IMSA 2023 Chevy Grand Prix this weekend in Canada

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In its 25-year history, Corvette Racing has taken victories at 27 racetracks around the world. Very few have witnessed more Corvette successes than Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, which plays host this weekend to the Chevrolet Grand Prix for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor will team in the No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R the mid-engine racecar’s second race at the venerable Canadian circuit. After a second-place finish in the GT Daytona (GTD) PRO class a year ago, Garcia and Taylor, plus the entire Corvette Racing effort, will look to finish one step higher on the class podium this time around.

The program first raced at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, formerly Mosport International Raceway in 2000.
Since then, Corvette Racing has won at the 2.459-mile, 10-turn circuit 11 times more than any other track except Sebring International Raceway.
Both drivers have victories to their credit at CTMP in Corvette racecars. Garcia won the GT Le Mans (GTLM) category in 2014, driving a Corvette C7.R with Jan Magnussen. Taylor was victorious the following year in a Corvette Daytona Prototype for Wayne Taylor Racing.

Garcia also is a former pole-winner at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park (2016) and set the fastest GTLM race lap in 2015.
The No. 3 Corvette drivers, the team and manufacturer Chevrolet enter CTMP third in their respective GTD PRO points standings. Only 73 points separate second through fourth, with a maximum of 385 points available this weekend. Lexus and its No. 14 drivers and teams lead the class by 172 points after five races and with six events left in the season.

In addition to the extensive success and following at CTMP, Corvette Racing legend Ron Fellows is part-owner of the circuit and is largely responsible for operations at the facility. In his Corvette Racing driving career spanning 1999–2008 Fellows won 30 races (three times at CTMP) and three championships in the American Le Mans Series. He also was one of the founding members of the team and a key development driver starting in 1997.

The Chevrolet Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park is scheduled for 12:05 p.m. ET on Sunday, July 9. The race will air live on NBC and stream live on Peacock inside the United States and IMSA.com outside the U.S. IMSA Radio will air on-track sessions beginning with Saturday 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:

“Last year was nice to get back to Canada and finally race the C8.R there. Our result was good. Last year, we finished second behind the Porsche and the Lexus was behind us. So I don’t know where we will fit in once we get on the track.
Hopefully we can find our way to the front for all our fans there. It’s always a massive turnout for Corvette Racing. I was happy with our race at Watkins Glen, with our pit stops, how clean we were and always gaining positions with strategy. We’ll hopefully carry on doing that.”

JORDAN TAYLOR, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R:

“It was cool driving the C8.R around Canadian Tire Motorsport Park for the first time last year. We were actually not bad last year there.
We saved a lot of fuel and were in the top-three, sitting behind the Porsche and Aston Martin.
Looking at the pace at Watkins Glen, it’s a little concerning because the tracks are kind of similar.

But since last year, we’ve done some development, so hopefully that can work to our advantage.
It’s another sprint race, so we’ll take a couple of pit stops with some strategy and hopefully work some Corvette Racing magic.”

 

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First practice completed

Frankie Montecalvo, who nabbed the GTD pole at CTMP last year, was quickest in the class in the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 at 1m16.558s, 0.112s quicker than Frederik Schandorff in the No. 70 Inception Racing McLaren 720S.
Those two headed the GT field overall, with Antonio Garcia third among the GTs and first in GTD PRO in the No. 3 Corvette Racing C8.R.

Ben Barnicoat was right behind Garcia, only 0.02s off the Corvette’s time in the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus.

Alex Riberas was third in GTD PRO in the No. 23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3. Robby Foley (No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3) and Loris Spinelli (No. 78 Forte Racing Powered by USRT Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo22) split Barnicoat and RIberas to round out the top four in GTD.

 

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Qualify completed, as the norm looks like another year, the C8.R will not be a series winner

Jack Hawksworth stormed to GTD Pro class pole in the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3.
Hawksworth reeled off a best lap of 1:15.029 to edge out the No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Jules Gounon by 0.074 seconds.

It marked the first repeat GTD Pro class pole-sitter of the season, following Hawksworth’s class pole at Long Beach in April
The No. 23 The Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of Alex Riberas will start third in class, thanks to a 1:15.341 lap time.
The team’s sister No. 27 Aston Martin of Roman De Angelis, meanwhile, picked up GTD class pole honors with the fourth-quickest time in the GT ranks.
The Canadian driver was just 0.030 seconds quicker than the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus of Frankie Montecalvo, who qualified second in class.

Jordan Taylor was sandwiched between De Angelis & Montecalvo and is set to roll off from fifth in the combined GT grid in the No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R GTD.

 

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BOWMANVILLE, Ontario, Canada (July 8, 2023) – C8.R Corvette Racing will try to make it a dozen victories at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park Sunday from fourth place on the GT Daytona (GTD) PRO grid for Sunday’s Chevrolet Grand Prix.

Jordan Taylor qualified on the third of 10 GTD category rows for the sixth round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship with a lap of 1:15.494 (117.260 mph). He and teammate Antonio Garcia hope to win for the first time this season in the No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R and give Corvette Racing its first victory at the 2.459-mile, 10-turn circuit east of Toronto since 2014.

The duo is coming off a third-place GTD PRO finish at Watkins Glen two weeks ago and came in second last year at CTMP in the C8.R’s first race at the historic Canadian circuit.

In addition to winning the race, Garcia and Taylor aim to close the gap in the GTD PRO championship standings. The drivers, the No. 3 team and manufacturer Chevrolet enter CTMP third in their respective GTD PRO points standings. Only 73 points separate second through fourth with a maximum of 385 points available this weekend. Lexus and its No. 14 drivers and teams lead the class by 172 points after five races and with six events left in the season.

The Chevrolet Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park is scheduled for 12:05 p.m. ET on Sunday, July 9. The race will air live on NBC and stream live on Peacock inside the United States and IMSA.com outside the U.S. IMSA Radio will air the call of the race on IMSA.com, XM 207 and SiriusXM Online 992.

JORDAN TAYLOR, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – QUALIFIED FOURTH IN GTD PRO:

“I don’t know. Something was off in that session. I don’t know if we missed something on the setup or if there was something else. We are still struggling in the last two sectors where you make your speed compared to the leaders.
This track is about speed and track position.
Unfortunately, we don’t have very much of either right now.”

 

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The last 5 minutes of the race was under a yellow flag
There were only 3 cars in class and Garcia, Taylor End Corvette Winless Streak in GTD Pro

Corvette Racing broke through for its first GTD Pro win since Sebring 2022, with Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor taking top class honors.

Garcia benefitted from both the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R of Patrick Pilet and Ben Barnicoat’s then class-leading No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 going off-course to take the lead with 1 hour and 7 minutes to go.

Barnicoat then pitted his class championship-leading Lexus with overheating problems, sending the car behind the wall for 20 laps.
Garcia edged out Pilet, with the No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Jules Gounon and Dani Juncadella completing the class podium in third.

It came despite a drive-through penalty for Gounon due to incident responsibility after contact with the No. 23
The Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of Ross Gunn that eliminated Gunn from the race just prior to halfway.

 

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BOWMANVILLE, Ontario, Canada (July 9, 2023) – Corvette C8.R 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 when 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 a 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 warm up, 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 any 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.”