CORVETTE RACING AT LONG BEACH: Strong Drive Forward for AWA
Fidani, Bell advance nine spots to finish season-best sixth in wild GTD battle
LONG BEACH, Calif. (April 20, 2024) – AWA’s Orey Fidani and Matt Bell continued their upward momentum in the new Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R with their best finish of the season – a sixth-place GT Daytona (GTD) finish Saturday in the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.
The pairing advanced from 15th in class at the start of the third round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship to knocking on the door of a top-five finish in a frantic and fraught 100-minute race around the Long Beach Street Circuit – the team’s first trip to the historic California circuit.
The gain of nine positions put a bow on a strong weekend for the AWA duo with Bell setting the fastest GTD time in Friday’s opening practice – the first for the first-year AWA and Corvette partnership.
Fidani began Saturday 15th in class and drove the first 40 minutes for his first career action at Long Beach. He gained a position at the start and two more by the race’s first full-course yellow with just 12 minutes running. Despite falling back a couple of spots, Fidani’s laptimes continued to drop once the race went green again.
The Corvette picked up another spot on the restart, and Fidani made AWA’s first pit stop just shy of the 40-minute mark. Bell rejoined in 14th and was immediately in the thick of a fight. He was hit from behind on his out-lap but managed to carry on and advance to 11th only a couple of laps later.
Heads-up driving by Bell got the AWA Corvette firmly into the top-10 as the final turn on the Long Beach circuit was blocked by traffic and stalled cars. He came to a stop momentarily but drove through the chaos and into ninth place. Bell picked up three more spots to sixth before the race’s third and final full-course yellow with 15 minutes remaining bunched up the GTD field.
The lead pack of six cars were single-file during the final eight minutes with the Corvette on the tail of the top-five. Bell and the Z06 GT3.R made solid gains through the corners and twisty parts of the circuit, which is notoriously difficult to make a pass. Nevertheless, the end result of sixth adds to the momentum heading into the team’s next race.
AWA and the Corvette Z06 GT3.R program – including the two GTD PRO entries from Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports – will compete next in the Motul Course de Monterey from WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca on Sunday, May 12.
OREY FIDANI, NO. 13 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: "The race went really well based from where we started. The car was mega and easy to drive. We got up to sixth, and we'll take that. I'm really happy with the finish from where we started from."
MATT BELL, NO. 13 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “I'm really happy with that result. Our first effort at Long Beach as a team and pulling a top-six out of the bag is pretty strong. It was a great effort by the team. We executed the pit stop really well and jumped some cars. Unfortunately on cold tires on the out-lap, I gave a couple of those up. There was some rough racing from competitors but fair in the end, and I managed to get them back later on. The Corvette was absolutely glued to the track. I think we were the best car around the corners. We were lacking just a little bit of straight-line speed to challenge those top-five guys. But I'm really proud of the effort this week. It's definitely our cleanest and best week in the AWA Corvette era. A big thanks to the team, big thanks to Corvette, General Motors and Pratt Miller. We'll keep rolling into Laguna Seca."
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CORVETTE RACING AT IMOLA: Points for Both TF Sport Corvettes
Weather main factor in seventh-, eighth-place finishes in wild Six Hours of Imola
IMOLA, Italy (April 21, 2024) – TF Sport’s two Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs finished in points-paying positions Sunday with seventh- and eighth-place LMTGT3 finishes in the FIA World Endurance Championship’s Six Hours of Imola.
It marked the second race in the FIA WEC for the first-year Corvette GT3 car and first trip to Imola for the Corvette program. In the end, the results were positive: TF Sport was one of two teams in the class to have both its cars finish in the top-10, and Chevrolet was one of two manufacturers to have multiple entries finish eighth or better.
Charlie Eastwood, Tom Van Rompuy and Rui Andrade led the way for TF Sport with a seventh-place finish in the No. 81 Corvette Z06 GT3.R, one spot ahead of the No. 82 Corvette of Daniel Juncadella, Hiro Koizumi and Sebastien Baud.
The race featured seven full-course yellow periods – including two in the opening 40 minutes – and two safety car periods. There was chaos at the start with Van Rompuy getting the better of it by gaining four spots in his first two laps. He and Koizumi, who ran as high as ninth after starting 13th, drove nearly two hours at the start to firmly put both Corvettes inside the top-10 and eligible for points.
Andrade and Baud were up next, although they had the worst of changing weather conditions just past the halfway point. Both kept their Z06 GT3.Rs on track throughout their stints in the challenging conditions – other teams weren’t as fortunate – before TF Sport elected to be the first LMGT3 team to opt for wet-weather tires. The team made the switch with two hours to go as Eastwood and Juncadella got in their respective Corvettes. Unfortunately the high level of grip in the track meant laptimes didn’t significantly differ between those cars that changed to wet tires and those who stayed on warm slick tires.
The two Corvettes switched back to dry tires just outside the final hour but race traffic and a still-wet surface made challenging for the top-five too much to overcome.
TF Sport’s next race in the FIA WEC is the Six Hours of Spa on Saturday, May 11.
CHARLIE EASTWOOD, NO. 81 TF SPORT CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “It was a very interesting race. Weather played a massive role in it. The TF guys did a great job in making the right calls. The track has such high grip that even when the guys were on slicks, they were still able to generate a lot of grip and temperature when we were on the wets. It balanced out basically the same although I probably had a nicer experience than they did. All in all, P7 in the end. Not what we want but it was a pretty solid race on our side. We know what we need to get closer to the front.”
TOM VAN ROMPUY, NO. 81 TF SPORT CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: "It was quite a hectic start of the race. A couple of GTs touched each other but I managed to surf through all the dangers and pick up three positions on the first lap. On the second lap, I think I found another position. We had a really good first and second stint with no issues. I really also tried to pay attention to track limits and tried to save a bit on the car in case we needed to fight later on. So we have a really good feeling."
RUI ANDRADE, NO. 81 TF SPORT CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: "It was definitely difficult to the end. As a driver getting out soon, you have to give the team good information. It was so difficult because half the track was completely wet and half the track was completely dry. Those were very stressful last few moments in trying to decide what was the right tire to be on. We decided to go on wets but it was definitely tricky either way."
DANI JUNCADELLA, NO. 82 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “It was a bit of a wild race for sure. It’s a shame. We were looking very strong in the mixed conditions when the track was very difficult. I made up a lot of ground. We gambled on the strategy with an hour to go because we saw a car in the gravel and I pitted with 57 minutes left, and normally a stint is 45 minutes. So I had to cruise to the end and saved a lot of fuel to make it to the finish. It didn’t pay off this time, but it was good fun out there in these conditions. I enjoyed it and enjoyed driving the Corvette again.”
SEBASTIEN BAUD, NO. 82 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: "It was a crazy race. Our start with Hiro wasn't too bad and we ran in the top-10. I felt really good in the first stint and I was happy with the car because I was fast. In my second stint, I was on the same tires with a full tank. It was much more difficult to push and I lost a little more time compared to my first stint. The feeling was very different because the car wasn't the same driving with a full tank. Toward the end, we had a lot of rain in the last two corners but the first sector was dry. I had a little spin in the safety car queue but did not lose anything. But still it is not a mistake a good driver should make. I will continue to work with my engineer and my teammates to continue improving for the next race."
TF Sport Corvettes seek to make their way through GT3 field after qualifying
IMOLA, Italy (April 20, 2024) – TF Sport and its two Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs will look to race their way through the LMGT3 field following Saturday’s qualifying session ahead of the Six Hours of Imola for the World Endurance Championship.
Tom Van Rompuy led the TF Sport qualifying results with the 11th-fastest class time in the No. 81 Corvette that he will share with Rui Andrade and Corvette factory driver Charlie Eastwood.
Van Rompuy’s best lap of 1:43.897 (105.695 mph) was less 0.2 seconds from making the 10-car Hyperpole session to set the first five rows of the grid. He was the pole-winner for the season-opening race in Qatar.
Teammate Hiroshi Koizumi will start the No. 82 Corvette Z06 GT3.R directly behind Van Rompuy in 13th after his best lap of 1:44.108 (105.509 mph). He will drive with Sebastien Baud and factory driver Daniel Juncadella – the trio having finished 10th after 10 hours at Qatar.
TF Sport tested at Imola in the weeks leading up to this weekend’s event at the 3.05-mile, 19-turn circuit. The Corvettes were 1-2 in Friday’s two practice sessions, but changing temperatures and track conditions Saturday swung the momentum away from the TF Sport entries.
The FIA WEC’s Six Hours of Imola is set for 1 p.m. Central European Time / 7 a.m. Eastern Time on Sunday, April 21. MotorTrend and MotorTrend Plus will provide both live television and streaming coverage of the race, as will the FIA WEC app and the MAX app in the U.S. Radio Le Mans will stream audio coverage of the race.
TOM VAN ROMPUY, NO. 81 TF SPORT CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R - QUALIFIED 11TH IN LMGT3: “This weekend, we didn’t have the package to go for pole. But let’s hope we can have a package for good race pace. It’s a bit of the opposite from last time (Qatar) where we had good qualifying pace but not such a good race pace and some technical issues. We have done quite a bit of work with some small changes or updates from Qatar. One is working better than the other, but we need to keep putting some work on it. For now we are missing a bit of top speed but we will do the best we can as drivers and as a team to make a good effort and try to put a good result together.”
CHARLIE EASTWOOD, NO. 81 TF SPORT CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “Yesterday was amazing. We came here testing and hit the ground running pretty nice. We’re working through a few things on our end so maybe it looked slightly better on paper than it really was. Final practice was a little struggle, but as a team we are learning this new Corvette with every session. The track changed quite a bit today with a lot more rubber down and temperatures increased. We’re adapting with that. Once we start to do more running and get a better picture, we’ll be able to adapt having that experience in this scenario again for the races later in the year. There are a few bits to work on for the long stuff but there is still a lot to play for.”
RUI ANDRADE, NO. 81 TF SPORT CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “There have been some ups and downs. Yesterday we were quite strong, and I think today we took a slight step back with the balance. Besides that, I think we have a strong car and we showed it all day long Friday. I think we have a good package for the race after our testing here. It’s only the second race of the season and the second race for the team with this car, so we are finding things all the time. If we put everything together, we can have a strong race.”
HIROSHI KOIZUMI, NO. 82 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R - QUALIFIED 13TH IN LMGT3: “The feeling of the car isn’t that bad at all. I couldn’t quite get my best lap in during qualifying. But I’m not giving up for the race and I’ll try to get the best position I can in the race. Rather than the car being one that can put in one really fast lap, it’s a car that has good pace over a longer run, so I think we can have a good finishing position tomorrow.”
DANI JUNCADELLA, NO. 82 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “Today was a bit harder. We’re still sorting out some little hiccups here and there. We’re working on the driveability of the engine and still developing further things. We’re getting close to the limits of the power levels. We are still learning. It’s been a difficult weekend for sure because with the curb striking and so on, the torque is very inconsistent but that is the same for everybody. Other than that, everything else feels great. The car balance is very good in the corners and the Corvette is very nice to drive.”
SEBASTIEN BAUD, NO. 82 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “It was a good couple of free practices yesterday. I drove a lot and we all improved. I’m happy because the car is very good and the setup is good for this track. This is my first race in Europe for the WEC, and I really like this track. There are a lot of sponsors and partners here with me. On the track, it’s very difficult because we have a lot of traffic for a track as short as Imola. For the race, it will be very important to be careful in the traffic with both Hypercars and the LMGT3 cars. The car is very good and very fast. The goal for the race is a top-five and I hope the podium.”
April 19-20th, 2024 Track: Long Beach Street Circuit Race Duration: 1 hour 40 minutes Circuit Length: 1.968 miles Corners: 11 Entry by Class: GTP (10)
GTD (17) Qualifying Friday, April 19th, 2024 WeatherTech Championship-live IMSA TV (GTD-AWA Racing #13) 8:00 PM to 8:00 PM EDT (GTP) 8:25 PM to 8:40 PM EDT Watch Live on IMSA TV: http://imsatv.imsa.com/ Television Broadcast Saturday April 20, 2024
6 Hours of Imola April 19-21, 2024 TV AND LIVE STREAMING:
US & Canada TV Broadcast: Motor Trend TV Channel (showing 3 hours out of the 6 hours) Sunday April , 2023 Part 1: 6:30 to 8:00 am EDT April 21, 2024 Part 2: 12: to 1:30 pm EDT Other online sources: Max & Discovery Discovery + Live Streaming: https://www.discoveryplus.com/show/fia ... endurance-championship-us
Qualifying: April 20, 2024 10:30 am EDT-10:45 EDT Watch live FIA WEC app, Discovery + or Motorsport TV. ( app purchases) Radio: Radio Le Mans (RS1) http://radiolemans.0157.org/nplayer.php
Fidani, Bell set for season’s first street race in No. 13 AWA Corvette
DETROIT (April 17, 2024) – The next chapter in the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R program gets under way this weekend with the first street race for the first-year racecar in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
Orey Fidani, Matt Bell and AWA are set for their first appearance at the Grand Prix of Long Beach, the third round of this year’s GT Daytona (GTD) championship. The 100-minute race features a 27-car grid including 17 production-based GT entries – including the No. 13 Corvette Z06 GT3.R.
The AWA duo is coming off ninth-place class finish in last month’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Cadillac. This time around it’s an all-out sprint race for the No. 13 Corvette with close-quarters racing the norm between the concrete barriers along the 1.968-mile, 11-turn Long Beach street circuit.
Chevrolet and the Corvette brand have been a fixture at Long Beach since the Corvette Racing program first visited Long Beach in 2007. In 15 visits, Corvette GT cars have captured eight victories with two additional in the Corvette Daytona Prototype era. Combined with results from the NTT INDYCAR SERIES, Chevrolet boasts a total of 22 victories in the Grand Prix’s two premier events.
Orey Fidani, Matt Bell and AWA are set for their first appearance at the Grand Prix of Long Beach, the third round of this year’s GT Daytona (GTD) championship. The 100-minute race features a 27-car grid including 17 production-based GT entries – including the No. 13 Corvette Z06 GT3.R.
OREY FIDANI, NO. 13 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “It’s a privilege to be able to be a part of such a historic event. This is a very challenging circuit that requires a lot of focus since the margin of error is so small, but we made some solid progress at Sebring. We’re taking steps in the right direction and doing everything we can to be more and more competitive as the season goes on. The team is working hard as always to give us a great car, and I believe we have some good opportunities to do well in this round.”
MATT BELL, NO. 13 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “Long Beach will be an exciting new challenge for Orey and myself, as we have never been there before. I’VE watched the race many times over the years and always wanted to race there, I’m glad the wait is finally over!
“Our pace and performance across the week at Sebring gave us a good boost of confidence, and I’ve been told that Long Beach has many similar characteristics, so despite the fact that this is a new circuit for us and we have some gaps in knowledge to fill, I have no doubt that AWA and Corvette will give us a car capable of getting a strong result.”
2024 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Points
GTD Drivers Standings
1. Indy Dontje/Philip Ellis/Russell Ward – 725
2. Antonio Fuoco/Giorgio Sernagiotto/Roberto Lacorte – 589
3. Adam Adelson/Elliott Skeer/Jan Heylen – 570
4. Albert Costa Balboa/Cedric Sbirrazzuoli/Manny Franco – 545
5. Francois Heriau/Miguel Molina/Simon Mann – 485
19. Lars Kern/Matthew Bell/Orey Fidani – 347
GTD Teams Standings
1. No. 57 Windward Racing – 725
2. No. 47 Cetilar Racing – 589
3. No. 120 Wright Motorsports – 570
4. No. 34 Conquest Racing – 545
5. No. 21 AF Corse – 485
18. No. 13 AWA – 347
GTD Manufacturers Standings
1. Mercedes-AMG – 751
2. Porsche – 634
3. Lamborghini – 616
4. McLaren – 550
5. Lexus – 527
7. Chevrolet – 505
CORVETTE RACING BY THE NUMBERS: Long Beach
• 3: Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs in competition this weekend – No. 13 of AWA at Long Beach, No. 81 and No. 82 of TF Sport at Imola
• 4: Generations of Corvette ZR1 (C3, C4, C6 and C7). The eighth-generation Corvette ZR1 will be revealed this summer
• 6: Iterations of Corvette GT entries at Long Beach since 2007 – Corvette C6.R GT1 (2007-09, Corvette C6.R GT2/GT (2010-13), Corvette C7.R (2014-2019), Corvette C8.R GTE (2021), Corvette C8.R GTD (2022-2023) and now the Corvette Z06 GT3.R
• 8: Number of drivers who have competed at Long Beach for Corvette Racing – Olivier Beretta, Antonio Garcia, Oliver Gavin, Jan Magnussen, Tommy Milner, Johnny O’Connell, Nick Tandy and Jordan Taylor. That list grows this year with addition of Orey Fidani and Matt Bell in the No. 13 AWA Corvette Z06 GT3.R
• 8: Number of Long Beach victories in 15 appearances for the Corvette Racing program
• 10: Number of Long Beach sports car victories for Chevrolet. Throw in 12 IndyCar wins, and Chevrolet has claimed 22 victories in the event’s two premier races.
