le Mans • Corvette C8.R one of five General Motors entries into this year’s Le Mans
DETROIT (May 31, 2023) – Corvette Racing has contested the 24 Hours of Le Mans 22 times since making its debut at the French endurance classic in 2000. This year’s running, though, might be the biggest yet.
There are a number of storylines that center on the long-standing program’s appearance this year at the Circuit de la Sarthe. Those pages will start writing themselves with the annual Test Day on Sunday – when the No. 33 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R hits the track for six hours of testing – followed by official practices, qualifying and Hyperpole, finally culminating with the race on June 10-11.
Ben Keating, Nicky Catsburg and Nico Varrone will pilot the mid-engine Corvette in its final appearance at Le Mans as next year will see the debut of GT3 cars at the 24 Hours, including the Corvette Z06 GT3.R. But first things first – sending the C8.R out at Le Mans with a victory and getting closer to the FIA World Endurance Championship’s GTE Am title.
The Keating/Catsburg/Varrone trio won the first two WEC races of the season at the Sebring 1,000 Miles and Six Hours of Portimão and followed with a runner-up finish at the Spa Six Hours to take the championship lead. Le Mans is critical, though, as it is a double-points race and will go a long way toward determining this year’s title-winners.
Keating won last year at Le Mans in GTE Am and finished second in 2021. Catsburg will race at Le Mans for the fifth time and third year in a row for Corvette Racing, having finished second in GTE Pro in 2021. Meanwhile, Varrone made his Le Mans debut a year ago but already has a 24-hour victory under his belt this year, having won the Rolex 24 in the LMP3 class.
Corvette Racing is an eight-time winner at Le Mans with three different generations of America’s sports car A first 24 Hours win for the C8.R – which won the Rolex 24 in 2021 – would be appropriate on a number of levels. One is that it would come during the Centenary running of Le Mans, which celebrates its 100th year at this event.
Secondly, a victory would cast a larger spotlight on GM’s involvement in this year’s race – one Corvette, three Cadillac V-Series.R entries in Hypercar and the Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 that will run under the Garage 56 banner this year.
The 24 Hours of Le Mans is scheduled for 4 p.m. CET / 10 a.m. ET on Saturday, June 10. MotorTrend and MotorTrend Plus will provide both live television and streaming coverage, the latter beginning with Wednesday’s opening practice. Radio Le Mans will stream audio coverage of the Test Day, practices, qualifying and the race.
NICKY CATSBURG, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: “I want to win this race extremely bad! I feel in a way that I’ve been so lucky already this season winning some cool races and cool events. But I cannot deny that I really think we have a shot this year at Le Mans. That’s not always the case. I believe that we have an awesome team with all the experience there. We have awesome drivers. We have a cool car. I don’t see why we shouldn’t be fighting for the win. I’m already nervous and I already feel like, ‘Come on… let’s not make mistakes. Let’s bring it home.’ But it’s never easy. It’s still a mechanical sport. We saw what happened with the 64 car last year. You never know and you never know until the last five minutes of the race. It’ll be super cool and I cannot wait.” (GTE Am vs. GTE Pro at Le Mans): “There isn’t much difference. We are still going to end up driving against pros. The only thing that might happen is that I might be in the car and there might be a Bronze driver in the other car, and you would for sure fight them differently than you would another pro. But most of the same time, we’ll out the same time with the other pros. Like we’ve seen this year, it’s a tough battle. You have many good drivers on the grid and many drivers that used to be in the Pro class before, so I don’t feel the approach is so different.”
