IMSA Indy Race will have a Corvette Corral

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CORVETTE CORRAL, COMING BACK TO INDY on Sept 15-17th

For the first time in nearly a decade, C8.R 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

 

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – You’d be hard-pressed to name a car that’s had a greater impact on American pop culture than the Chevrolet Corvette.

Through eight design generations from the humble 1953 Blue Flame Six/Powerglide C1 boulevard cruiser to the recently unveiled C8 Z06 GT3.R that will compete in the 2024 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, the Corvette has captured the hearts of millions.

The love affair arguably started in the early 1960s with the “Route 66” TV series that featured twenty-somethings Buzz Murdock and Tod Stiles seeking adventure in Tod’s shiny new Corvette convertible.

Then there were the astronaut Corvettes. Capitalizing on the publicity gained when General Motors President Ed Cole presented Alan Shepard with a ’62 coupe after becoming the first American to travel into space, Cole and Florida Chevrolet dealer (and former Indianapolis 500 winner) Jim Rathmann created a $1 Corvette lease program for astronauts that peaked in 1969 when Apollo 12’s Charles “Pete” Conrad, Richard Gordon and Alan Bean commissioned custom matching paint schemes.

Mark Hamill’s vehicle of choice for his first star billing post-“Star Wars” was a mostly forgotten cult classic called “Corvette Summer.” John Wayne briefly owned the 51st Corvette to roll off the line (he later gave it away because he was too tall to fit). A C3 coupe helped Jack Nicholson give Shirley MacLaine a memorable beach ride in “Terms of Endearment.” Matthew McConaughey drives one when he’s not pitching Lincolns on television.

Corvette has also been immortalized in music, from Jan & Dean’s “Dead Man’s Curve” to Prince’s iconic “Little Red Corvette.” Musicians from Bruce Springsteen to Bob Weir collect vintage Corvettes, and former Beatle Paul McCartney once chose a C5 convertible as his Southern California daily driver. Wouldn’t you?

Of course, Corvette is a longtime favorite among racing fans, from the mighty Grand Sports commissioned by Corvette godfather Zora Arkus-Duntov in the early 1960s, through John Greenwood’s outrageous Corvettes that competed in IMSA in the ‘70s, continuing with Corvette Racing’s sustained run of championship success since 1999 that included the No. 3 Corvette C8.R GTD that finished second in class last month in the Rolex 24 At Daytona.

That passion is demonstrated in the Corvette Corrals that are a staple at many WeatherTech Championship events; the corral at Daytona International Speedway for the Rolex 24 was again filled to capacity this year, where a host of enthusiasts were eager to talk about their own Corvette love story.

“I lucked out – you almost have to inherit corral tickets now,” laughed Ron Neal, a Daytona Beach resident who traded his 2008 Corvette Z51 for a 2011 Corvette Grand Sport at Ciocca Corvette (formerly Kerbeck Corvette), America’s largest ‘Vette vendor.

“My car is a daily driver I’ve got 130,000 miles on it, and it’s bulletproof,” Neal continued. “I wanted a performance car that wouldn’t break. I probably wouldn’t take it to track days now, but I did them up to when it had about 70,000 miles on it. Redline in every gear. All I did was change the oil, tires, belts – all the normal maintenance items. I drove it to West Virginia last summer and I still get 30 miles per gallon on the highway.”

Neal said that practicality is the main reason he’d rather hang on to his C6 rather than acquire a newer C7- or C8-generation Corvette.

“The C6 has so much room,” he noted. “There are 23 cubic feet of storage behind the seats. It’s my only vehicle, so I use it for groceries, to pick up people at the airport. I had 20 bags of rock salt in it one time.”

Florida's residents Mario Ginebra and his wife Cindy have attended the Rolex 24 for the last 20 years, but said it was the first time they succeeded in scoring a ticket to the Corvette Corral. They are also regulars at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.

Their Corvette experience began when four special Drivers Edition models created by Corvette Racing pilots Jan Magnussen, Tommy Milner, Oliver Gavin and Antonio Garcia were unveiled during 2019 Rolex 24 activities.