• 14: Manufacturer Championships for Chevrolet and Corvette Racing since 2001
• 19: Number of street circuit victories for Corvette Racing – more than any other IMSA entrant at the circuit.
• 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
• 45: Number of drivers in Corvette Racing entries since 1999. Rui Andrade, Sebastien Baud, Hiroshi Koizumi and Tom Van Rompuy joined the list at Qatar to open the WEC season
• 71: Years since Corvette was introduced to the world on Jan. 17, 1953 in New York City. A total of 300 cars were produced that year
• 127: Victories worldwide for Corvette Racing – 115 in North America, nine at Le Mans and three in the FIA WEC
• 287: Event starts by Corvette Racing since 1999
• 4,225.27: Number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing in its 15 previous trips to Long Beach. That represents 2,147 laps around the 1.968-mile street circuit.
• 371,612.71: Total number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing entries since 1999. 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
Corvette Racing at Long Beach (wins in bold)
2007
No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Jan Magnussen/Johnny O'Connell – 2nd in GT1 (Magnussen fastest race lap)
CORVETTE RACING AT IMOLA: Building on Qatar Performance
TF Sport team buoyed by pre-race testing at Italian circuit ahead of Round 2
DETROIT (April 16, 2024) – Corvette Racing and TF Sport write their next chapter together this weekend as the team and its pair of Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs travel to Italy for the FIA World Endurance Championship’s Six Hours of Imola.
The goal this time around for TF Sport and Chevrolet is to earn more points in the LM GT3 Drivers, Manufacturers and Teams championship standings. Both the No. 81 and No. 82 Corvettes came away from the season-opening event in Qatar with points and positives to take into the Italian round.
The second round of the championship is at a new venue for the Corvette brand, but not for TF Sport. Already, the team has undertaken a robust testing program at the 3.05-mile, 19-turn circuit in which the two Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs recorded more than 3,000 kilometers. TF Sport has raced just once at Monza but it was a stellar outing – a 1-2 finish in the European Le Mans Series’ GTE class and the LMP2 Pro-Am victory in 2022.
In addition, Corvette Racing has tasted success in Italy during the last two FIA WEC seasons: it won the GTE Pro class at Monza in 2022 with the Corvette C8.R, and the team wrapped up the GTE Am Drivers and Teams titles in 2023 also at Monza.
The FIA WEC’s Six Hours of Imola Prologue is set for 1 p.m. Central European Time / 7 a.m. Eastern Time on Sunday, April 21. MotorTrend and MotorTrend Plus will provide both live television and streaming coverage of the race and Friday’s qualifying, as will the FIA WEC app and the MAX app in the U.S. Radio Le Mans will stream audio coverage of the race plus Friday’s final practice and qualifying.
CHARLIE EASTWOOD, NO. 81 TF SPORT CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: "I feel everyone is thinking the same thing in that it will be a super-tough race with traffic. As we know, Imola has the characteristics of one of the more old-school European tracks. With that, it makes passing between GT3 and Hypercar very difficult. We were testing at Imola a few weeks ago in the Corvette, and the delta of lap time between GT3 and Hypercar was significantly smaller than most circuits. The main reason for this is that at Imola in the GT3 cars, you can take a lot of curbs. There has been a completely new profile of the curbing around most of the circuit so that the GT3s can get right on top of the curbs, which the Corvette was handling very well at the test but the Hypercars cannot; they have to drive around them. So the laptime delta is going to be very small and I feel they are going to struggle to pass the GT cars very easily. So you're going to see a lot of aggression into braking zones and things like that. It's going to be an interesting race and hard to know how it's fully going to pan out. But it will be action-packed and with a chance of some collisions between cars in different classes.
"I have raced at Imola in LMP2. That in itself was very difficult with the traffic. If anything, the Hypercars may struggle even more as they are a heavier car and can't take the curbs as much as the P2s. We might find that some Hypercars may be stuck behind GT3s for half a lap or maybe a third of a lap, which is a significant laptime loss for those guys."
DANI JUNCADELLA, NO. 82 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: "I did a race in 2022 with GT World Challenge at Imola where I finished second. It's a pretty cool track, to be fair, with not much rest between corners; there aren't many long straights so there is a lot of activity in your driving. The Corvette felt pretty good at the test. It was a positive session, and it was positive because my teammates did pretty well. Both Seb and Hiroshi... especially Hiro. He found a lot of speed during the two days, which is very encouraging. As I've said before, our result in the end ultimately depends a lot on their performance. They were both impressive, which is encouraging as a sort of driver coach.
"An interesting feature about Imola is that at most of the corners, there are very high curbs. It's a quite unique driving style because you need to use as much as you can from the curbs. But on the other hand, it's difficult to set up the cars to ride those curbs properly. In the test, we could see that it was quite upsetting when you were beating those big curbs. But there is a way to go through to maximize the car balance and performance.
"Also there is the atmosphere around the corner where Aryton Senna crashed. There is a statue of him, a lot of flowers and a lot of memories. It's always special to be in such an environment. You can feel that vibe around the track."
SEBASTIEN BAUD, NO. 82 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: "I am very much looking forward to participating in this second round of the World Endurance Championship. We have had good preparation with the team and my teammates. And above all, a good analysis of our performances after the first round in Qatar. I am very determined for this six-hour race and also to demonstrate the full potential of the Corvette Z06 GT3.R. Imola is going to be a tricky race with traffic. You will have to remain very attentive, while being quick."
4. Ahmad Al Harthy/Maxime Martin/Valentino Rossi – 18
5. David Rigon/Francesco/Castellacci/Thomas Flohr – 15
10. Daniel Juncadella/Hiroshi Koizumi/Sebastien Baud – 2
11. Charlie Eastwood/Rui Andrade/Tom Van Rompuy – 1
LMGT3 Teams Standings
1. No. 92 Manthey PureRxcing – 38
2. No. 27 Heart of Racing Team – 27
3. No. 777 D’Station Racing – 23
4. No. 46 Team WRT – 18
5. No. 54 Vista AF Corse – 15
10. No. 82 TF Sport – 2
11. No. 81 TF Sport – 1
CORVETTE RACING BY THE NUMBERS: Imola
• 2: Starts for Corvette Racing in Italy – both at Monza in WEC (2022, 2023)
• 3: Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs in competition this weekend – No. 13 of AWA at Long Beach, No. 81 and No. 82 of TF Sport at Imola
• 4: Generations of Corvette ZR1 (C3, C4, C6 and C7). The eighth-generation Corvette ZR1 will be revealed this summer
• 14: Manufacturer Championships for Chevrolet and Corvette Racing since 2001
• 19: Number of street circuit victories for Corvette Racing – more than any other IMSA entrant at the circuit.
• 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
• 45: Number of drivers in Corvette Racing entries since 1999. Rui Andrade, Sebastien Baud, Hiroshi Koizumi and Tom Van Rompuy joined the list at Qatar to open the WEC season
• 71: Years since Corvette was introduced to the world on Jan. 17, 1953 in New York City. A total of 300 cars were produced that year
• 127: Victories worldwide for Corvette Racing – 115 in North America, nine at Le Mans and three in the FIA WEC
• 287: Event starts by Corvette Racing since 1999
• 4,225.27: Number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing in its 15 previous trips to Long Beach. That represents 2,147 laps around the 1.968-mile street circuit.
• 371,612.71: Total number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing entries since 1999. 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
Corvette Racing in Italy (wins in bold)
2022
No. 64 Corvette C8.R: Tommy Milner/Nick Tandy (Monza) – 1st in GTE Pro
2023
No. 33 Corvette C8.R: Nicky Catsburg/Ben Keating/Nico Varrone (Monza) – 4th in GTE Am (clinched GTE Am championship)
SEBRING, Fla. (March 16, 2024) – The No. 13 AWA Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R led the contingent of first-year GT3 Corvettes at the end of Saturday’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Cadillac. The trio of Orey Fidani, Matt Bell and Lars Kern placed ninth in a 22-car GT Daytona (GTD) field at Sebring International Raceway in the second round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
Sebring was the second race for AWA as part of the Corvette program following a debut in January’s Rolex 24 At Daytona. The No. 13 trio completed 314 laps and finished on the lead GTD lap in a largely trouble-free run.
Fidani drove two stints in the early part of the race, including the opening laps after all four Corvettes started from the rear of the field due to a post-qualifying technical infraction. But the No. 13 Orlando Corporation Z06 GT3.R team steadily worked its way through the field and ran as high as third in class before a successful fight in the closing hour to maintain its top-10 finish.
The No. 3 Oshkosh/Mobil 1 Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Antonio Garcia, Alexander Sims and Daniel Juncadella looked as if it would take the honors as the highest-finishing Corvette in the race before being hit from behind and spun off track in the waning laps while running second in GTD PRO.
The biggest mover early was Sims, who started the race and went from ninth to first in the first 67 minutes to set the table for a race-long fight for the class win with a special Mobil 1 gold livery to mark the company’s 50th anniversary.
Garcia drove a double-stint before Juncadella put in a strong three-hour drive in the hottest part of the day as the No. 3 Corvette remained in the hear t of the fight. An untimely full-course yellow and an emergency pit stop for fuel with less than three hours to go pushed the team back down the order, but solid driving and strategy put Juncadella back into the lead inside the final 70 minutes.
Late-race chaos saw Juncadella jostled around by multiple cars, the final being the impact that knocked the No. 3 Corvette off the circuit with six minutes to go.
The No. 4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Z06 GT3.R lost time in the first half of the race trying to sort clutch issues while trying to remain in GTD PRO contention with servicing during pit stops. Near the halfway point, the team elected to change a clutch component and lost multiple laps in the process.
AWA’s second Corvette - the No. 17 Z06 GT3.R in GTD – retired early in the race with an electrical problem.
The next IMSA round for the Corvette Z06 GT3.R program is the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach – featuring the GTD class – on April 20 from the Long Beach (Calif.) Street Circuit.
AWA POST-EVENT DRIVER QUOTES
MATT BELL, NO. 13 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: "It was pretty intense out there. Obviously in Daytona we just had to circulate around a bit after that unfortunate start. It was good to be back in the GTD battle properly there. There was some intense battling, and I managed to fight my way from the back to P8, I think, so it was nice to be in the fight. We're still really learning the car and optimizing things we learned in practice. Chevrolet and Pratt Miller have built an impressive piece of GT3 machinery. We're still getting to grips with it a little bit, but as the race went on we jumped up and down the leaderboard and think at one point we were P3 after cycling through some stops. That was a proper, old-fashioned GTD stint doing some overtaking, which was nice to be in the fight. You're always learning and you're always pushing as well. We're not just cycling around trying to be in school. We're going as hard as we can."
LARS KERN, NO. 13 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: "It was a pretty tough race. It seems like we haven't had the pace, so we need to figure out why. We didn't have the pace to fight with the top guys so that was a bit frustrating. It was a hard race and really hot in the car. There were some little hiccups but didn't have any penalties or any big incidents. So generally I'd say we executed pretty well. It's good after Daytona to finish this race, gain some experience and move on."
CORVETTE RACING BY PRATT MILLER MOTORSPORTS POST-EVENT DRIVER QUOTES
DANI JUNCADELLA, NO. 3 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: "There were some pretty poor driving standards at the end from many cars. I just got fully rear-ended into the braking zone at Turn Three. I was just a passenger and there was nothing I could do. It's a shame because we lost a podium probably - P2 or P3. Two corners before I got run wide by the Ferrari as well. It was very hectic out there and people were acting over-aggressive. It gets dark here and there's not much (camera) footage so people start believing there are no rules. It was a bit too much. It's a shame because after the last stop when we jumped everyone to the lead. I thought we maybe had it. But restarting through the GTD cars was a complete mess. I got overtaken before the green by the 14. We were lacking a little bit of top speed unfortunately late to fight the others. But the Z06 GT3.R was good and I was happy. I enjoyed the experience of returning to Sebring. It was just a bittersweet ending. We'll analyze and get better for the next one."
ALEXANDER SIMS, NO. 3 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: "We struggled a little bit in practice, but at the end of Thursday we had a feeling that we understood what that was and qualifying seemed to go well. In that first race stint, it was good to just get into it. It seemed like the car's pace throughout the whole stint was pretty strong. But I tried to be sensible as well and not take too many risks and be too crazy early in the race."
ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: "It was a standard GTD race with a lot of warriors. The ABS in these cars allow people to throw it in and pray for the car to stop. It’s not ideal. It was a great job by Alex and Dani. We lost A/C from the third hour so it was very hard on us. It’s a shame we didn’t come out with a decent result. I’m not saying we deserved the win but I think we did deserve a strong result.”
TOMMY MILNER, NO. 4 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: "It wasn't too bad early. The mentality at the start here was not to do anything stupid, no matter what. On the very first laps, you needed be very easy. Obviously there was a lot of chaos in front of us, but the mindset was already pretty reserved anyway so it didn't affect us. I had two good stints there. It was tough to race with some the other cars in our class."
NICKY CATSBURG, NO. 4 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: "To be honest, I think we had pretty good pace and were competitive. Unfortunately we ran into some issues with the clutch, so we kept losing time at the pit stops, and I had to stop twice on track. The pace is there but we were losing track position. We will keep plugging away at it and hopefully end up with a good result at the next race.”
PRESS RELEASE: CORVETTE RACING AT SEBRING: 'The Ultimate Test'
Corvette GT3 program looking to add to brand’s rich history of 12 Hours success
DETROIT (March 13, 2024) – The new-look Corvette Racing program is headed to one of the toughest and most extreme tests in all of motorsports – the 72nd running of the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Cadillac.
The rough-and-tumble Sebring International Raceway in central Florida is steeped in Corvette Racing lore with countless tests plus 29 races during a quarter-century of Corvette competition. That should bode well for the fortunes of the four Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R entries entered for this America’s oldest sports car race.
Two of the Corvette GT3 cars are entered in each of the GT classes of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship – a pair for Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports in GTD PRO and an additional two for AWA in GTD.
The goal for each team is to put Corvette back on the top step of the podium – a place Corvette Racing has stood 14 times leading into this year’s running. Operated by Pratt Miller Engineering, the Corvette factory team has tasted victory each of the last two years – 2022 in GTD PRO and 2023 in the GTE Am class of the FIA World Endurance Championship.
The current Corvette/PMM team tested the Corvette Z06 GT3.R at Sebring in November in order to gather valuable data on the first-year car ahead of the season’s most grueling race across the bumps and concrete of the 3.74-mile, 17-turn Sebring circuit. The lineups remain the same from the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona: Antonio Garcia, Alexander Sims and Daniel Juncadella in the No. 3 Oshkosh / Mobil 1 Corvette with Tommy Milner, Nicky Catsburg and Earl Bamber sharing the No. 4 Oshkosh / Mobil 1 Corvette.
The six Corvette factory drivers have a combined 11 victories at Sebring.
In GTD, the AWA team will make its second start with the Corvette brand after debuting at Daytona. The squad enjoyed a solid Sebring 12 Hours a year ago in LMP3 with the No. 13 trio of Orey Fidani, Matt Bell and Lars Kern finishing second in class.
They will team again in this year’s race while 2023 fourth-place LMP3 finishers Anthony Mantella and Nico Varrone – a winner last year for Corvette Racing in the FIA WEC’s 1,000 Miles of Sebring – are set to drive with Rolex 24 teammate Thomas Merrill.
The Corvette Z06 GT3.R is Chevrolet’s first car built to global GT3 regulations. It’s based on the production Corvette Z06 supercar with the two sharing a significant amount of DNA.
The racecar is built on the same production aluminum chassis frame – from Chevrolet’s Bowling Green (Ky.) Assembly plant – as the road-going Z06. Similar carbon-fiber splitters for front downforce, and the surface area from the top of the windshield to the rear of the Z06 remained intact on the Z06 GT3.R. That includes side air ducts behind the doors — directly inspired by Z06 production road car — that help to cool the engine, transaxle and rear brakes.
The similarities carry over to the hand-built 5.5L, flat-plane crankshaft V8 engine in the Z06 GT3.R. Both original from the Bowling Green factory with the racing version sharing 80 percent of the production content from the Z06, including the crankshaft, connecting rods, cylinder heads, fuel injectors, coils, gaskets and a variety of other sensors.
Celebrating Mobil 1’s 50th Anniversary
To mark the 50th anniversary of Corvette technical partner Mobil 1, both the No. 3 and No. 4 Corvettes from Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports will contest Sebring with special Mobil 1-inspired liveries. Both cars – plus the No. 01 Cadillac V-Series.R in GTP - will feature celebratory Mobil 1 gold along with the Mobil 1 Pegasus, which throughout its history has symbolized speed and power within the brand. The Mobil 1 brand and its partners will be highlighting the brand’s legacy and future at Sebring, as well as off the track through the rest of this monumental anniversary year.