BEN KEATING, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: “Clearly we have a good team of drivers and a great team of engineers and pit crew at Corvette Racing. We have all the pieces of the puzzle to do well at Le Mans. I still think it’s anybody’s best guess as to who will do well. There are 62 cars on track and everyone wants to do the best they can. Twenty-four hours is a long time to expect every other driver to keep their head about them and make a good decision. Someone can make a mistake and take you out, not of your own doing. It happens often. But Le Mans is a double-points race for the championship. I don’t want to say it’s completely over, but if we were to win then I don’t know if anyone can catch us. It would be just a total dream to win Le Mans.” (Race outlook): “Everyone wants to win Le Mans, and no one is really going to show what they have until the race starts. Then the gloves come off. Who knows what’s going to happen. That’s something you can’t control. All we can control is doing our jobs to the best of our abilities. We will deal with whatever comes up. I’ve often said that it’s really special to win a World Endurance Championship race as an American driver racing an American car, racing something I sell and racing for an American team. It’s hard to imagine what that would be like at Le Mans and the 100th Le Mans. That would be on a totally different level.”
NICO VARRONE, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: “Le Mans is the race that everyone wants to win. It’s our race of the year. The GTE Am championship is important, but this is the biggest race for us. Le Mans is something else. This year, we’ve done very well so far and have a great start. We have two wins, another podium and lead the championship. We’ve been doing great things together as a team. The goal is to do the same as we have been doing in the first three races – how we work, how we manage situations… the same we did at Sebring, Portimão and Spa. That is my mentality going into Le Mans.” (Learning with Corvette Racing): “One of the biggest things I’ve learned is on pit stops and how to be precise with where I stop. I’m learning to see how important it is for a pit stop to be on you marks. Corvette Racing takes it so seriously and that’s why they are so quick on their stops. We work on how to get in the box, how the procedure works and how important it is for the car to be right on the point. It’s much easier for the mechanics to do the tire changes and fuel the car. I’m also really lucky to have Nicky as a teammate. He’s one of the best drivers in the world, and he’s helping me a lot. I can see what he’s doing not only in the car but outside the car as well, how he manages situations and deals with things. He’s such a nice guy that he has no secrets with me. He shares all his experiences and all his knowledge with me just for me to get better and improve as a driver and a person. That’s something I really appreciate.”
2023 FIA World Endurance Championship – GTE Am (After three of seven events) Driver Standings 1. Ben Keating/Nicky Catsburg/Nico Varrone – 82 2. Alessio Rovera/Lilou Wadoux/Luis Perez Companc – 43 3. Simon Mann/Ulysse De Pauw – 36 4. Christian Ried/Julien Andlauer/Mikkel Pedersen – 35 5. Michelle Gatting/Rahel Frey/Sarah Bovy – 32
Team Standings 1. No. 33 Corvette Racing – 82 2. No 83 Richard Mille AF Corse – 43 3. No. 21 AF Corse – 36 4. No. 77 Dempsey-Proton Racing – 35 5. No. 85 Iron Dames – 32
CORVETTE RACING AT LE MANS: By the Numbers • 1: As in one team, one manufacturer and one model of car for 22 appearances at Le Mans: Corvette Racing, Chevrolet and the Chevrolet Corvette • 3: Number of wins for the Corvette C5-R – 2001, 2002, 2004 • 4: Number of wins for the Corvette C6.R – 2005, 2006, 2009, 2011 • 4: Generations of Corvette Racing entries since 2000 – Corvette C5-R (2000-04), Corvette C6.R (2005-13), Corvette C7.R (2014-2019) and Corvette C8.R (2021) • 8: Class victories for Corvette Racing at Le Mans – all since 2001 • 9: Number of drivers who have won races at Le Mans for Corvette Racing – Olivier Beretta, Ron Fellows, Antonio Garcia, Oliver Gavin, Jan Magnussen, Tommy Milner, Johnny O’Connell, Scott Pruett and Jordan Taylor • 14: Manufacturer Championships for Chevrolet and Corvette Racing since 2001 • 25: Number of drivers to compete for Corvette Racing at Le Mans. That number grows this year with the additions of Ben Keating and Nico Varrone • 27: Tracks at which Corvette Racing has won races – Baltimore, Charlotte Motor Speedway, COTA, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park/Mosport, Daytona, Detroit, Houston, Laguna Seca, Le Mans, Lime Rock, Long Beach, Miami, Mid-Ohio, Monza, Portimão, Portland, Road America, Road Atlanta, Sebring, Sonoma, St. Petersburg, Texas, Trois Rivieres, Utah, VIR, Washington DC and Watkins Glen • 34: Number of drivers for Corvette Racing since 1999. Ben Keating and Nico Varrone joined that list with their participation – and victory – in the 1,000 Miles of Sebring for the World Endurance Championship. • 124: Victories worldwide for Corvette Racing – 113 in North America, eight at Le Mans and three in the FIA WEC. • 272: Event starts by Corvette Racing since 1999. • 108,358.22: Number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing in its 21 previous trips to Le Mans. That represents 12,850 laps… or more than four full trips around the Earth at its equator. The two Corvettes combined to go over the 100,000-mile mark at Le Mans in the 2021 race. • 354,262.62: Total number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing since its inception. To put that in perspective, Corvette Racing is more than halfway to the distance traveled by Apollo 13 – the longest manned spaceflight in history: 622,268 miles. That means Corvette Racing has raced to the moon… and then some!
