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.”

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.»