For more than 25 years, the Mobil 1 brand has been an integral part of the Corvette Racing program. It was the only lubricant used by the factory racing effort dating back to the first on-track tests of the Corvette C5-R in 1997. The Mobil 1 brand continues as a primary sponsor of the Pratt Miller-run Corvette Z06 GT3.R team, and since 1993 has been the factory fill for all new production Corvettes.
Chevrolet Motorsports Display, Ride and Drive Return to Sebring
In addition to the many happenings on the racetrack at Sebring, fans will have plenty to see and experience from Chevrolet. That’s because two locations at the circuit – Chevrolet’s Motorsports Display and the Chevrolet Ride and Drive – will be full of Chevy vehicles that spectators can learn more about throughout the weekend.
The Chevrolet Motorsports Display opens at 9 a.m. Thursday and Friday plus 8 a.m. Saturday in the Sebring Midway. Numerous Chevrolet vehicles and other highlights include:
• The Corvette Z06 GT3.R showcar along with the 2023 Corvette Z06 coupe
• Corvette Stingray convertible
• Additional Chevrolet products such as Traverse Z71, Blazer EV RS, Silverado 1500, Colorado ZR2, Tahoe RST, Silverado 2500HD
• An example of the LT6.R engine in the Corvette Z06 GT3.R
• An opportunity to receive a 2024 Chevrolet Motorsports t-shirt
Also beginning Thursday, fans visiting the Sebring Skidpad outside of Turn 17 can sample a Chevrolet vehicle for themselves at the Ride and Drive event. Starting at 9 a.m. each day, spectators have the chance to test a wide variety of Chevrolets including Blazer RS, Tahoe High Country, Silverado 1500, TrailBlazer Active and Trax Active.
The Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Cadillac is scheduled for 9:40 a.m. ET on Saturday, March 16. The race will air on USA Network from 4-10 p.m. ET with full streaming coverage on Peacock at 9:30 a.m. ET. IMSA Radio will air all on-track sessions beginning at IMSA.com along with Sirius 216, XM 207, SiriusXM Online 992 and 100.9 FM at the circuit.
CORVETTE RACING BY PRATT MILLER MOTORSPORTS PRE-EVENT DRIVER QUOTES
ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: "After coming to Sebring for more than 15 years, the race still amazes me. It really is unlike any other event we do with the combination of the track, the bumps and the fans that turn out every year. I'm fortunate to have won many races at Sebring in different categories and generations of the Corvette and I hope that continues with the Z06 GT3.R. Already we have some notes and data from testing over the bumps late last year so that should help us arrive with a good baseline. We were fast at Daytona and immediately competitive, so let's see if all that together will mean more success for Corvette at Sebring."
ALEXANDER SIMS, NO. 3 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “I’m looking forward to Sebring a heck of a lot. The way last year’s race worked out still perplexes me! So now it will be cool to go there and try to get my first Sebring GT win, after coming home second a few seasons ago. Having driven the car there in testing, it felt good. It was probably the most challenging track I’ve been on so far in trying to get used to the ABS with the bumps throughout. We’ve made gains with the car since the test but difficult to know what those are like and how relevant they are to the Sebring track and the surface. As we gain general understanding of the car and the tires, things are going in a positive direction.”
DANI JUNCADELLA, NO. 3 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “Sebring is an event that starts in the day and ends at night, which is very unique. The track is very cool with a lot of history behind it. It’s definitely one of the highlight races in IMSA. I’ve always heard that the Corvette is a very good car around Sebring, and that’s exciting as well. I’ve raced two times there and came second and third. Hopefully if we are on the podium, we will be on that missing step.
“This is no secret or mystery – winning at Sebring is more exciting than winning at a lot of other places. It’s a race where a lot of things happen over the 12 hours. There is so much history behind it. It’s a very cool event. I’ve only raced there twice but already feel like I know the track very well. I feel like I have raced there a lot more, but I have done a lot of laps on simulators over the years. That makes it easier to get to grips.”
TOMMY MILNER, NO. 4 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “I’m always excited to go to Sebring. It gives us a chance to see how the Z06 GT3.R will be in a configuration that will carry on through the rest of the year. We’ve done a lot of testing at Sebring, including with this car. Historically the Corvette racecars have always been very strong over the bumps, and this car seems no different than previous generations. So we’re anticipating a good race from our side. As always, Sebring is famously rough on equipment and drivers! I’m confident we’ve addressed the issues that we experienced in testing and at Daytona. I’m super happy with how driving with Earl and Nicky ended up. They both did a fantastic job, as expected. I’m going into the weekend with high hopes and expectations. But it’s still a new car and a new season. We’ll see how things go once we get on track for practice.”
NICKY CATSBURG, NO. 4 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “The last couple of years at Sebring have been good for me personally, winning there and dominating in WEC and then the year before with Antonio and Jordan we won in IMSA. So it’s been quite good and I look forward to continuing that streak. I do have high hopes. Yes, Daytona was difficult but the car already showed some good pace. I do not believe we were too slow to fight for a podium. Maybe we could not have fought for a win, but there some small technical issues which we should struggle with less going forward. We have had more time to discover the time, and a 24-hour race is not the easiest race to start with. The team continues to progress and we have improved the car from where it was weak in Daytona. So we should be strong there. The team knows how to set up the car really well at Sebring, and I believe they know exactly what to do so we can extract the most speed out of it. I like the car, we have a great team and great teammates. I cannot wait for Sebring to come so we can fight for a victory.”
EARL BAMBER, NO. 4 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “The debut of the Corvette at Daytona was exciting. We showed that we had good form to run at the front. When we tested at Sebring, the car also was really strong. Of all the GT3 cars recently that I’ve driven, the Corvette is one of the stronger packages, and at Sebring it was really good too. The Pratt Miller guys have been working hard to rectify the small teething things we had at Daytona, and I think we’ll come out swinging at Sebring. It’s a track that has suited Corvette for a long time. Doing my first race with them, I can see why they beat us and won so many championships when you look at the side of the truck. I’m looking forward to getting down there and giving it a good shot at another endurance racing classics.”
AWA PRE-EVENT DRIVER QUOTES
MATT BELL, NO. 13 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “A great deal of commitment and focus is required in order to be able to succeed at Sebring, but it’s an exhilarating race from start to finish. We've meticulously prepared for this event and have spent a lot of time trying to fine-tune our No. 13 Corvette Z06 GT3.R, so I’m feeling confident that our hard work will pay off. Even though the first race of the year didn’t go our way, we’re here to embrace the challenge and push ourselves until we get the results we know we’re capable of.”
OREY FIDANI, NO. 13 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “We’ve done very well at Sebring in the past and we’ll be doing everything we can to have another strong result here again. I’m ready to get back in the car and showcase all of our efforts. We know we have it in us to compete at the front of the pack and contend with the best in the field, now it’s just a matter of putting all the pieces together. It’s a long race, and anything can happen, but I believe in our ability to rise to the occasion.”
LARS KERN, NO. 13 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “I’m really looking forward to what is my favorite race on the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship calendar. Even though it’s a 12-hour race, there’s no holding back from the first lap onwards. Sebring always has an amazing atmosphere, it’s such an incredible event with some of the most passionate fans out there. We completed a good test last week and I can’t wait to hop back into our Corvette Z06 GT3.R. Although our experience at Daytona stung, we feel well prepared to tackle these bumps next weekend and come back stronger.”
NICO VARRONE, NO. 17 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: "The Sebring 12 Hours is always one of top IMSA events. I'm really looking forward to it, especially having won there last year in WEC with Corvette. Even if Daytona this year wasn't kind to us and we had some issues with our Corvette, everyone at Corvette Racing and AWA did a lot of work to sort things. We feel ready for Sebring. I feel like we have a strong package and a strong lineup, so we will give our all. Sebring is a tough track and a tough race with the legendary bumps. With the race starting in the daytime and finishing at night, the car balance changes a lot so you have to be on point in order to have a good car to finish the race, so that's the main goal. We will work hard throughout the week and see where we end up."
ANTHONY MANTELLA, NO. 17 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “Sebring is the ultimate test of skill and endurance, and it’s a race we all collectively greatly look forward to. The intensity and physicality are part of what makes this event so unique, and we’re very determined to do well here and show that our No. 17 Agritainer Corvette Z06 GT3.R has the competitive edge to fight at the front of the GTD Class. Following a difficult opening round at Daytona, we’ve all contributed a great deal of time and energy into making sure we have a strong understanding of the car, and we are fully focused and committed to moving forward and concentrating on the next task.”
THOMAS MERRILL, NO. 17 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “I can’t wait to get back into the No. 17 Agritainer Corvette Z06 GT3.R. We’ve spent some time with the car following Daytona to work out some of the kinks, so I’m confident we’ll be returning stronger at Sebring. Historically, the Corvette has always been strong over the bumps, so I’m optimistic that we will be able to put on a strong performance as well. Still, this is probably the most competitive GTD field we’ve seen, so it won’t come easy, but we’re ready to rise to the occasion and show what we’re capable of. Can’t wait to get started!”
5. Maximilian Goetz/Mikael Grenier/Mike Skeen – 273
18. Anthony Mantella/Charlie Eastwood/Nico Varrone/Thomas Merrill – 152
21. Alex Lynn/Lars Kern/Matthew Bell/Orey Fidani – 117
GTD Teams Standings
1. No. 57 Windward Racing - 364
2. No. 21 AF Corse – 340
3. No. 34 Conquest Racing – 325
4. No. 023 Triarsi Competizione – 303
5. No. 32 KorthoffPreston Motorsport – 273
18. No. 17 AWA – 152
21. No. 13 AWA – 117
GTD Manufacturers Standings
1. Mercedes-AMG – 371
2. Lamborghini – 328
3. Porsche – 312
4. McLaren – 284
5. Lexus – 275
6. Chevrolet – 255
CORVETTE RACING AT SEBRING: By the Numbers
• 1: As in one manufacturer and one model of car for the 26th year at Sebring: Chevrolet and the Corvette
• 3: Tracks where Corvette Racing has competed in each of its previous 25 years: Sebring, WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca and Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.
• 4: Sebring race wins for Antonio Garcia – second-most among drivers entered in this year’s 12 Hours
• 4: GT class pole positions at Sebring for Oliver Gavin and newly elected Sebring Hall of Fame member Ron Fellows, tied for most in event history
• 8: Sebring victories – a race record – for Johnny O’Connell, a Sebring Hall of Famer who drove for Corvette Racing from 2001-10. It includes one overall and seven class wins
• 14: Number of Sebring victories for Corvette Racing – the most of any venue in program history. Twelve of those have come in the 12 Hours, including 2022 in GTD PRO
• 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
• 41: Number of drivers in Corvette Racing entries since 1999. Dani Juncadella, Earl Bamber, Orey Fidani, Matthew Bell, Lars Kern, Alex Lynn. Anthony Mantella, Thomas Merrill and Charlie Eastwood joined the list at Daytona
• 71: Years since Corvette was introduced to the world on Jan. 17, 1953 in New York City. A total of 300 cars were produced that year
• 127: Victories worldwide for Corvette Racing – 115 in North America, nine at Le Mans and three in the FIA WEC
• 286: Event starts by Corvette Racing since 1999
• 55,591.52: Total number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing entries at Sebring since 1999. That’s more than two full trips around the Earth at its equator (approx. 24,900 miles).
• 371,612.71: Total number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing entries since 1999. 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
Corvette Racing at Sebring International Raceway
1999
No. 3 Corvette C5-R: Ron Fellows/Chris Kneifel/John Paul Jr. – 4th in GTS (Fellows pole)
No. 4 Corvette C5-R: Andy Pilgrim/Scott Sharp/John Heinricy – 7th in GTS (Pilgrim fastest race lap)
2000
No. 3 Corvette C5-R: Ron Fellows/Chris Kneifel/Justin Bell – 6th in GTS (Fellows pole)
No. 4 Corvette C5-R: Andy Pilgrim/Kelly Collins/Franck Freon – 5th in GTS
2001
No. 3 Corvette C5-R: Ron Fellows/Johnny O'Connell/Chris Kneifel – 3rd in GTS
No. 4 Corvette C5-R: Andy Pilgrim/Kelly Collins/Franck Freon – 2nd in GTS
2002
No. 3 Corvette C5-R: Ron Fellows/Johnny O'Connell/Oliver Gavin – 1st in GTS (Fellows pole)
No. 4 Corvette C5-R: Andy Pilgrim/Kelly Collins/Franck Freon – 4th in GTS
2003
No. 3 Corvette C5-R: Ron Fellows/Johnny O'Connell/Franck Freon – 1st in GTS
No. 4 Corvette C5-R: Oliver Gavin/Kelly Collins/Andy Pilgrim – 3rd in GTS (Gavin pole)
2004
No. 3 Corvette C5-R: Ron Fellows/Johnny O'Connell/Max Papis – 1st in GTS (Fellows pole)
IMSA: Saturday, March 16 TV & online Coverage 9:30 am -10:00 pm ET Peacock 4:00 pm. -10:00 pm ET USA International Viewers can watch on IMSA.com: http://imsatv.imsa.com/ 9:35 am to 9:40 pm ET
CORVETTE RACING AT QATAR: Lessons Learned in WEC Opener
LUSAIL, Qatar (March 2, 2024) – TF Sport left the season-opening event for the FIA World Endurance Championship with both its Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs combining to score points in what will be an extremely tough and deep LMGT3 class throughout the season.
The trio of Corvette factory driver Daniel Juncadella plus teammates Sébastien Baud and Hiroshi Koizumi teamed to finish 10th at the close of the Qatar Airways Qatar 1812 Km in the No. 82 Corvette Z06 GT3.R. It was the first race for TF Sport under the Corvette Racing banner, the first race for the trio and the first start as WEC full-season competitors for each of the three drivers. They earned two championship points for their efforts.
Koizumi began the race from 11th – after just missing Friday’s Hyperpole session – and had the worst of the traffic among all the TF Sport drivers. He handed over to Baud after a little more than 90 minutes of running. The youngest of the TF Sport driver lineup – at 23 years of age – was immediately on pace with laps that rivaled his more experienced factory teammates.
Juncadella had his first laps in WEC competition after three-and-a-half hours and ran 10th to stay in a points-paying position before the driver rotation began cycling through again into dusk. Koizumi drove two stints with his best pace of the race to keep the No. 82 in the points before his drive time was complete.
Both Baud and Juncadella recorded solid stints during intense competition in the middle of the 18-car field. That included the pole-sitting No. 81 Corvette of Tom Van Rompuy, Rui Andrade and factory driver Charlie Eastwood, which retired with an electrical issue after 177 laps.
Van Rompuy led from pole position in the No. 81 Corvette Z06 GT3.R for the first 20 minutes before settling in for a solid double-stint to open the race. Each lap provided new data and more experience for the TF Sport team as it continued to learn about the Corvette in race conditions.
Teammate Rui Andrade remained in the top-10 just ahead of the 2.5-hour mark when he spun harmlessly but lost time to the pack of GT3 cars we was pursuing. Shortly thereafter, the TF Sport team got its first in-race experience of troubleshooting the Corvette when it had to replace the electronic shifter and lost seven laps in the process.
The Corvette ran well when it returned to the track in the hands of Eastwood before the team discovered an issue with an electrical harness, which ended up being a terminal issue. The trio still left Qatar with one championship point due to Van Rompuy’s pole run Friday.
The next race for TF Sport in the FIA World Endurance Championship is the Six Hours of Imola on Sunday, April 21. The team will travel to the Italian circuit for testing next week as development of the Corvette Z06 GT3.R continues.
DANI JUNCADELLA, NO. 82 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “I’m not entirely disappointed about the weekend. When we look back, there were zero issues, no reliability issues and no setbacks. We ran a very smooth program. Unfortunately we need to look into improving a little bit the balance for Hiroshi. He struggled in the beginning, and that made our race difficult. There were penalties and some drive-throughs… little things that we need to avoid in the future, but I’m sure we can. All in all it’s a positive start for TF Sport with the Corvette Z06 GT3.R. There is a long way to go in this championship.”
CHARLIE EASTWOOD, NO. 81 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: "After the dream start to our WEC campaign with Tom getting pole in the brand new Corvette Z06 GT3.R, unfortunately today didn't go as planned. We had a great start to the race. Unfortunately after ending up a few laps down, we thought it best – as we're still new to this brand new car – to make a test out of the race itself. As we came in for a stop after my first stint, we realized that we had a problem with an electrical harness and had to retire the car. It was such a high yesterday, but unfortunately it wasn't the result we hoped for today. Imola is just around the corner, and I know we will come back strong."
