IMSA - C8.R racing at VIR

[teamzr1]

C8.R Corvette Racing & 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 the 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.”

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

 

[teamzr1]

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 the 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.”

 

[teamzr1]

C8.R Corvette Racing kept its GTD Pro championship hopes alive with a big win in Sunday’s Michelin GT Challenge at Virginia International Raceway.

An undercut strategy by the No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R GTD on the final pit stop of the GT-only round, a stall in the pits for the then-leading No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 of Ben Barnicoat handed the lead to C8.R driver Jordan Taylor.

Taylor managed his advantage over Barnicoat to finish 2.068-seconds ahead of the Lexus for the Pratt Miller-run factory squad’s second IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship win of the season.

Having started on pole, the No. 14 Lexus of Jack Hawksworth held control in the early stages and only lost the overall lead to the then-leading GTD car of Bryan Sellers in the second hour through a three-way fight that included Taylor.

The No. 3 Corvette, started by Antonio Garcia, remained in contention throughout for the duo’s second win the in the last four WeatherTech Championship races.

Paul Miller Racing, meanwhile, claimed its fifth GTD class victory of the season, leading a BMW 1-2 sweep in the category.

Madison Snow took the No. 1 BMW M4 GT3 to a 12.187-second margin over the No. 96 Turner Motorsport entry of Robby Foley, who came home second alongside Patrick Gallagher.

The No. 97 BMW of Bill Auberlen was en route to a third place finish prior to getting passed by Philip Ellis with two laps to go.

I came after the No. 70 Inception Racing McLaren 720S GT3 was forced to serve a drive-through penalty due to working underneath the car while refueling.

Frederik Schandorff was running third in class at the time of the penalty and charged back to finish seventh.

Snow shared top honors with Sellers, who for the second consecutive race completed only the middle stint in the two-hour and 40-minute race. The duo finished third overall.

The No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Philip Ellis and Russell Ward finished fourth in class, with Aaron Telitz and Frankie Montecalvo completing the top-five in class.

AO Racing ended up as the highest-placed Porsche 911 GT3 R, finishing sixth in class.

The race featured two full course cautions, the first for a heavy crash by David Brule in the No. 92 Kellymoss with Riley Porsche, followed by ABS-related issues for Misha Goikhberg, who crashed the No. 78 Forte Racing by US RaceTronics Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2.

The GTD Pro class No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes, which started on the outside of the front row, lost two laps after an unscheduled stop late in the second hour after contact between Jules Gounon and Klaus Bachler’s No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche.

Bachler rebounded to finish third in GTD Pro, ahead of the No. 23 The Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3, which had an off-course excursion in the hands of Alex Riberas after contact with Mikael Grenier.

 

[teamzr1]

C8.R 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 use 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 save 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 had 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 when 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.”

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