Corvette Racing at the 24 Hours of Le Mans (wins in bold) 2000 No. 63 Corvette C5-R: Ron Fellows/Chris Kneifel/Justin Bell – 4th in GTS No. 64 Corvette C5-R: Andy Pilgrim/Kelly Collins/Franck Freon – 3rd in GTS
2001 No. 63 Corvette C5-R: Ron Fellows/Johnny O'Connell/Scott Pruett – 1st in GTS No. 64 Corvette C5-R: Andy Pilgrim/Kelly Collins/Franck Freon – 2nd in GTS
2002 No. 63 Corvette C5-R: Ron Fellows/Johnny O'Connell/Oliver Gavin – 1st in GTS No. 64 Corvette C5-R: Andy Pilgrim/Kelly Collins/Franck Freon – 2nd in GTS
2003 No. 53 Corvette C5-R: Ron Fellows/Johnny O'Connell/Franck Freon – 3rd in GTS No. 50 Corvette C5-R: Oliver Gavin/Kelly Collins/Andy Pilgrim – 2nd in GTS
2004 No. 63 Corvette C5-R: Ron Fellows/Johnny O'Connell/Max Papis – 2nd in GTS No. 64 Corvette C5-R: Olivier Beretta/Oliver Gavin/Jan Magnussen – 1st in GTS
2005 No. 63 Corvette C6R: Ron Fellows/Johnny O'Connell/Max Papis – 2nd in GT1 No. 64 Corvette C6.R: Olivier Beretta/Oliver Gavin/Jan Magnussen – 1st in GT1
2006 No. 63 Corvette C6.R: Ron Fellows/Johnny O'Connell/Max Papis – 7th in GT1 No. 64 Corvette C6.R: Olivier Beretta/Oliver Gavin/Jan Magnussen - 1st in GT1
2007 No. 63 Corvette C6.R: Ron Fellows/Johnny O'Connell/Jan Magnussen – 2nd in GT1 No. 64 Corvette C6.R: Olivier Beretta/Oliver Gavin/Max Papis – 14th in GT1
2008 No. 63 Corvette C6.R: Ron Fellows/Johnny O'Connell/Jan Magnussen – 2nd in GT1 No. 64 Corvette C6.R: Olivier Beretta/Oliver Gavin/Max Papis – 3rd in GT1
2009 No. 63 Corvette C6.R: Jan Magnussen/Johnny O'Connell/Antonio Garcia – 1st in GT1 No. 64 Corvette C6.R: Olivier Beretta/Oliver Gavin/Marcel Fässler – 4th in GT1
2010 No. 63 Corvette C6.R: Jan Magnussen/Johnny O'Connell/Antonio Garcia – 12th in GT2 (DNF) No. 64 Corvette C6.R: Olivier Beretta/Oliver Gavin/Emmanuel Collard – 10th in GT2 (DNF)
2011 No. 73 Corvette C6.R: Olivier Beretta/Tommy Milner/Antonio Garcia – 1st in GTE Pro No. 74 Corvette C6.R: Oliver Gavin/Jan Magnussen/Richard Westbrook – 14th in GTE Pro (DNF)
2012 No. 73 Corvette C6.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor – 5th in GTE Pro No. 74 Corvette C6.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner/Richard Westbrook - 6th in GTE Pro
2013 No. 73 Corvette C6.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor – 4th in GTE Pro No. 74 Corvette C6.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner/Richard Westbrook – 7th in GTE Pro
2014 No. 73 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor – 2nd in GTE Pro No. 74 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner/Richard Westbrook – 4th in GTE Pro
2015 No. 63 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia/Ryan Briscoe – DNS (Qualifying crash) No. 64 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner/Jordan Taylor – 1st in GTE Pro
2016 No. 63 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia/Ricky Taylor – 7th in GTE Pro No. 64 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner/Jordan Taylor – 10th in GTE Pro (DNF)