CORVETTE RACING AT QATAR: First Pole for Corvette Z06 GT3.R
Corvette becomes first manufacturer with poles in three FIA WEC GT classes
· First pole for new Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R in initial race with TF Sport
· Tom Van Rompuy fastest LMGT3 qualifier in first FIA WEC start
· Fifth pole position for Corvette brand in FIA WEC competition
· No. 81 TF Sport Corvette Z06 GT3.R to start first, No. 82 TF Sport Corvette to start 11th
LUSAIL, Qatar (March 1, 2024) – Chevrolet’s new Corvette Z06 GT3.R secured its first pole position Friday as Tom Van Rompuy set the fastest time in the LMGT3 Hyperpole session for TF Sport ahead of the FIA World Endurance Championship’s Qatar Airways Qatar 1812 Km.
Van Rompuy, driving the No. 81 Corvette Z06 GT3.R, set a time of 1:54.372 (105.944 mph) around Lusail International Circuit to take the pole in his first career FIA WEC event. His time in the Corvette, which he will share with Charlie Eastwood and Rui Andrade, was 0.807 seconds clear of the second-fastest time in class.
In addition to the first pole for the Corvette Z06 GT3.R, Friday’s achievement also marked the Corvette brand’s fifth pole position in WEC competition. It also is the first manufacturer to qualify on pole position in the series’ three GT classes.
The result also gave TF Sport its 10th pole in WEC competition and first since the Six Hours of Spa in May of 2023.
The Qatar 1812 Km is the first race for the TF Sport/Corvette two-car alliance. The No. 82 Corvette of Hiroshi Koizumi, Sébastien Baud and Daniel Juncadella just missed the GT3 Hyperpole field and will start Saturday’s race 11th in class.
Friday’s session marked the first time – outside of the 24 Hours of Le Mans – that WEC used a Hyperpole session to set the grid for both the Hypercar and LMGT3 classes. The top-10 cars from the first round of qualifying advanced to the 10-minute Hyperpole.
The Qatar Airways Qatar 1812 Km is scheduled for 11 a.m. Arabian Standard Time / 3 a.m. Eastern Time on Saturday, March 2. MotorTrend will provide both live television coverage in the U.S., as will MAX, MotorTrend Plus and the FIA WEC TV app on streaming devices.
TOM VAN ROMPUY, NO. 81 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “It’s a good thing this is on the screens because I otherwise I wouldn’t believe it! It’s my first qualifying session in WEC. We’ve worked really hard this week to improve the car and improve ourselves. The team did a mega job, as did the guys at Corvette and Pratt Miller. In the end, we made it all work so this is a team effort. I could put a really good lap together, and I’m really amazed with this result.”
More on key to taking pole position: “It was (important) really looking after the warmup of the tires. The first lap was really slow and then I was building up. I got another GT car ahead of me on the third lap so I had to back off again to go again. So I had two laps to do it and made it work to put it all together. So I’m very happy.”
Where is the team in managing what will be a long race: “The team has done a really great job. We have a strong package to compete. Obviously it’s a different thing than qualifying – race pace, managing the double-stinting and the other things. But I think we’re quite up to that. It’s exciting to see how it will work out tomorrow in the race.”
CHRISTIE BAGNE, CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R PROGRAM MANAGER: "We couldn't be happier for Tom, the No. 81 Corvette team and all of TF Sport. Taking pole position in the first WEC race for the Corvette Z06 GT3.R is a great accomplishment for the team, Chevrolet, Pratt Miller and everyone at Corvette Customer Support with a tremendous collaborative effort making this possible. We look forward to an exciting race tomorrow for both TF Sport Corvettes."
CHARLIE EASTWOOD, NO. 81 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “The collaboration that we have within the team during the first race is something I’ve never experienced. The mix between GM and Pratt Miller integrating into TF Sport, and also all of the drivers never meeting each other before last week and how we’ve all merged together, the pace of it is just incredible. In terms of helping my teammates, I’m trying to give them as much past experience as possible, even little things like full-course yellows, safety car procedures and things that are second-nature for myself now are very different from other championships in which they may have driven. My goal is always with the Silver and Bronze drivers is to reduce the capacity of thinking so they can focus more on driving. If I can give them any information so they don’t have to come on the radio and ask questions, that just gives them more of their capacity to focus on driving fast.
“I’m very hopeful for the race. With so many pit stops in a 10-hour event and with the pace that we’ve shown throughout all of the lineup, I don’t think there are many in a much better spot. It’s a big points event, and I’m for sure sitting here going for the win. To be honest, I don’t think it’s being unrealistic. If the team does what they do every year and all the drivers nail their stints – no track limit warnings, no drive-throughs and no mistakes – I feel like we can make a real difference in the race. We’ve been here a long time, and we don’t have long to wait to see where we finally are.”
DANI JUNCADELLA, NO. 82 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “I feel like everything has been smooth so far. We’ve done a lot of miles with zero issues, zero setbacks, no reliability issues and that’s really encouraging for a brand new car and a team that is still learning the car. It’s all been really cool so far. My teammates have been great. Seb, I know, is a very fast kid. With Hiroshi, I had low expectations to be fair and he has been way, way above where I expected. So that gives me a lot of encouragement for the race. He came here, didn’t know the track or the car and was immediately on pace.”
RUI ANDRADE, NO. 81 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “We’ve tried a lot of things, which is important considering this is the team’s first race with the Corvette. I think we are definitely in a strong window, and I’m really happy. We did take some steps that didn’t work out so well in practice, but now we are back in a quite comfortable spot. The biggest steps have been learning what we can get from the setup and what we can’t. There’s no point in chasing something that you aren’t going to get. We’ve found a good compromise and the car is strong. This is normal as you test and you do laps with a new car, so I’m pretty happy with what we have going into the race.”
SÉBASTIEN BAUD, NO. 82 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “I’m very happy going into the race. This is a very nice car and a very nice team. Everything is enjoyable. This week gave me a chance to learn the Corvette, learn the team and work with Dani and Hiro, who are both very fast. There is a good feeling now for the first race, which is very long. The car in practice has been good, we have no issues and the drivers have not made mistakes. We will look at the results from qualifying and then tomorrow stay focused in the race. It is very important to be careful around the Hypercars; it is my first race for me, for Hiro and for Dani with those cars in this championship. But we should stay focused on our own race. It’s important to stay calm, make no mistakes, no track limits… if we can finish in the top-five, this will be a good result for our first race together in this championship.”
TOM FERRIER, TF SPORT TEAM OWNER: “This an absolute dream start with Corvette. I’m not sure going into Hyperpole that we might be on pole. We weren’t thinking that far ahead! All credit to Tom, and the guys on the team did a great job. The race will be very long tomorrow, and that’s been our focus all week. It’s been a really busy winter trying to get everything ready. We had some testing at Dubai that wasn’t so successful with some weather; believe it or not we got rained off for two days so that cramped our preparation a little bit. It’s been a lot of hard work in a very short amount of time. We’ll see where we are, and hopefully we’ve got the ingredients to have a strong result.”
CORVETTE RACING AT DAYTONA: Saturday Quotes Package
Final day of Roar weekend features qualifying shootout to set Rolex 24 grid
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Jan. 17, 2024) – The four first-year Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs will roll into Sunday’s qualifying session for the Rolex 24 At Daytona following three test sessions Saturday as part of the Roar Before the 24 weekend on Daytona International Speedway’s road course.
Through two days and five sessions, Corvette Racing factory driver Tommy Milner has the best time in the GT Daytona (GTD) PRO class for Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports in the No. 4 Oshkosh/Mobil 1 Corvette Z06 GT3.R. The 2016 Rolex 24 GTLM class-winner and lead development driver for the Z06 GT3.R set a best lap of 1:45.844 (121.084 mph) in a tight and crowded field; 11 GTD PRO cars were within a second after Saturday.
Milner set his best lap in Saturday morning’s session. On the opposite end of the spectrum, new factory teammate Daniel Juncadella was the quickest driver in the No. 3 Z06 GT3.R with a 1:46.387 (120.466 mph) effort in night practice that was good enough to put the No. 3 sixth in class. Both GTD PRO entries spent time in the garage during the day to address an intermittent electrical issue. The pair of Corvettes returned to record laps in Saturday’s night session.
In GTD, customer team AWA steadily continued its progress during its first event weekend with the Corvette brand.
The No. 13 Z06 GT3.R, in the hands of Alex Lynn, was the 12th fastest car in class after five sessions with a lap of 1:46.314 (120.548 mph) during the night-time running.
First-year factory driver Charlie Eastwood was 17th in GTD after two days of Roar testing in the No. 17 Corvette. Eastwood’s best time was a 1:46.383 (120.470 mph) during Saturday morning’s session. Despite the running order, Eastwood was still within 0.644 seconds of the class leader – a testament to the depth of the 23-car field, which is the largest of the four WeatherTech Championship classes.
The Roar Before the 24 concludes with Sunday’s GTD PRO and GTD qualifying for the Rolex 24 scheduled for 1:55 p.m. ET. The session will stream live around the world on IMSA.com.
CORVETTE RACING BY PRATT MILLER MOTORSPORTS SATURDAY DRIVER QUOTES
TOMMY MILNER, NO. 4 OSHKOSH / MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: "Overall I'm pretty happy with how the Corvette Z06 GT3.R has been in both days of practice so far. Every time I've been in, it has felt very good and I'm happy with the balance. Realistically at this point we're still trying some things to find some speed in a couple of the high-speed sections like the Bus Stop, so there is still work to do. All things considered, from where we were during testing in December to what things feel like now, we're very happy."
DANIEL JUNCADELLA, NO. 3 OSHKOSH / MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: "I'm loving it so far. It's great to be in a new environment. Everything that I have seen so far is very exciting. On the car side, the Corvette feels very good. There are still some miles to go and things we need to go through, but the first feeling is very good. We seem to be competitive as well. On the team side and with our personnel, it feels great. This is a great environment. I feel very much at home so far. I don't want to get my expectations too high because it's a long race, it's still a long way away and many things need to go in your direction to have a chance. But so far so good."
AWA SATURDAY DRIVER QUOTES
ALEX LYNN, NO. 13 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: "So far, so good to be honest. I think we've had a really productive first couple of days at AWA. It's the first time we've really run the Corvette hard in anger. We've had a lot of help from Corvette Racing and Pratt Miller, which has been great. The team is finding its feet really well with this car. We're ticking boxes. We feel like we have a really great car under us and are just working through our stuff. It's going to be a big fight next weekend. You can feel the intensity ramping up. There are a lot of great cars and a lot of great teams that are up for this one. I'm excited to get going."
CHARLIE EASTWOOD, NO. 17 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: "Yesterday was a steep learning curve for everybody. We did a test in December, but once you go into the pressure of a race weekend it all ramps up. I think we were all just finding our feet early. The transformation from yesterday afternoon to this morning – in terms of car feel, performance and everything the team was putting together – was incredible. To be fair, in both the sessions today we looked quite strong. It's looking very positive but we are continuing to go through all the normal procedures... for example the guys have never changed a set of brakes, we've never done an oil dump. Getting all these contingencies and what-ifs are things we continue to try to get through. That list of stuff that we needed to run through felt like it was endless, but we've gone through so much and I feel like within in the team we are confident in our own ability. To go through that in basically two race event days is pretty promising."
CORVETTE RACING BY THE NUMBERS AT DAYTONA
• 0.034: As in seconds – the winning margin of victory in Corvette Racing’s 1-2 finish at the 2016 Rolex 24. Up until last year’s LMP2 finish, it was the closest finish in race history
• 1: Rolex 24 class win for AWA; the team won in LMP3 in 2023. Current team drivers Nico Varrone, Anthony Mantella and Thomas Merrill were part of that lineup
• 2: Number of the overall winning Corvette C5-R in the 2001 Rolex 24. Ron Fellows, Johnny O’Connell, Chris Kneifel and Franck Freon completed 656 laps for 2335.36 miles in the winning effort
• 4: Number of Corvette Z06 GT3.R entries for the 2024 Rolex 24 – two from Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports (GTD PRO) and two from AWA (GTD)
• 4: Rolex 24 wins for Corvette Racing as an entrant: 2001 overall, 2015 GTLM (Antonio Garcia/Jan Magnussen/Ryan Briscoe), 2016 GTLM (Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner/Marcel Fässler) and 2021 GTLM (Garcia/Jordan Taylor/Nicky Catsburg)
• 9: Corvette/General Motors factory drivers piloting the Corvette Z06 GT3.R in this year’s race: Antonio Garcia, Alexander Sims, Dani Juncadella, Tommy Milner, Nicky Catsburg, Earl Bamber (Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller) plus Charlie Eastwood, Nico Varrone and Alex Lynn (AWA). Bamber and Lynn also are Cadillac Racing factory drivers in FIA WEC
• 14: IMSA Manufacturer Championships for Chevrolet and Corvette Racing since 2001
• 24: Drivers who have driven for Corvette Racing at Daytona – Justin Bell, Ryan Briscoe, Nicky Catsburg, Kelly Collins, Dale Earnhardt, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Marcel Fässler, Ron Fellows, Franck Freon, Antonio Garcia, Oliver Gavin, John Heinricy, Chris Kneifel, Robin Liddell, Jan Magnussen, Tommy Milner, Simon Pagenaud, John Paul Jr., Andy Pilgrim, Mike Rockenfeller, Scott Sharp, Alexander Sims, Marco Sorensen, Nick Tandy and Jordan Taylor
• 27: Tracks at which Corvette Racing has won races – Baltimore, Charlotte Motor Speedway, COTA, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park/Mosport, Daytona, Detroit, Fuji Speedway, Houston, Laguna Seca, Le Mans, Lime Rock, Long Beach, Miami, Mid-Ohio, Monza, Portland, Road America, Road Atlanta, Sebring, Sonoma, St. Petersburg, Texas, Trois Rivieres, Utah, VIR, Washington DC and Watkins Glen
• 32: Number of drivers for Corvette Racing since 1999
• 71: Years since Corvette was introduced to the world on Jan. 17, 1953 in New York City. A total of 300 cars were produced that year
• 127: Victories worldwide for Corvette Racing – 115 in North America, nine at Le Mans and three in the FIA WEC
• 284: Event starts by Corvette Racing since 1999
• 99,600: Total number of racing laps completed by Corvette Racing entries since 1999. Barring any issues, the program will go over the 100,00-lap mark at the Rolex 24 of Daytona
• 361,990.52: Total number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing entries since 1999. 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
Corvette Racing at Daytona (wins in bold)
1999
No. 2 Corvette C5-R: Ron Fellows/Chris Kneifel/John Paul Jr. – 3rd in GTS
No. 4 Corvette C5-R: Andy Pilgrim/Scott Sharp/John Heinricy – 12th in GTS
2000
No. 3 Corvette C5-R: Ron Fellows/Chris Kneifel/Justin Bell – 2nd in GTS
No. 4 Corvette C5-R: Andy Pilgrim/Kelly Collins/Franck Freon – 10th in GTS
2001
No. 2 Corvette C5-R: Ron Fellows/Johnny O'Connell/Chris Kneifel/Franck Freon – 1st in GTS (overall win)
No. 3 Corvette C5-R: Andy Pilgrim/Kelly Collins/Dale Earnhardt/Dale Earnhardt Jr. – 2nd in GTS
2014
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia/Ryan Briscoe – 10th in GTLM
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner/Robin Liddell – 5th in GTLM
2015
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia/Ryan Briscoe – 1st in GTLM (Magnussen fastest race lap)
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner/Simon Pagenaud – 3rd in GTLM (Gavin pole)
2016
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia/Mike Rockenfeller – 2nd in GTLM (Garcia fastest race lap)
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner/Marcel Fässler – 1st in GTLM (Winner by 0.034 second)
2017
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia/Mike Rockenfeller – 4th in GTLM
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner/Marcel Fässler – 9th in GTLM
2018
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia/Mike Rockenfeller – 3rd in GTLM (Magnussen pole)
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner/Marcel Fässler – 4th in GTLM
2019
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia/Mike Rockenfeller – 6th in GTLM
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner/Marcel Fässler – 8th in GTLM
2020 (Rolex 24 – January)
No. 3 Corvette C8.R: Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor/Nicky Catsburg – 4th in GTLM
No. 4 Corvette C8.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner/Marcel Fässler – 7th in GTLM
2020 (WeatherTech 240 – July)
No. 3 Corvette C8.R: Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor – 1st in GTLM
No. 4 Corvette C8.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 5th in GTLM
2021
No. 3 Corvette C8.R: Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor/Nicky Catsburg – 1st in GTLM
No. 4 Corvette C8.R: Tommy Milner/Nick Tandy/Alexander Sims – 2nd in GTLM
2022
No. 3 Corvette C8.R: Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor/Nicky Catsburg – 6th in GTD PRO
No. 4 Corvette C8.R: Tommy Milner/Nick Tandy/Marco Sorensen – 10th in GTD PRO
2023
No. 3 Corvette C8.R: Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor/Tommy Milner – 2nd in GTD PRO
Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports, AWA to debut Corvette Z06 GT3.R
DETROIT (Jan. 16, 2024) – A new season of racing marks a new start to the Corvette Racing program. The three-day Roar Before the 24 at Daytona International Speedway is the annual preview ahead of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, which will look very different for familiar with the Corvette brand.