“We fell in love with those Grand Sports and two months later, we bought our first Corvette – a 2019 Grand Sport,” Mario related. “We owned it for three years before we sold it and bought our brand new C8 Stingray convertible. We just love it. It was always a dream I wanted, and finally, I was able to get it. We just love driving it and taking it to events and seeing people. I took the top down, and one kid said, ‘It’s a Transformer!’ It just puts a big smile on your face.”

“The C8 is a completely different animal from the C7,” Cindy added. “The C7 is a bulldog and the C8 is a greyhound. She’s sleek and she’s fast. She’ll go!”

Mary Anne and Scott Lewandowski, residents of Ephrata, Pennsylvania, also enjoy the social aspects of Corvette ownership, and the strong sense of camaraderie between owners and fans.

“We’ve met people from around the country and around the world who are interested in Corvettes, and it’s just a bond that brings everybody together,” Mary Anne said. “Every time we come to these shows, we grow more and more friends. We see each other at different races and events, and it makes it a lot of fun.”

The Lewandowskis currently own a C3-generation 1980 Stingray and a 2017 Grand Sport Collector Edition. They are on the waiting list for the recently announced Corvette E-Ray, featuring hybrid electric technology and all-wheel drive.

 

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C8.R 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 massive 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 are 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.”

 

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C8.R ran like crap for qualify
So starts last for Indy race tomorrow, Sunday 1 PM ET

 

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C8.R Corvette Racing struggled home to a last-place GT Daytona (GTD) PRO class finish Sunday in its return to Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks.

Teammates Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor had hoped to build on their momentum from a victory in the last IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race at Virginia International Raceway. Unfortunately for Corvette Racing, they were powerless to challenge for a repeat win, much less a class podium finish.
The positive out of the race is that the drivers, Chevy and the No. 3 squad remain second in GTD PRO Drivers, Manufacturers and Teams points.

Taylor qualified the No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R began fifth in class, but had a good run into the tight and difficult first corner to take fourth before a first-course yellow on the opening lap. Once the race went back green, Taylor’s day got better, as the pole-sitting Porsche was penalized for changing lanes at the start to move the Corvette to third.

A large part of Taylor’s 50-minute stint saw him and the three other leading GTD PRO cars stuck behind a slow prototype.
That hold-up allowed the Corvette to stay in touch with the leaders and Taylor to save a prodigious amount of fuel before the C8.R’s first stop of the race.

He came in with the championship-leading Lexus under the race’s second full-course yellow, while the No. 79 and No. 23 entries had stopped 10 minutes earlier under green. Thanks to a speedy stop for fuel, tires and the change to Garcia, the No. 3 jumped the No. 14 Lexus in the pitlane and restarted third in class.
With no slower traffic ahead, Garcia was helpless to hold off the challengers behind him.
He fell behind the faster Lexus after the restart, with the two cars on the same pit strategy to the end. They both stopped with an hour left one lap after the two other class contenders but came out with a significant gap behind the eventual winning Mercedes and second-place Aston Martin.

Corvette Racing closes the IMSA season with the 10-hour Petit Le Mans on Saturday, Oct. 14 from Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.

ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – FINISHED FIFTH IN GTD PRO:

“A frustrating day. We had a little bit of track position before the first stop thanks to the slow traffic and Jordan being able to save fuel. Once we went back to green and no one was holding us up, there was no chance to stay with the leaders.
The only way for us to create laptime was no traffic and momentum. The others could go whenever they wanted, while we struggled to stay up to speed getting through the traffic. And there was a lot of that. Even the GTDs had a pretty easy time getting by. The car was fine and ran well.
We just couldn’t fight. I hope that gets better at Road Atlanta.”

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

“I was very surprised at the start (to stick with the GTD PRO leaders)
. We got lucky with an LMP3 car holding guys up for a good portion of that stint. We were able to sit in the train and save fuel. It was going to be difficult to make a move on anyone, so we saved fuel and hoped to jump those guys in the pits, which the guys did with a great stop.
The car was decent. Like Antonio said, we had no power to race with anyone.

It was wild out there. You could gain and lose a second or two a lap depending on when they get you and how aggressive they are.”