2017 No. 63 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor – 3rd in GTE Pro No. 64 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner/Marcel Fässler – 8th in GTLM
2018 No. 63 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia/Mike Rockenfeller – 4th in GTE Pro No. 64 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner/Marcel Fässler – 15th in GTE Pro (DNF)
2019 No. 63 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia/Mike Rockenfeller – 8th in GTE Pro No 64 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner/Marcel Fässler – 16th in GTE Pro (DNF)
2021 No. 63 Corvette C8.R: Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor/Nicky Catsburg – 2nd in GTE Pro No. 64 Corvette C8.R: Tommy Milner/Nick Tandy/Alexander Sims – 6th in GTE Pro
2022 No. 63 Corvette C8.R: Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor/Nicky Catsburg – 7th in GTE Pro (DNF) No. 64 Corvette C8.R: Tommy Milner/Nick Tandy/Alexander Sims – 6th in GTE Pro (DNF)
Fourth-place finish in team’s 25th race on Monterey Peninsula
CORVETTE RACING AT LAGUNA SECA: What Might Have Been Fourth-place finish in team’s 25th race on Monterey Peninsula
MONTEREY, Calif. (May 14, 2023) – Corvette Racing’s 25th start at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca didn’t end the way the team had hoped as the No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R finished fourth in GTD PRO in Sunday’s MOTUL Course de Monterey.
Both Jordan Taylor and Antonio Garcia led in class during the fourth round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, but a costly late-race penalty ended any chances of the team’s ninth class victory at Laguna Seca.
As it did a year ago when it led early, Corvette Racing played to its strength Sunday with a pit stop near the 30-minute mark under full-course yellow. Taylor had moved up to fourth in class at the start and brought the C8.R to the pit lane for four tires and fuel. A quick stop gained Taylor two spots to second, which became three to first when the then-leading No. 9 Porsche was penalized for leaving pitlane with pit exit closed.
Taylor continued to lead to the one-hour mark when Corvette Racing engineers brought him in again under another full-course yellow for fuel, tires and a driver change to Garcia. Another quick stop got Garcia out second in class – only because the No. 23 Aston Martin took less fuel and no tires to leave the pitlane first.
The order remained unchanged when the final scheduled GTD PRO stops began with 67 minutes to go. The No. 3 was the next-to-last car to pit for fuel and four more tires as Garcia rejoined second and 3.8 seconds behind the Aston Martin.
Disaster struck during the race’s final full-course yellow inside the final hour when Garcia inadvertently followed the GTD PRO leader around the safety car, which resulted in the penalty.
Corvette Racing’s next event in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship is the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen on Sunday, June 25 from Watkins Glen International.
ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – FINISHED FOURTH IN GTD PRO: “It’s a situation where when it’s green, you’re fighting all the GTDs. But when it comes to the safety car, we aren’t the same category. So we need to figure that out. The safety car split the GTD field. The GTD leader was the real GT leader, so that’s why everyone behind us moved to the right to get a pass-around, and the 23 moved to the right, as well. But because we were the GTD PRO leaders, we should have stayed where we were. But that’s the way the rules are. I just made a mistake and went to follow the 23 when they were wrong. I had a big queue of GTDs behind me, and all I could see behind me were GT cars moving to the right. So that’s what confused me. If I could have seen the Mercedes or Lexus GTD PRO cars behind me staying to the left, I would have figured it out. But there were a ton of cars between us. It’s a mistake that shouldn’t happen. On race pace, we had a car to win. We did everything right on strategy to be in the lead. As we showed at the end, I think we had a little more on tire degradation. We’ll review what happened, do a full analysis of the situation, and I know this won’t happen again.”
JORDAN TAYLOR, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – FINISHED FOURTH IN GTD PRO: “With how the weekend started, we were definitely behind the eight-ball with our issues in practice. It was a good bounce-back to be closer to the front in qualifying than a year ago, and our race pace today seemed pretty strong. We were able to get to the lead with a great pit stop after the second yellow. Once we were in clean air, the car was strong and we could kind of control the race. We definitely didn’t have the fastest car. But we had track position, and around here that’s so important. The guys did a good job. All our stops were smooth and clean. It’s one of those things where one little thing where can really impact a race. It’s one of those things that happen, and I can guarantee you it won’t happen again. This will be a big learning lesson.”
Corvette Racing will roll off from the fifth spot in the GTD PRO field for Sunday’s MOTUL Course de Monterey
CORVETTE RACING AT LAGUNA SECA: Closer to the Front
MONTEREY, Calif. (May 13, 2023) – Corvette Racing will roll off from the fifth spot in the GTD PRO field for Sunday’s MOTUL Course de Monterey – its 25th consecutive start at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
Jordan Taylor set a lap of 1:24.907 (94.889 mph) in Saturday’s 15-minute qualifying session for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. He will start Sunday’s race behind the wheel of the No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R that he shares with Antonio Garcia.
Taylor was seventh-fastest among all GTD cars but only four-tenths of a second off the pole time. Compare that to being more than a second off the pace in qualifying a year ago, and there is reason to be optimistic heading into Sunday’s race, which airs live at 3 p.m. ET on NBC.
A year ago, the Corvette qualified in the same position but an early strategy call to take fresh tires early helped gain track position and allowed Garcia and Taylor to gain a spot to fourth at the finish. A year on with a notebook full of car, tire and track data should help the Corvette program move further up the order.
This is the 25th straight year that Corvette Racing has visited the 2.238-mile, 11-turn Laguna Seca circuit. The track is one of two where the program has raced in each of its previous 24 years – Sebring is the other – with Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta joining the list at the end of the season.
This weekend also marks another important milestone: Garcia will become the first driver in the WeatherTech Championship to make 100 starts in the series since the start of the post-merger era in 2014 when the American Le Mans Series and GRAND-AM joined together for one American sports car championship.
Since that time, Garcia has won 20 races – including in 2014 at Laguna Seca – and four championships… all with Corvette Racing.
The MOTUL Course de Monterey Powered by Hyundai N is set for 12:10 p.m. PT / 3:10 p.m. ET on Sunday, May 14 and airs live on NBC with full streaming coverage on Peacock. IMSA Radio will have live audio coverage on XM 207, SiriusXM Online 992 and IMSA.com, which will have IMSA Radio coverage.
JORDAN TAYLOR, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – QUALIFIED FIFTH IN GTD PRO:“If you look at where we are this year in qualifying compared to last year, it’s much better. The BoP is in kind of a similar position to where we were last year, so it shows that we made some big gains on everyone else to be only four-tenths off pole. We made some good moves in strategy last year that gave us track position, and I think being more competitive this year opens up those options even more. I’m more excited now to go racing, and hopefully we can make some good calls and jump some guys in the pits.”
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