Instead of one or two Corvette GT cars running around the 3.56-mile infield road course as has been tradition for the 25 years, a quartet of the new Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R racecars are set for the Roar – one week before the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona.
The quartet of Corvettes will be spread out in two classes of the WeatherTech Championship: Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports in GTD (GT Daytona) PRO and AWA in GTD. Nine GM factory drivers dot the roster of four cars.
· Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports: Antonio Garcia, Alexander Sims, Daniel Juncadella (No. 3 Oshkosh / Mobil 1 Corvette); Tommy Milner, Nicky Catsburg, Earl Bamber (No. 4 Oshkosh / Mobil 1 Corvette)
· AWA: Orey Fidani, Matthew Bell, Lars Kern, Alex Lynn (No. 13 Corvette); Anthony Mantella, Nico Varrone, Thomas Merrill, Charlie Eastwood
The official competition debut of the Corvette Z06 GT3.R comes almost 15 months from the first time the initial test car turned its wheels for the first time on a track. Since that time, continued testing and development has come at circuits around the United States and at Chevrolet’s Driver in the Loop (DIL) simulator.
The Corvette Z06 GT3.R is Chevrolet’s first car built to global GT3 regulations. It’s based on the production Corvette Z06 supercar with the two sharing a significant amount of DNA.
The racecar is built on the same production aluminum chassis frame – from Chevrolet’s Bowling Green (Ky.) Assembly plant – as the road-going Z06. Similar carbon-fiber splitters for front downforce, and the surface area from the top of the windshield to the rear of the Z06 remained intact on the Z06 GT3.R. That includes side air ducts behind the doors — directly inspired by Z06 production road car — that help to cool the engine, transaxle and rear brakes.
The similarities carry over to the hand-built 5.5L, flat-plane crankshaft V8 engine in the Z06 GT3.R. Both original from the Bowling Green factory with the racing version sharing 80 percent of the production content from the Z06, including the crankshaft, connecting rods, cylinder heads, fuel injectors, coils, gaskets and a variety of other sensors.
Corvette’s latest racing challenger benefits from a legacy of previous race- and championship-winning racecars. Three previous generations of Corvette – C5-R, C7.R and C8.R – have visited Victory Lane at Daytona with the program claiming four previous class victories. The goal for this year’s Rolex is to claim Victory No. 5… and No. 6.
The Roar Before the 24 is set for Friday-Sunday with GTD PRO and GTD qualifying for the Rolex 24 scheduled for 1:55 ET p.m. on Sunday. The session will stream live around the world on IMSA.com.
CORVETTE RACING BY PRATT MILLER MOTORSPORTS PRE-EVENT DRIVER QUOTES
ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 OSHKOSH / MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: "I've raced the Rolex 24 many times but I think I'm looking forward to this year more than almost any previous ones. Obviously we have the new Corvette to debut in a race for the first time, and that is exciting for all of us. It's a new chapter for us as drivers and everyone at Corvette and Pratt Miller. The Z06 GT3.R has a lot of potential as we've seen in testing so let's see how things play out first at the Roar. Sharing the No. 3 car with Alexander and Dani also is something new for me, and I'm very happy about it. Of course Alex has a good history with this team, and Dani is a very tough and fast competitor as he has proven against us in the past. I'm happy to race with him and not against him!"
ALEXANDER SIMS, NO. 3 OSHKOSH / MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: "It'll be great to do some more laps in the new Corvette and get a better feeling for it following the testing we've already had. We keep improving things, which is what you want. There are some things that I'm still trying to get my head around like the ABS, so having some more laps is always a good thing. It's cool and exciting to get the season kicked off. The Roar is a nice, soft start to the year with three days at Daytona. Hopefully the weather is friendly for us. It should be nice. Overall I'm looking forward to getting everything kicked off with Antonio, Dani and the team. I've never worked directly with Antonio, Dani or Andy Ramsey, our engineer. So it will be nice to start working together in a more competitive environment as the season progresses. So far it seems like it is a recipe for good things to come."
DANI JUNCADELLA, NO. 3 OSHKOSH / MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: "It's a very special week coming up for me. It's a new challenge and new beginning in my career to join one of the biggest brands in the racing world. Being part of this lineup in the No. 3 Corvette and all the legacy behind being a Corvette factory driver and joining such an experienced and successful team like Pratt Miller Motorsports is very special and very unique. I'm massively excited for everything. The year starts with a big highlight because you could say this is our biggest race of the year. That makes it even more exciting on top of it. Also with the Z06 GT3.R... when you add all these things together, I really have to come into these weeks controlling my expectations and motivations. It's like when you're young and back for the first day at school. I have to control this excitement and focus and go day by day. I've enjoyed this process and working with this group that I got to know in December. I feel very good within the team. I'm excited and looking forward to jumping on track and seeing how things are at this Roar."
TOMMY MILNER, NO. 4 OSHKOSH / MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: "I'm ready to go racing. With 2023 being a little bit different year for me with more testing and less racing, coming to Daytona I'm even more anxious and geared up to go racing full-time. There has been a lot of simulator testing - just about a year before the car first hit the track - which is similar to what we did with C8.R. The level of anxiousness for me is a little higher because I've not raced full-time for more than a year. This should be a fun year racing with Nicky and adding Earl at the longer races. This team operates as one team and there's always been collaboration between both cars. It's a great atmosphere within the team, and I'm happy that's continuing with the guys we have this year."
NICKY CATSBURG, NO. 4 OSHKOSH / MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: "I'm ready to go racing. With 2023 being a little bit different year for me with more testing and less racing, coming to Daytona I'm even more anxious and geared up to go racing full-time. There has been a lot of simulator testing - just about a year before the car first hit the track - which is similar to what we did with C8.R. The level of anxiousness for me is a little higher because I've not raced full-time for more than a year. This should be a fun year racing with Nicky and adding Earl at the longer races. This team operates as one team and there's always been collaboration between both cars. It's a great atmosphere within the team, and I'm happy that's continuing with the guys we have this year."
EARL BAMBER, NO. 4 OSHKOSH / MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: "I'm ready to go racing. With 2023 being a little bit different year for me with more testing and less racing, coming to Daytona I'm even more anxious and geared up to go racing full-time. There has been a lot of simulator testing - just about a year before the car first hit the track - which is similar to what we did with C8.R. The level of anxiousness for me is a little higher because I've not raced full-time for more than a year. This should be a fun year racing with Nicky and adding Earl at the longer races. This team operates as one team and there's always been collaboration between both cars. It's a great atmosphere within the team, and I'm happy that's continuing with the guys we have this year."
AWA PRE-EVENT DRIVER QUOTES
ALEX LYNN, NO. 13 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: "I'm really looking forward to the Roar and the Rolex 24. Of course it's the racing debut of the new Corvette, and there has been a ton of work put in by Corvette, Pratt Miller and GM. It's a thrill to play a small part of it and get the enjoyable job of driving. It's a fantastic car, and we're excited to start off 2024 with one of the biggest races in the world. It's a huge honor. Every time you drive in a Corvette, you fight for the win. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't going there with the dream of coming home with a new watch. Going into the Roar, there is still a lot to learn and see and size up the competition. The emotions are a lot of excitement of getting Stateside and getting going.”
NICO VARRONE, NO. 17 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: "I'm super excited to go back to the Roar – this time with the Corvette Z06 GT3.R. It's the first time for us in official sessions, and it will be awesome to see the results of the work of a lot of people over the last couple of years. As a team, AWA we haven't had as much running as we would have wanted, but the car is well-developed with a lot of running and testing. For us, both the Roar and Rolex will be races against the clock to find out what the car likes and doesn't like in terms of setup, electronics and other things we need to work on and catch up in order to be a contender. But this will be an exciting challenge and super fun. I like our lineup. so everything goes well, we should have a good couple of weeks."
CHARLIE EASTWOOD, NO. 17 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: "For both AWA and myself, we're still relatively new to the Z06 GT3.R. We still have plenty to run through. Ultimately the Roar is an event in its own right, but really it is a test item for the big one the next week for the Rolex 24. We have plenty of testing items to go through, all the drivers need more time in the car, but already things are in a fantastic place from the test we did before December. I'm looking forward to getting back into the car and into my first event and race weekend as a Corvette factory driver. It should be a good one."
CORVETTE RACING BY THE NUMBERS AT DAYTONA
• 0.034: As in seconds – the winning margin of victory in Corvette Racing’s 1-2 finish at the 2016 Rolex 24. Up until last year’s LMP2 finish, it was the closest finish in race history
• 1: Rolex 24 class win for AWA; the team won in LMP3 in 2023. Current team drivers Nico Varrone, Anthony Mantella and Thomas Merrill were part of that lineup
• 2: Number of the overall winning Corvette C5-R in the 2001 Rolex 24. Ron Fellows, Johnny O’Connell, Chris Kneifel and Franck Freon completed 656 laps for 2335.36 miles in the winning effort
• 4: Number of Corvette Z06 GT3.R entries for the 2024 Rolex 24 – two from Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports (GTD PRO) and two from AWA (GTD)
• 4: Rolex 24 wins for Corvette Racing as an entrant: 2001 overall, 2015 GTLM (Antonio Garcia/Jan Magnussen/Ryan Briscoe), 2016 GTLM (Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner/Marcel Fässler) and 2021 GTLM (Garcia/Jordan Taylor/Nicky Catsburg)
• 9: Corvette/General Motors factory drivers piloting the Corvette Z06 GT3.R in this year’s race: Antonio Garcia, Alexander Sims, Dani Juncadella, Tommy Milner, Nicky Catsburg, Earl Bamber (Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller) plus Charlie Eastwood, Nico Varrone and Alex Lynn (AWA). Bamber and Lynn also are Cadillac Racing factory drivers in FIA WEC
• 14: IMSA Manufacturer Championships for Chevrolet and Corvette Racing since 2001
• 24: Drivers who have driven for Corvette Racing at Daytona – Justin Bell, Ryan Briscoe, Nicky Catsburg, Kelly Collins, Dale Earnhardt, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Marcel Fässler, Ron Fellows, Franck Freon, Antonio Garcia, Oliver Gavin, John Heinricy, Chris Kneifel, Robin Liddell, Jan Magnussen, Tommy Milner, Simon Pagenaud, John Paul Jr., Andy Pilgrim, Mike Rockenfeller, Scott Sharp, Alexander Sims, Marco Sorensen, Nick Tandy and Jordan Taylor
• 27: Tracks at which Corvette Racing has won races – Baltimore, Charlotte Motor Speedway, COTA, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park/Mosport, Daytona, Detroit, Fuji Speedway, Houston, Laguna Seca, Le Mans, Lime Rock, Long Beach, Miami, Mid-Ohio, Monza, Portland, Road America, Road Atlanta, Sebring, Sonoma, St. Petersburg, Texas, Trois Rivieres, Utah, VIR, Washington DC and Watkins Glen
• 32: Number of drivers for Corvette Racing since 1999
• 71: Years since Corvette was introduced to the world on Jan. 17, 1953 in New York City. A total of 300 cars were produced that year
• 127: Victories worldwide for Corvette Racing – 115 in North America, nine at Le Mans and three in the FIA WEC
• 284: Event starts by Corvette Racing since 1999
• 99,600: Total number of racing laps completed by Corvette Racing entries since 1999. Barring any issues, the program will go over the 100,00-lap mark at the Rolex 24 of Daytona
• 361,990.52: Total number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing entries since 1999. 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
Corvette Racing at Daytona (wins in bold)
1999
No. 2 Corvette C5-R: Ron Fellows/Chris Kneifel/John Paul Jr. – 3rd in GTS
No. 4 Corvette C5-R: Andy Pilgrim/Scott Sharp/John Heinricy – 12th in GTS
2000
No. 3 Corvette C5-R: Ron Fellows/Chris Kneifel/Justin Bell – 2nd in GTS
No. 4 Corvette C5-R: Andy Pilgrim/Kelly Collins/Franck Freon – 10th in GTS
2001
No. 2 Corvette C5-R: Ron Fellows/Johnny O'Connell/Chris Kneifel/Franck Freon – 1st in GTS (overall win)
No. 3 Corvette C5-R: Andy Pilgrim/Kelly Collins/Dale Earnhardt/Dale Earnhardt Jr. – 2nd in GTS
2014
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia/Ryan Briscoe – 10th in GTLM
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner/Robin Liddell – 5th in GTLM
2015
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia/Ryan Briscoe – 1st in GTLM (Magnussen fastest race lap)
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner/Simon Pagenaud – 3rd in GTLM (Gavin pole)
2016
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia/Mike Rockenfeller – 2nd in GTLM (Garcia fastest race lap)
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner/Marcel Fässler – 1st in GTLM (Winner by 0.034 second)
2017
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia/Mike Rockenfeller – 4th in GTLM
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner/Marcel Fässler – 9th in GTLM
2018
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia/Mike Rockenfeller – 3rd in GTLM (Magnussen pole)
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner/Marcel Fässler – 4th in GTLM
2019
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia/Mike Rockenfeller – 6th in GTLM
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner/Marcel Fässler – 8th in GTLM
2020 (Rolex 24 – January)
No. 3 Corvette C8.R: Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor/Nicky Catsburg – 4th in GTLM
No. 4 Corvette C8.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner/Marcel Fässler – 7th in GTLM
2020 (WeatherTech 240 – July)
No. 3 Corvette C8.R: Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor – 1st in GTLM
No. 4 Corvette C8.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 5th in GTLM
2021
No. 3 Corvette C8.R: Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor/Nicky Catsburg – 1st in GTLM
No. 4 Corvette C8.R: Tommy Milner/Nick Tandy/Alexander Sims – 2nd in GTLM
2022
No. 3 Corvette C8.R: Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor/Nicky Catsburg – 6th in GTD PRO
No. 4 Corvette C8.R: Tommy Milner/Nick Tandy/Marco Sorensen – 10th in GTD PRO
2023
No. 3 Corvette C8.R: Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor/Tommy Milner – 2nd in GTD PRO
Introducing the 2024 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Corvette Z06 GT3.R team cars!
We're embarking on a thrilling new journey at Pratt Miller Motorsports, and we're excited to share every step with you. Special shoutout to our parent company #OshkoshCorporation, Chevrolet and our incredible partners for their unwavering support. You empower us to excel in races and compete for championships. While we're eager to showcase our car in fancy studio shots, for now, our focus is entirely on dialing these machines in for the 2024 IMSA season.
Corvette Racing Expands Factory Driver Lineup for 2024
Key additions to bolster first year of Corvette Z06 GT3.R program
DETROIT (November 13, 2023) – Ahead of its first season of worldwide GT3 competition, Corvette Racing is expanding its roster of factory drivers that will compete in championships and events around the globe with the new Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R.
Daniel Juncadella, Earl Bamber, Charlie Eastwood and Nico Varrone will be part of the group that will race Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs in either the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, FIA World Endurance Championship – or in some cases both.
They join existing Corvette factory drivers Antonio Garcia, Tommy Milner, Nicky Catsburg and Alexander Sims, all of whom will contest the full WeatherTech Championship season. The eight collectively will compete as factory drivers for Corvette Racing – the brand that encompasses all factory-supported and customer Z06 GT3.R efforts going forward.
Juncadella and Bamber each will be part of Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports’ two-car effort in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s GT Daytona (GTD) PRO class. Both drivers will race with the factory-backed program in the Rolex 24 At Daytona, Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring and Petit Le Mans. Juncadella will drive with Garcia and Sims while Bamber joins Milner and Catsburg.
In addition, Juncadella will have the distinction of driving the Z06 GT3.R in two championships as he joins TF Sport for its full-season effort in the LM GT3 class of the FIA World Endurance Championship – including the 24 Hours of Le Mans – his first year in the global series.
Bamber will contest IMSA’s endurance rounds in the Z06 GT3.R. Previously a long-time rival to the Corvette Racing program, Bamber already has tested the Z06 GT3.R, adding to a long list of GT3 cars he has driven throughout his career. He also remains under contract for Cadillac Racing’s WEC program in 2024.
In FIA WEC, Eastwood joins the Corvette factory lineup alongside Juncadella as TF Sport’s two professional drivers. It’s a familiar relationship for Eastwood, who has driven for TF Sport in the championship from 2018-20 and the current season.
Varrone, Corvette Racing’s rising star in this year’s FIA WEC, will transition to full-time IMSA duties in his first year as a factory driver. He rejoins AWA – a team with which he won this year’s Rolex 24 At Daytona in the LMP3 class – and will partner with Anthony Mantella in the GTD category.
“As we move into GT3 and customer racing, it is important that we add to our roster of drivers that are available to teams,” said Christie Bagne, Corvette Z06 GT3.R program manager. “We are excited about the wealth of experience in our Corvette factory lineup. Both GM and our teams will benefit from the learnings from each driver.”
Career Highlights
· Daniel Juncadella: 2023 Rolex 24 At Daytona and Petit Le Mans GTD PRO winner; 2022 Spa 24 Hours and Indianapolis Eight Hours winner; 2022 GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup champion; 2012 European F3 champion; 2011 Macau Grand Prix winner
· Earl Bamber: 2023 Nürburgring 24 Hours winner; 2022, 2020 Sebring 12 Hours winner; 2020 Spa 24 Hours winner; 2019 IMSA GTLM champion; 2015 and 2017 Le Mans 24 Hours overall winner; 2017 World Endurance Championship LMP1 champion; 2014 and 2016 Bathurst 12 Hours class winner
· Charlie Eastwood: 2023 Asian Le Mans Series LMP2 champion; 2022 European Le Mans Series LMP2 Pro-Am champion; 2020 Le Mans 24 Hours GTE Am winner; 2019 Spa 24 Hours winner; 2019 Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup Pro-Am champion
· Nico Varrone: 2023 FIA World Endurance Championship GTE Am champion; 2023 Le Mans 24 Hours GTE Am winner; 2023 Sebring 1,000 Miles GTE Am winner; 2023 Rolex 24 At Daytona LMP3 winner
Corvette Racing Driver Quotes
DANIEL JUNCADELLA, CORVETTE RACING BY PRATT MILLER MOTORSPORTS (IMSA ENDUROS) / TF SPORT (FIA WEC FULL-TIME): “I’ve been a witness to what it means to be a Corvette driver in the U.S. That’s means a really big fanbase. That’s pretty exciting, to be honest. At every autograph session in IMSA that I’ve been sitting next to the Corvette tent, there is a queue of 100 people waiting to get an autograph from their drivers, and we were just sitting around! That’s very exciting, I have to say, to see the legacy that Corvette Racing has created in the U.S. and to see the amount of awareness about the brand is very exciting. It makes me proud and it feels quite unique to be a Corvette factory driver.”
On the FIA WEC: “I have not been to Le Mans. I did watch a lot of this year’s race. I was already in talks with Corvette so I knew it might be one of my possibilities for next year, and that made me be more interested in the race. This year obviously was a big year for Hypercar and all the brands coming together with the new regulations. It was an interesting year with a lot of stuff – the Centenary, the last year of GTE… I have to say I was a bit worried that Corvette was winning again because I was like, ‘They are winning so much this year that it’s going to make it difficult for me next year being so successful.’ But it did make me realize how good of a brand they are, how good of a team they are and how they turned things around. It was very exciting.”
EARL BAMBER, CORVETTE RACING BY PRATT MILLER MOTORSPORTS: “It’s really exciting to be joining Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports for the long races. I’ve been a part of some big rivalries for many years in IMSA racing. But this organization has won so many races and championships… it’s really impressive. When I did my first test at Road America, you could see why they’ve been so successful. I’ve driven the Z06 GT3.R and I think the package is really good. These guys have built fantastic GTLM cars over the years, and I don’t see why the Corvette GT3 should be any different. It’s a well-balanced car already just in its infancy, so I think they will be a formidable force not just in IMSA but also as this program seeks out to go all around the world. I think it will be one of the benchmark cars into the future.”
CHARLIE EASTWOOD, TF SPORT: “This certainly ranks up there for me, joining such a brand like Corvette and an organization like GM. It’s what so many drivers wish for their whole career. It seems to be an amazing place to be, and you can see that because so many drivers stay for so long. I’m really looking forward to that opportunity to learn from the best in the business and push on together to achieve great things for many years to come.”
(Being back with TF Sport): “It’s really beneficial. Obviously, this is a brand-new car with new regulations going to GT3 from GTE, so knowing all the team and the engineers already I feel like it can give us the upper hand in how quickly we can develop a brand-new car. It’s a short timeframe between receiving the car and only a few days testing before we get to Qatar. We need to make sure that we’re making the most out of the time that we have together. Knowing all the personnel and the engineers, I hope that will put us in a really good place going into the first round at Qatar.”
NICO VARRONE, AWA: “First of all, it’s a big honor to be a factory driver for Corvette. It’s also nice to be back in IMSA next season with everyone at AWA. These are people that I know from this year and doing the endurance races in LMP3. It was a good year. We won Daytona and had great performances throughout the season. It will be a big challenge with the new car, not only for our team but everyone in the entire Corvette program. But this is also a completely new class for AWA. It will be a challenge but we will be prepared to make the most of it and get some wins with the Corvette Z06 GT3.R and have a great season.”
CORVETTE RACING AT BAHRAIN: C8.R Era Ends with P7 Finish
Catsburg, Keating, Varrone, No. 33 Corvette team wrap up historic season
SAKHIR, Bahrain (November 4, 2023) – Corvette Racing finished seventh Saturday at the Eight Hours of Bahrain to close the 2023 FIA World Endurance Championship and put a cap on a historic season.
Nicky Catsburg, Ben Keating and Nico Varrone battled challenging conditions throughout the season finale in hopes of securing a GTE Am podium finish in the final contest for the No. 33 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Corvette C8.R and the rest of the GTE machinery in WEC.
The championship season included three victories – Corvette Racing’s ninth class win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, at the 1,000 Miles of Sebring in the U.S., and the Six Hours of Portimão – three pole positions for Keating and a championship clinch at Monza in July with two races to go.
It was a fitting way for the C8.R and Corvette Racing to close their campaigns in the WEC. The Corvette Z06 GT3.R is slated to be part of the WEC grid next year in the hands of TF Sport for the LM GT3 category while the No. 33 C8.R team transitions back to the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship under the Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports banner.
Keating qualified the C8.R fifth in class Friday, and hopes were high for a run at a sixth podium finish this season. The green flag brought rare misfortune to Corvette as Keating had to avoid multiple cars when prototype entries spun and went off-track in front of the GTE Am field.
The C8.R rejoined the track in ninth place and mired in traffic. It didn’t help that the Corvette faced an uphill battle on the performance front with the C8.R 15 pounds heavier than any other GTE Am car and a pre-event reduction in power.
Keating made his first stop just past the 30-minute mark in a strategic call to free him from class traffic. The off-strategy call saw him run as high as fourth in his final two stints of the season before swapping over to Varrone just shy of three hours.
A year after his first laps in the C8.R at the WEC Rookie Test at Bahrain, Varrone rejoined the race in 10th place with the goal of managing the Corvette’s tires, a tough task on a track notorious for high degradation due to its rough surface. Again, the Corvette got up as high as fourth in Varrone’s three stints, and he swapped to Catsburg for the final run with less than two hours to go.
Rejoining eighth in class, Catsburg gained one spot inside the final hour but didn’t have the performance to get any higher in the order before the finish.
NICKY CATSBURG, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – FINISHED SEVENTH IN CLASS: "The result of today isn't important. If we couldn't win today, it's great to see the Iron Dames win. I think they deserved one all season. But we deserved the championship. We celebrated it once, and it was nice to celebrate it again tonight with the team. On the cool-down lap, I was thanking them and I realized that the stuff we accomplished this year was really cool. We did it with two races to go but that doesn't make tonight any less special. I'm super happy and super proud of the entire team, and I can't wait to work them again in America next season."
BEN KEATING, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – FINISHED SEVENTH IN CLASS: “I didn't have any contact at the start. There were cars everywhere. I lost a lot of positions but avoided any contact. It was a green and clean race, and unfortunately we didn't have the pace this weekend. I think it was the price for having really good strategy all year. It was a magical season and a magical time – the last race for GTE, the last race for me with Corvette Racing and the last race for me in World Endurance Championship. It's still surreal and magical when you think about this season. To have won the championship, to have won Le Mans and had such great results all season long... it's pretty hard to sit back and enjoy it when you're as busy as I was out there in the race. But I tried to remind myself of it as often as I could. It's been a lot of fun."
NICO VARRONE, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – FINISHED SEVENTH IN CLASS: “I'm really happy to finish the season with Corvette Racing. It was an amazing year and a fairytale story. Driving the C8.R for the final time in Bahrain was really nice, and I've enjoyed every minute. This race was tough for us with tires and our performance. Other cars were passing us easily, and we had no power in a straight line. The only chance we had to match them was trying to save our tires and see if that worked. I tried to be consistent and not make mistakes to lose as little time as possible. Other than that, the Corvette was good. Always here it is tricky with traction and grip. We were just missing power. That's just how it was. We cannot complain too much. We've had an amazing season."
LAURA WONTROP KLAUSER, GM SPORTS CAR RACING PROGRAM MANAGER: “There aren't enough words to describe how proud we are for everyone on the Corvette Racing team for an incredible season. Winning the final GTE Am championship is great, winning three races – including Le Mans – is something you never will forget. But to do all that in one year with this group is indescribable. I'm confident we are only getting started with WEC championships and wins with more to come with the Z06 GT3.R in the future.”
CORVETTE RACING AT BAHRAIN: Recapping the Rookie Test
Final laps for Corvette C8.R in the hands of Corvette Racing
SAKHIR, Bahrain (November 5, 2023) – The championship-winning No. 33 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R turned its final laps in the hands of Corvette Racing on Sunday as part of the annual FIA World Endurance Championship Rookie Test, with two drivers new to the mid-engine GTE car having the opportunity to sample it the day after the Eight Hours of Bahrain:
· Antoine Doquin: Nominated by the WEC following an LMP3 championship in the Asian Le Mans Series and a strong showing in the European Le Mans Series’ LMP3 category
· Timur Boguslavskiy: GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup champion in 2023 and GTWC Europe Sprint Cup runner-up in 2020, 2022 and 2023
Corvette Racing and program management used Sunday’s pair of sessions to test and evaluate each driver for potential future opportunities with the Corvette Z06 GT3.R, which will begin competing next year in the WEC, IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and Fanatec GT World Challenge America.
In the next garage over from the C8.R, Corvette Racing’s Nico Varrone received the opportunity to test Cadillac Racing’s Cadillac V-Series.R Hypercar a day after his GTE Am championship season closed. Varrone won three times this year with Corvette Racing – including the 24 Hours of Le Mans – and teammates Ben Keating and Nicky Catsburg, who also turned his final laps in the C8.R on Sunday.
Varrone, who drove for the first time with Corvette Racing at last year’s Rookie Test, will be part of AWA’s GTD full-season lineup in the WeatherTech Championship as the team transitions to Z06 GT3.R with two entries in 2024, starting with the Rolex 24 At Daytona in January.
NICKY CATSBURG: "To me, the best thing about today was to look at my teammate Nico and see how he did in the Cadillac Hypercar. We all have high expectations for him, so it's very cool for him to get this opportunity. For me, it was nice to turn my last laps in this car before it goes into Ben Keating's garage! That's always a pleasure. I loved this car right from the start when I first drove it four years ago. It always has been a car that suited my driving style and I always felt comfortable in it. On one hand, I feel like next year's Corvette GT3 car is going to be similar so it doesn't feel like a final goodbye. I enjoyed today as much as I could and see if I could help the rookies out a little bit."
NICO VARRONE: "Bahrain continues to be very special to me! I have been dreaming of the opportunity to drive a Hypercar, but I thought it would never come so early in my career. It has been great. It's a different car, full of power and in the top class of endurance racing. The high-speed corners with the aero was really nice. Braking was a little bit difficult, of course, and it was one of the main things. But it was so nice to drive!
"GM is like a family. At Le Mans and this season, we shared a lot of time and space together. You get to know everyone, even if it's just saying hi. It was quite relaxing rather than coming into a new place. They were all very nice, I have to say. It was great. I'm really thankful to the entire Cadillac team, to GM, to Laura (Wontrop Klauser, GM Sports Car Racing Program Manager), Christie (Bagne, Corvette Z06 GT3.R Program Manager) and many others. This is an opportunity I will never forget."
ANTOINE DOQUIN: “That was really, really fun and I enjoyed that a lot! Thank you to the WEC and Corvette Racing for the opportunity. This was my first time in a GTE car, and I absolutely loved it. It’s a GT3 car but 10 times better without ABS, so it’s all about the braking. It was a very good day but very tough with tire management. The track is quite tough for a stint with the tire degradation. I learned a lot and know now how the Corvette team works. I’m really happy and we will see what the future brings us. I would love to be with Corvette. There is such a great atmosphere with the team and the mechanics. I have been with them for two days, and they are very, very kind… always funny and always with a smile! A big thanks to all of the team from the mechanics to the engineers for this moment because I really loved it.”
TIMUR BOGUSLAVSKIY: “This was my first ever in a Corvette, and I like it quite a lot. I have tested three cars in my life, and this is more like a prototype than any GT3 car I have tested – a proper racing car. I enjoyed how the team works and you can see immediately why they have so much success. With the car, I feel I was struggling with the brakes because I am normally driving with ABS. To go to a car without it, you have to change your style and you are going to be inconsistent. At the end of the day, I don’t think I did a bad job. This track is not easy. Overall this was a great feeling and I hope to continue to work together again with Corvette in the future.”
CORVETTE RACING AT BAHRAIN: Top-Five Result for Keating
One last ride for Corvette C8.R in GTE race finale
SAKHIR, Bahrain (November 3, 2023) – Corvette Racing will close its FIA World Endurance Championship season with a third-row start in the GTE Am field for Saturday’s Eight Hours of Bahrain.
Ben Keating set a best lap of 1:59.412 (101.408 mph) during Friday’s 15-minute session to qualify fifth in the No. 33 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R. As he has all season, Keating will team Saturday with fellow GTE Am champions Nicky Catsburg and Nico Varrone with the trio going for its fourth win of 2023.
The Thursday and Friday practice sessions were each in dramatically different conditions, which – if nothing else – gave the Corvette team and the rest of the WEC paddock and opportunity to explore a variety of setups and options ahead of Saturday’s 2 p.m. local start.
Thursday’s practice was interrupted first by a severe wind and sand storm and then by a steady rain shower. The day’s night practice was in dry and cooler conditions while Friday’s practice and qualifying sessions were in more typical conditions for Bahrain – hot and sunny. The latter gave teams a read on likely conditions for the start of Saturday’s race and the level of tire degradation that will ultimately play a large role in the race’s outcome.
This is the second year at Bahrain for the C8.R, which finished second in GTE Pro in 2022 with Tommy Milner and Nick Tandy sharing the Corvette. Saturday’s race and Corvette Racing’s presence is notable for a number of reasons.
The Corvette team is aiming to cap off a banner season in which it already has claimed the GTE Am Drivers and Teams titles, three race wins – including the 24 Hours of Le Mans – and three pole-position runs for Keating. Another win Saturday would give the C8.R a total of 21 victories worldwide in 82 events and close Corvette Racing’s two-year campaign in the FIA WEC with a fifth victory.
It also would send Corvette out as the final race-winner of the GTE class. One of the mainstays of GTE racing since the category was introduced in 2011, the Corvette program also has been one of the most successful with 48 of its 127 worldwide victories coming with GTE machinery – which also includes North American wins in the American Le Mans Series’ GT class as well IMSA’s GT Le Mans category.
As much of a coronation as this weekend is for the Corvette program, it also serves as a transition point. The Corvette Z06 GT3.R is slated to be part of the WEC grid next year in the hands of TF Sport for the LM GT3 category while the No. 33 C8.R team transitions back to the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship under the Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports banner.
As in previous races, the C8.R is running at Bahrain with a level of rewards weight due to its successes earlier this year: 15 kilograms for leading the championship and 10 kilograms for finishing second in the previous race at Fuji on top of 10 extra kilograms added to the car’s minimum weight ahead of the Monza round for a total of 35 kilograms – five less than at the Japanese round but still the heaviest car in class. The Corvette also received a two-liter decrease in fuel capacity and a 0.6mm restrictor adjustment to limit engine power.
The Eight Hours of Bahrain is scheduled for 2 p.m. Arabian Standard Time / 7 a.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 live audio coverage of the race.
BEN KEATING, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – QUALIFIED FIFTH: “More than where we qualified, I’m happy with the lap time. That was one second quicker than anything than did in my qualifying simulation. There is so much tire degradation here that it’s a balance between taking care of the tire – because we have to race on these same tires – and trying to hit the peak of the tire. I think the reason I was able to put that lap together was because it was my third one and on the peak of the tire. I kept trying to repeat it, and I couldn’t. It just wasn’t there in the tire. It’s really interesting how my two laps that were closest to that were seven-tenths of a second off. It’s worth that much time. I’m happy with the time but also with the result. Tyler (Neff, race engineer) said before qualifying that he thought a top-five result was possible, and he nailed it.”
Final GTE qualifying session: “I’m sure this will be going through my head the entire weekend. I’m driving around at the end of qualifying, and I’m thinking that this is the last time that I’m qualifying this car in GTE. It’s the last time I’m going to qualify in WEC. It’s been such a special year this year with the Corvette. Even when you qualify fifth and it’s your lowest result of the entire year, it’s still special.”
NICKY CATSBURG, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: “I feel like everyone will struggle with tires here. Historically, this track is really rough on tires and everyone will have that issue. But if you take away that issue, we still have quite a bit of deficit in terms of pace. So we need to understand where we can gain little bits of time to reduce that gap. As always, I do believe that with our lineup we do have a bit of an advantage over some of the other teams. We need to remain calm and be focused on the race. This will be more difficult than all other events we’ve done. I’m just going to do my best for the team and enjoy this last GTE race.”
NICO VARRONE, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: "For me, this place is very special. Not even one year ago, I arrived here for the rest time and met the Corvette Racing team for the first time. I was shy at the beginning, I didn't speak too much and had pressure because I knew this could be big for me. It was a really good opportunity. I had the desire to do well but also some pressure that goes on inside. But everything went well. I got the drive and what has happened after that was amazing - winning Sebring, Portimao and Le Mans for Corvette on the 70th anniversary for Corvette and the Centenary Le Mans. And now we are champions. That's why being here and this whole atmosphere being at this track means so much."
2023 FIA World Endurance Championship – GTE Am (After six of seven events)
4. Christian Ried/Julien Andlauer/Mikkel Pedersen – 68
5. Ahmad Al Harthy/Charlie Eastwood/Michael Dinan – 65
Team Standings
1. No. 33 Corvette Racing – 164
2. No. 85 Iron Dames – 79
3. No. 54 AF Corse – 73
4. No. 77 Dempsey-Proton Racing – 68
5. ORT by TF – 65
CORVETTE RACING AT BAHRAIN: 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: Positions gained in GTE Pro by Tommy Milner and Nick Tandy in last year’s Bahrain race in the No. 64 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
• 7: Hours difference between Manama, Bahrain and Detroit in the Eastern Time Zone
• 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
• 35: Kilograms of success ballast for the Corvette C8.R at Fuji – 10 for finishing second at Fuji, 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
• 283: Event starts by Corvette Racing since 1999
• 6,883: Approximate mileage from Detroit Metropolitan Airport to Bahrain International Airport, one way. That’s a greater distance than the No. 33 Corvette C8.R has raced this year in WEC competition
• 361,214.36: 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 Bahrain
2022
No. 64 Corvette C8.R: Tommy Milner/Nick Tandy – 2nd in GTE Pro
8 HOURS OF BAHRAIN RACE SCHEDULE: November 2-4, 2023 Track Name Bahrain International Circuit Track Length 3.36 miles Corners 15 Race Distance 8 Hours *********************************************** Pratt MIller- Make sure you catch the final Corvette Racing hurrah with the C8.R chassis at the FIA WEC 8 Hours of Bahrain this Saturday! The action kicks off at 7 AM ET on Saturday, 11/4! Check out the broadcast details below for an optimal viewing experience.
Thursday, November 2nd
FP1: 5:15 AM – 6:45 AM ET WEC Live Timing FP2: 10:30 AM – 12:00 PM ET WEC Live Timing
Friday, November 3rd
FP3: 5:00 AM – 6:00 AM ET WEC Live Timing WEC TV Qualifying: 9:15 – 9:30 AM ET RadioLeMans RS1: 9:05 – 10:25 AM ET WEC TV
Saturday, November 4th 8 Hours of Bahrain: 7:00 AM – 3:00 PM ET
MotorTrend Channel: Part 1: 6:30 AM – 8:00 PM ET Part 2: 2:00 PM – 3:30 PM ET
MotorTrend+: 6:30 AM – 3:30 PM ET
WEC TV: 6:30 AM – 3:00 PM ET RadioLeMans RS1: Countdown to Green: 6:25 – 6:55 AM ET Race: 6:55 AM – 3:30 PM ET
Today marks a transformative moment for all who breathe and live Corvette racing. We're unveiling a groundbreaking initiative to amplify your connection with the pulse of our team.
Pratt Miller Motorsports Collective, inspired by pioneering direct-to-fan initiatives worldwide, is thrilled to introduce a three-tiered experience. This will bridge the gap between our devoted fans and the team, propelling us into a thrilling new chapter of Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports.
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Should you have any inquiries, please do not hesitate to reach out…we're here to assist you.
Your unwavering support fuels us. Here's to a groundbreaking year ahead!
CORVETTE RACING AT BAHRAIN: A Corvette Coronation!
Final race for C8.R in historic championship season for Corvette program
DETROIT (Oct. 30, 2023) – Can Corvette Racing go out on top to end 2023? That’s certainly the plan as the team goes for its fourth FIA World Endurance Championship victory this year in the season-ending Eight Hours of Bahrain.
It would be a fitting exit for the Chevrolet Corvette C8.R, which will race for the final time in the hands of Nicky Catsburg, Ben Keating and Nico Varrone. Already this year, the No. 33 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Corvette has won the GTE Am category at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the 1,000 Miles of Sebring and Six Hours of Portimão.
By finishing no worse than fourth at any race so far, the No. 33 Corvette Racing squad locked up the GTE Am Drivers and Teams championships two rounds ago at Monza in Italy. A fourth WEC win would give the C8.R a total of 21 victories worldwide in 82 events and close Corvette Racing’s two-year campaign in the FIA WEC with a fifth win.
As much of a coronation as Bahrain will be for the Corvette program, it also serves as a transition point for the Corvette brand. The Corvette Z06 GT3.R is slated to be part of the WEC grid next year in the hands of TF Sport for the LM GT3 category while the No. 33 C8.R team transitions back to the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship under the Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports banner.
There’s still work to do in the present, however. Corvette Racing finished second in GTE Pro last year in its first race at the 3.36-mile, 15-turn Bahrain International Circuit with stellar drives from both Tommy Milner and Nick Tandy. Armed with that experience and notebook from the event, the goal is to finish one step higher on the podium this time around.
Working in the benefit of Corvette Racing is its perfect 2-0 record in races longer than six hours in FIA WEC competition this year with wins at Le Mans and Sebring – each by at least one lap. It also doesn’t hurt that Keating is a two-time GTE Am winner at Bahrain, Catsburg posted two top-five finishes in World Touring Car Cup a year ago, and Varrone has previous history in the C8.R at Bahrain from last year’s Rookie Test.
As in previous races, the C8.R will run at Bahrain with a level of rewards weight due to its successes earlier this year: 15 kilograms for leading the championship and 10 kilograms for finishing second in the previous race at Fuji on top of 10 extra kilograms added to the car’s minimum weight ahead of the Monza round for a total of 35 kilograms – five less than at the Japanese round but still the heaviest in GTE Am.
The Corvette also will race with a two-liter decrease in fuel capacity and a 0.6mm restrictor adjustment to limit engine power.
The Eight Hours of Bahrain is scheduled for 2 p.m. Arabian Standard Time / 7 a.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 the race plus Friday’s final practice and qualifying.
NICKY CATSBURG, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: “The pressure is a little bit off, but it is a weekend I’m looking forward to. It’s our last weekend together with this team in WEC with the C8.R and the GTE cars. It’s kind of like a weekend of goodbyes. The whole season, you are fighting for something and trying to achieve something, and we’ve done that. But there is always the challenge of winning the race. It is nice we will be crowned champions during the after-season party, so it will be great to be back with the guys again, driving a car that I love to drive, and being with Ben and Nico again.”
(On the legacy of the C8.R): “The C8.R is the best GTE car that I’ve ever driven. It’s such a versatile car that is good at anything you throw at it. Tracks like Le Mans, little tracks, big tracks, high-speed corner, low-speed stuff… the car is just a championship-winner. It’s not just good at one thing, and that’s what makes it so strong. We’ve always been able to adjust our setup and car to the tracks and perform well everywhere. It’s an amazing car. It’s a car that I’ve always felt comfortable in, and it's a car that I will miss driving, although it’s clear that the Corvette GT3 will be similar.”
BEN KEATING, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: “I am looking forward to the race in Bahrain, not only because we’ll be there to celebrate our accomplishments, not only is it the end of a fairy tale season by winning everything in the last year of GTE with the Corvette is incredible. I really enjoy the race at Bahrain. To me, the longer the race the better. It’s been a little while since we’ve had a longer race like that. I enjoy the eight-hour race in Bahrain. Traditionally I have been fairly good there. I would say I have high expectations, but I’d also say that we’ve been up front in every race this season, so why wouldn’t we continue that? We still get to lose another five kilos for this race, which should be a little bit better for us. This should be fun to watch. From what I remember about this track, the tire degradation is really high. I think that’s good for the Corvette. Having raced in the Porsche and the Aston Martin, I think the Corvette handles the tire deg better than the other cars. Once again, I have very expectations for what we can achieve there. I’m looking forward to the whole experience of heading to Bahrain, doing the last race, doing the final celebration dinner. It’s exciting.”
NICO VARRONE, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: “It’s crazy. This has been a dream season. We won a lot of races, won the championship three races early, we won Le Mans as well. It’s been a fantastic season and we’ve had so much fun that it went so far, which is sad a little bit. But we will make sure we enjoy all the time with the mechanics, the engineers and the rest of the team at Bahrain. It will be fun.”
(On his first season with Corvette Racing): “I feel like from the outside, you always see teams like Corvette Racing and I have to say I was really nervous before Sebring. I didn’t know how the team worked, how the car works, how different things were than what I was used to. But I learned a lot on how to work with these guys and how to work with a lineup like this with Nicky and Ben, and also with engineers and mechanics. I’ve also had races where we had to manage the tires and save fuel. I had done that before, but I feel like I maximized it in a good way. I think I’ve gotten better in all those ways for endurance racing. I feel like I’ve learned so much how to set up a car, how I like the car also. It’s been a great season with some really good memories that I’ll remember all my life.”
2023 FIA World Endurance Championship – GTE Am (After six of seven events)
4. Christian Ried/Julien Andlauer/Mikkel Pedersen – 68
5. Ahmad Al Harthy/Charlie Eastwood/Michael Dinan – 65
Team Standings
1. No. 33 Corvette Racing – 164
2. No. 85 Iron Dames – 79
3. No. 54 AF Corse – 73
4. No. 77 Dempsey-Proton Racing – 68
5. ORT by TF – 65
CORVETTE RACING AT BAHRAIN: 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: Positions gained in GTE Pro by Tommy Milner and Nick Tandy in last year’s Bahrain race in the No. 64 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
• 7: Hours difference between Manama, Bahrain and Detroit in the Eastern Time Zone
• 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
• 35: Kilograms of success ballast for the Corvette C8.R at Fuji – 10 for finishing second at Fuji, 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
• 283: Event starts by Corvette Racing since 1999
• 6,883: Approximate mileage from Detroit Metropolitan Airport to Bahrain International Airport, one way. That’s a greater distance than the No. 33 Corvette C8.R has raced this year in WEC competition
• 361,214.36: 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 Bahrain
2022
No. 64 Corvette C8.R: Tommy Milner/Nick Tandy – 2nd in GTE Pro
Corvette C5-R Part of Inaugural IMSA Hall of Fame Class
The car that started it all for Corvette Racing’s quarter-century of success
BRASELTON, Ga. (Oct. 15, 2023) – A quarter-century after it first hit the racetrack for its competition debut, the Chevrolet Corvette C5-R has been honored as part of the inaugural class of the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) Hall of Fame.
The enshrinement was made official at IMSA’s annual Night of Champions banquet near Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta and site of the season-ending Petit Le Mans race.
Herb Fishel, former Executive Director of GM Racing, was on-hand to mark the C5-R’s induction as one of the first racecar in the IMSA Hall of Fame. Fishel led the team at General Motors that laid the groundwork for Corvette Racing and Chevrolet’s goal of returning to top-level sports car racing at the factory level in the mid-1990s.
The C5-R was born to race, according to Fishel, and was the result of collaboration between many groups within General Motors to create a long-term, factory-level road racing program for Chevrolet. The goal was to position Corvette as competitor to the world’s best sports car manufacturers on the racetrack and in the showroom. So even before the fifth-generation Corvette rolled into dealerships, plans were well underway to return Chevrolet to professional endurance racing.
What has developed from C5-R is an on-going Corvette Racing program where increasing synergies between racing and production engineering have become the norm – the latest examples being the eighth-generation, mid-engine Corvette production vehicles and the C8.R and the Z06 GT3.R that will make its competitive debut in 2024.
“This was a very collaborative effort that established Corvette Racing as one of the premier sports car programs in the world,” Fishel said. “It started with GM and involved various groups from both production – including vehicle engineering, design and powertrain – and racing partners like Pratt Miller and Katech working hand-in-hand. Out of the efforts from each of these groups came the first factory-produced Corvette race car in almost 40 years, and one that changed the landscape of not just Corvette but sports car racing as a whole.”
The Corvette C5-R debuted in 1999 with a class podium finish at the Rolex 24 At Daytona and was a fixture of global GT racing for the next five years. From 1999-2004, Corvette Racing and the C5-R set the standard for racing success with 31 victories in the American Le Mans Series, along with an overall victory at the Rolex 24 in 2001.
Success wasn’t limited to North America. The C5-R scored the first of its three GTS victories at Le Mans in 2001, following with wins in 2002 and 2004. ALMS team and manufacturer championships came in 2001-04. Of Corvette Racing’s 127 victories, nearly 25 percent came with the C5-R.
The C5-R also helped instill Corvette drivers such as Ron Fellows and Johnny O’Connell as faces of the team and the ALMS. Fellows won 21 ALMS races in the C5-R and captured the GTS drivers’ championship three times, including twice with O’Connell. It also helped launch the sports car careers for future stars like Oliver Gavin.
“It is a tremendous honor to see the Corvette C5-R go into the IMSA Hall of Fame as part of its inaugural class,” said Jim Campbell, Chevrolet U.S. Vice President, Performance and Motorsports. Campbell was part of the leadership team that helped guide the C5-R to its racing debut at Daytona in 1999.
“It also is an honor to have Herb Fishel here to represent the team that brought the C5-R to the track. When you look at what Corvette Racing represents – the synergy between motorsports and the showroom – it all began with the C5-R,” Campbell added. “The fans loved it. Our Corvette owners loved it. It helped set the standard for 25 years of Corvette Racing.”
BRASELTON, Ga. (October 14, 2023) – The Chevrolet Corvette C8.R ended its run in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship leading Petit Le Mans on Saturday, but unfortunately that happened just past the halfway point of the 10-hour race at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.
Corvette Racing’s mid-engine challenger retired with a yet-to-be-determined engine issue that caused Tommy Milner to lose power while leading the GT Daytona (GTD) PRO class with less than five hours left in the race. He, Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor had dominated the race up to that point by leading 87 of the Corvette’s 189 laps.
The C8.R has one more race left in the FIA World Endurance Championship, but it has compiled an impressive record of 20 victories in 80 races – including Le Mans, Daytona and Sebring – and IMSA Manufacturers, Drivers and Team championships in 2020 and 2021. It will give way in 2024 to the Corvette Z06 GT3.R, which will see four cars running in the WeatherTech Championship next season.
On Saturday, it appeared early that the C8.R would add a long-sought Petit Le Mans victory to the honor roll. Garcia began the race second in class but moved to the GTD PRO lead just past the one-hour mark. He drove a double-stint to open before handing off to Taylor for his own double.
The Corvette ran fourth just shy of the three-hour mark, but a sterling pit stop by the Corvette crew during the race’s fifth full-course yellow leap-frogged Taylor - making his final start with Corvette Racing - back to the lead. That’s where he ran before handing over the C8.R to Milner four hours into the race.
The Corvette Racing effort transitions into the Corvette Z06 GT3.R era starting with the Rolex 24 At Daytona on Saturday, Jan. 27.
ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: “It was looking quite good. I was surprised how competitive we were right away. My double-stint was good. Jordan’s double-stint was really good. Tommy was leading. Everything was kind of falling in the right places for us. We had little things with strategy where we might have lost the lead, but we were up there and executing another great Corvette race. Even if most of the cars had more pace than us, it would have been difficult for them. It’s a shame to end this way. I wish we had another result and another way to do our last race with Jordan and this car. But it feels like another Petit Le Mans where I go away not winning it! It’s disappointing, but I’ll never give up trying to win this one.”
JORDAN TAYLOR, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: “It’s sad and a bittersweet ending. We went out leading, which is a positive. It’s too bad the fans didn’t get to see us finish one last race in IMSA in the C8.R. It’s been an amazing run with this car – two GTLM championships, we’ve won the WEC championship this year, a Le Mans, Daytona, Sebring… we were just missing Petit Le Mans. It’s been an amazing run for this generation of Corvette, and hopefully the next one can get this one checked off the list.
“This isn’t a farewell. I won’t be driving for the team any more, but I’ll still be around. I don’t want anyone to not come around and say hello. I’ve been here for 12 years now, and I’ve grown up in this program. With these team members, the crew members, the engineers, management, the race fans – they’ve all seen me grow and progress. I wouldn’t want any of that to change. These people will be family for the rest of my life.”
TOMMY MILNER, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: “At the end of the day, it’s not the result we were hoping for and on track for. The car was great today. Antonio and Jordan did a phenomenal job today. The engineering guys made the right pit calls, even a little risky setup call for the race today that we weren’t totally confident in. But those guys worked hard to give us a great Corvette today, and they definitely did. So I’m disappointed with the finish but I’m super proud of what this team has achieved from the very beginning of the C8.R’s life – not just the guys here but the guys in WEC and a lot of guys in Michigan who have spent a long many years working on this car, developing the car and making it better. It’s not how we wanted to end it all, but I’ve excited for what’s to come with the Corvette GT3 racecar. It took me a little bit to get used to this car because I’ve driven the GT3 for so long, and it does so many things really well. I’m really excited for the future.”
Damp, traffic-filled time trials ahead of 10-hour enduro to close the C8.R era
BRASELTON, Ga. (October 13, 2023) – Corvette Racing will start second in the GT Daytona (GTD) PRO class after qualifying for Saturday’s 10-hour Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.
Antonio Garcia qualified the No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R on Friday with a time of 1:24.009 (108.728 mph) in the entry he will share with Jordan Taylor and Tommy Milner. It was the last qualifying run in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship for the C8.R, which will give way to the new Corvette Z06 GT3.R in 2024.
Garcia was sixth-fastest among all GT drivers Friday in a damp but drying 15-minute qualifying session. A persistent light rain eased just before the start of the session with the Corvette going out on rain tires – like the rest of the GTD PRO field. A combined 25 GTD cars were on track at the same time for the qualifying session, making it challenging to find space and a clear track.
Saturday’s weather should be much improved, which could swing a little bit of momentum toward Corvette as Garcia was quickest in class during Thursday afternoon’s dry practice session.
There would no better way to end the season and the life of the C8.R by winning Petit Le Mans for the first time since 2010. A victory at 2.54-mile, 12-turn Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta would mean a first victory in Petit Le Mans for both Garcia and Milner, plus give Taylor a victory in his final event with Corvette Racing before returning to prototype competition next year.
Corvette Racing also can win the class title in the Michelin Endurance Cup – a four-race championship made up of the WeatherTech Championship’s long-distance rounds: the Rolex 24 At Daytona, Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen and Petit Le Mans. Garcia and Taylor, Chevrolet and the No. 3 C8.R squad sit second in the Drivers, Manufacturers and Teams standings, respectively, with three points to lead. Points are awarded at the four-, eight- and 10-hour marks of Petit Le Mans.
The 10-hour Petit Le Mans from Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta is scheduled for 11:40 a.m. ET on Saturday, October 14. The race will air live on USA beginning at 6:30 p.m. ET and with the full race stream beginning at 11:35 a.m. on Peacock inside the United States and IMSA.com outside the U.S. IMSA Radio will air the race at IMSA.com with the race call also on XM 207 and SiriusXM Online 992.
2023 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship – GTD PRO (After 10 of 11 events)
Driver Standings
1. Ben Barnicoat/Jack Hawksworth – 3,495
2. Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor – 3,307
3. Daniel Juncadella/Jules Gounon – 3,268
4. Klaus Bachler/Patrick Pilet – 3,230
5. Alex Riberas/Ross Gunn – 3,122
Team Standings
1. No. 14 Vasser Sullivan – 3,495
2. No. 3 Corvette Racing – 3,307
3. No. 79 WeatherTech Racing – 3,268
4. No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports – 3,320
5. No. 23 Heart of Racing Team – 3,122
Manufacturer Standings
1. Lexus – 3,495
2. Chevrolet – 3,307
3. Mercedes-AMG – 3,268
4. Porsche – 3,230
5. Aston Martin – 3,133
CORVETTE RACING AT ROAD ATLANTA: By the Numbers
• 1: As in one team, one manufacturer and one model of car for 25 years: Corvette Racing, Chevrolet and the Chevrolet Corvette
• 3: Tracks where Corvette Racing has competed in each of its 25 years: Sebring International Raceway and WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca and as of this weekend Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta
• 4: Generations of Corvette Racing entries at Road Atlanta since 1999 – Corvette C5-R (1999-04) Corvette C6.R (2005-2013), Corvette C7.R (2014-2019) and the new-generation Corvette C8.R (2020-current), which made its Road Atlanta debut at September’s six-hour IMSA race in 2020
• 10: Number of Road Atlanta victories for Corvette Racing dating back to 2000 – eight of those at Petit Le Mans
• 10: Petit Le Mans wins for Chevrolet – eight in GT and two in Prototype. That ranks third among manufacturers in event history
• 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
• 127: Victories worldwide for Corvette Racing – 115 in North America, nine at Le Mans and three in the FIA WEC
• 282: Event starts by Corvette Racing since 1999
• 41,826.42: Number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing in its 27 previous trips to Road Atlanta. That represents 16,690 laps or more than 653 trips around Atlanta’s Interstate 285
• 360,734.30: 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 Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta
1999
No. 3 Corvette C5-R: Ron Fellows/Chris Kneifel/John Paul Jr. – 5th in GTS
No. 4 Corvette C5-R: Andy Pilgrim/Kelly Collins/Scott Sharp – 4th in GTS
2000
No. 3 Corvette C5-R: Ron Fellows/Chris Kneifel/Justin Bell – 3rd in GTS (Fellows pole)
No. 4 Corvette C5-R: Andy Pilgrim/Kelly Collins/Franck Freon – 1st in GTS
2001
No. 3 Corvette C5-R: Ron Fellows/Johnny O'Connell/Scott Pruett – 9th in GTS
No. 4 Corvette C5-R: Andy Pilgrim/Kelly Collins/Franck Freon – 1st in GTS (Pilgrim pole)
2002
No. 3 Corvette C5-R: Ron Fellows/Johnny O'Connell/Oliver Gavin – 1st in GTS
No. 4 Corvette C5-R: Andy Pilgrim/Kelly Collins/Franck Freon – 3rd in GTS (Pilgrim fastest race lap)
2003*
No. 3 Corvette C5-R: Ron Fellows/Johnny O'Connell – 3rd in GTS
No. 4 Corvette C5-R: Oliver Gavin/Kelly Collins – 1st in GTS
2003
No. 3 Corvette C5-R: Ron Fellows/Johnny O'Connell/Franck Freon – 5th in GTS
No. 4 Corvette C5-R: Oliver Gavin/Kelly Collins/Andy Pilgrim – 3rd in GTS
2004
No. 3 Corvette C5-R: Ron Fellows/Johnny O'Connell/Max Papis – 2nd in GTS
From Pratt Miller- Our final alternative broadcast stream for the 2023 IMSA season will happen this Saturday alongside the Petit Lemans from Road Atlanta. The stream will originate directly from the track and will have live guests during the broadcast including Doug Fehan! Please watch along and don’t forget to send us your questions during the broadcast!
MOTUL PETIT LE MANS October 11-14, 2023 Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta DURATION: 10 Hours
Circuit Length: 2.54 miles Corners: n12
Entry by Class: GTP (10) LMP2 (9) LMP3 (8) GTD Pro (8) GTD (19)
Tune-in Details:
Qualifying: Friday, October 13, 2023
(GTP) 4:10 PM to 4:30 PM EDT (GTD/GTD Pro) 3:20 PM to 3:35 PM EDT (LMP2/LMP3) 3:45 PM to 4:00 PM EDT
Qualifying Online Coverage for everyone: IMSA.com (includes live images, in-car cameras and announcers)
CORVETTE RACING AT PETIT LE MANS: Win… and Nothing Else
10-hour race brings end of Corvette C8.R era in IMSA championship
DETROIT (October 10, 2023) – Corvette Racing will close its 25th season with a race where it badly wants to return to Victory Circle: Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta and the finale of this year’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
The 10-hour endurance race isn’t just the close of the IMSA season; it also closes the era of the Corvette C8.R, which Corvette Racing has fielded since 2020. The race also marks a point of transition to a factory-supported effort for what will become the new Corvette Z06 GT3.R customer program for 2024 – including two Corvette GT3 cars for Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports.
But first things first. There’s no better way to end the season and the life of the C8.R by winning Petit Le Mans for the first time since 2010. Full-season teammates Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor welcome back Tommy Milner with the trio sharing the No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R in the GT Daytona (GTD) PRO category.
Garcia and Taylor – twice winners this year – still have a remote chance to secure the GTD PRO Drivers, Manufacturers and Teams titles for themselves, Chevrolet and the No. 3 C8.R squad, respectively. A second-place points finish looks more likely as the No. 14 entry only needs to start the race to win the championship.
That doesn’t mean there isn’t anything to race for in the Corvette camp. A victory at 2.54-mile, 12-turn Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta would mean a first victory in Petit Le Mans for both Garcia and Milner, plus give Taylor a victory in his final event with Corvette Racing before returning to prototype competition next year.
A total of 53 cars in five classes make up the entry list for the Road Atlanta round, including eight entries for GTD PRO. Add that to the roller-coaster nature of the track – plus going from day to night – and the risk for incidents and accidents goes up. That will put a premium on car consistency and reliability in addition to patience by each of the three Corvette drivers.
Chevrolet On Display at Road Atlanta
In addition to the many series and events competing during the Petit Le Mans weekend, race fans will have plenty to see and experience from Chevrolet. The Chevrolet Motorsports Display will be full of Chevy vehicles that spectators can learn more about throughout the weekend.
The Chevrolet Motorsports Display opens at 8 a.m. Thursday through Saturday and is located in the Fan Midway above the Road Atlanta main paddock. Numerous Chevrolet vehicles and other highlights include:
• The 2024 Corvette GT3.R race car that will compete next year in IMSA, the FIA World Endurance Championship at SRO’s GT World Challenge
• The 2024 Corvette E-Ray convertible and cutaway chassis, plus a Corvette C8.R engine
• Additional Chevrolet products such as Colorado ZR2, Camaro ZL1 1LE, Silverado 1500 RST, Traverse Premier Redline and Tahoe Z71, plus a variety of Chevrolet Performance parts and accessories
• An opportunity to receive a 2023 Chevrolet Motorsports t-shirt
The 10-hour Petit Le Mans from Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta is scheduled for 11:40 a.m. ET on Saturday, October 14. The race will air live on USA beginning at 6:30 p.m. ET and with the full race stream beginning at 11:35 a.m. on Peacock inside the United States and IMSA.com outside the U.S. IMSA Radio will air all on-track sessions beginning with Thursday’s opening 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: “This is the same situation as last year. Not being able win this race in the past is always in the back of my mind. We’re also coming off a poor performance at Indianapolis, which wasn’t a very promising preview. That doesn’t mean I’m giving up. I’m definitely going to go for the win. I hope we have a chance; that’s all I ask. Just to have a chance and then it’s up to us if we can manage to win or not.”
End of the C8.R era: “The average results with this car have been really, really good. We managed to win very important races like Daytona, Le Mans, Sebring… I’ve managed to win two championships with Jordan and win the big races. I’m happy that I’ve been part of this project since Day One. I started testing in the simulator several years ago. Being part of the whole process of developing that car was special. I’m happy that what we’ve built and developed has gone on to win so many big races and championships.”
JORDAN TAYLOR, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: “Ever since I’ve been Antonio’s teammate, this one has always been on the top of my list and it’s been on the top of my list, as well. Usually the races you go for every year are Daytona, Sebring and Petit Le Mans plus the championship. Those all kind of stand alone as ones you want to win because they are big-ticket items. Corvette Racing hasn’t won at Road Atlanta in many years, and this must be the only race on the planet that Antonio hasn’t won; I know how badly he wants to win it. And with this being my last race with the team and the program, it would be amazing to have a nice send-off like that. Everyone is fully focused with the championship out of reach, so we can take all the risks on track and on strategy to go for the win. The C8.R has won every major endurance race that it’s done – it’s just missing Petit Le Mans. It would be amazing to check off that last box on this last weekend for this car.”
TOMMY MILNER, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: “It’s always felt busy around Road Atlanta because of the nature of the track, which is what makes it fun to drive and fun to race on. When you add 50-something cars, it’s going to be chaotic for sure. With it always being the last race of the year, championships on the line, and drivers and teams who are planning to get a little bit of experience before the next season show up, it all makes the race very hectic and even the practices hectic. Bu it’s always been one of my favorite events. The track is amazing and it provides an awesome atmosphere. I’m excited to back in the Corvette. I’ve been away from racing since March although I’m watching everything. But it’s different when you’re directly involved. I’m looking forward to getting back in the C8.R, go racing again and getting back into the rhythm of it.
“Thankfully I haven’t been just sitting at home twiddling my thumbs during the season. I’ve been in the test car and doing quite a bit in that. More than anything, I’m excited about getting back in a racing environment. I haven’t had that since March. The urgency of getting up to speed, the urgency of getting a read on the racecar and getting back into the rhythm of having traffic to deal with… those will all be good to get back into that rhythm again. From driving the racecar, I don’t think that will be any difference. The intensity of a race weekend is what I’ve missed.”
2023 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship – GTD PRO (After 10 of 11 events)
Driver Standings
1. Ben Barnicoat/Jack Hawksworth – 3,495
2. Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor – 3,307
3. Daniel Juncadella/Jules Gounon – 3,268
4. Klaus Bachler/Patrick Pilet – 3,230
5. Alex Riberas/Ross Gunn – 3,122
Team Standings
1. No. 14 Vasser Sullivan – 3,495
2. No. 3 Corvette Racing – 3,307
3. No. 79 WeatherTech Racing – 3,268
4. No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports – 3,320
5. No. 23 Heart of Racing Team – 3,122
Manufacturer Standings
1. Lexus – 3,495
2. Chevrolet – 3,307
3. Mercedes-AMG – 3,268
4. Porsche – 3,230
5. Aston Martin – 3,133
CORVETTE RACING AT ROAD ATLANTA: By the Numbers
• 1: As in one team, one manufacturer and one model of car for 25 years: Corvette Racing, Chevrolet and the Chevrolet Corvette
• 3: Tracks where Corvette Racing has competed in each of its 25 years: Sebring International Raceway and WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca and as of this weekend Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta
• 4: Generations of Corvette Racing entries at Road Atlanta since 1999 – Corvette C5-R (1999-04) Corvette C6.R (2005-2013), Corvette C7.R (2014-2019) and the new-generation Corvette C8.R (2020-current), which made its Road Atlanta debut at September’s six-hour IMSA race in 2020
• 10: Number of Road Atlanta victories for Corvette Racing dating back to 2000 – eight of those at Petit Le Mans
• 10: Petit Le Mans wins for Chevrolet – eight in GT and two in Prototype. That ranks third among manufacturers in event history
• 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
• 127: Victories worldwide for Corvette Racing – 115 in North America, nine at Le Mans and three in the FIA WEC
• 282: Event starts by Corvette Racing since 1999
• 41,826.42: Number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing in its 27 previous trips to Road Atlanta. That represents 16,690 laps or more than 653 trips around Atlanta’s Interstate 285
• 360,734.30: 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 Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta
1999
No. 3 Corvette C5-R: Ron Fellows/Chris Kneifel/John Paul Jr. – 5th in GTS
No. 4 Corvette C5-R: Andy Pilgrim/Kelly Collins/Scott Sharp – 4th in GTS
2000
No. 3 Corvette C5-R: Ron Fellows/Chris Kneifel/Justin Bell – 3rd in GTS (Fellows pole)
No. 4 Corvette C5-R: Andy Pilgrim/Kelly Collins/Franck Freon – 1st in GTS
2001
No. 3 Corvette C5-R: Ron Fellows/Johnny O'Connell/Scott Pruett – 9th in GTS
No. 4 Corvette C5-R: Andy Pilgrim/Kelly Collins/Franck Freon – 1st in GTS (Pilgrim pole)
2002
No. 3 Corvette C5-R: Ron Fellows/Johnny O'Connell/Oliver Gavin – 1st in GTS
No. 4 Corvette C5-R: Andy Pilgrim/Kelly Collins/Franck Freon – 3rd in GTS (Pilgrim fastest race lap)
2003*
No. 3 Corvette C5-R: Ron Fellows/Johnny O'Connell – 3rd in GTS
No. 4 Corvette C5-R: Oliver Gavin/Kelly Collins – 1st in GTS
2003
No. 3 Corvette C5-R: Ron Fellows/Johnny O'Connell/Franck Freon – 5th in GTS
No. 4 Corvette C5-R: Oliver Gavin/Kelly Collins/Andy Pilgrim – 3rd in GTS
2004
No. 3 Corvette C5-R: Ron Fellows/Johnny O'Connell/Max Papis – 2nd in GTS
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
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