Win for No. 13 Corvette is first in a 24-hour race for Corvette Z06 GT3.R 

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (January 26, 2025) – The Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R started its second season of competition by winning one of the biggest races the world as AWA and drivers Matt Bell, Orey Fidani, Lars Kern and Martin Kirchhöfer captured the GT Daytona (GTD) victory in the Rolex 24 At Daytona to start the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

The No. 13 Corvette crossed the finish line by 1.454 seconds for the 21st victory for Chevrolet in the Rolex 24 and the fifth for the Corvette Racing program since 1999. AWA’s victory was its second in three seasons at Daytona, also the first in a 24-hour race for the Corvette GT3 and 12th since debuting at the Rolex 24 a year ago.

Five Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs entered the race with two making the podium. Antonio Garcia, Alexander Sims and Daniel Juncadella placed second in GTD PRO in Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports’ No. 3 Z06 GT3.R.

GTD PRO Corvette Z06 GT3.R Results

· No. 3 Corvette – Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports – Antonio Garcia, Alexander Sims, Dani Juncadella – Runner-up in class

· No. 4 Corvette – Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports – Tommy Milner, Nicky Catsburg, Nico Varrone –– Seventh in class

· No. 91 Corvette – Trackhouse by TF Sport – Ben Keating, Scott McLaughlin, Shane van Gisbergen, Connor Zilisch – Ninth in class

AWA’s victory began to take shape past the halfway point. Both Fidani and Kern completed the minimum drive time in the first 13 hours to set the stage for Bell and Kirchhöfer to drive most of the remaining 11 hours with Kern giving the pair a stint’s worth of a break before going the rest of the way.

The GTD race swung in favor of AWA inside the final seven hours when Bell stopped for fuel and tires and retained the class lead. The class running order went back and forth the rest of the way with Bell taking the lead for good with 20 minutes left and running as low as fourth after a restart with 40 minutes to go. 

As joyous as the win for AWA was, the fate of the No. 4 Corvette from Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports was just as heartbreaking. After cycling up and down in the GTD PRO order, Tommy Milner moved into the lead inside the final two hours but his attempt to extend his lead over the second-place No. 1 car was repeatedly blocked by that car’s team entry. That allowed the No. 1 to get to the back of Milner’s Corvette, which suffered rear damage that required multiple stops to repair.

Despite that, the No. 4 squad remained in contention with Varrone racing his way up to second before the trio eventually finished seventh. The wild late-race chaos also saw Sims go from seventh to second inside the final hour.

The No. 91 Trackhouse by TF Sport Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Ben Keating, Scott McLaughlin, Shane van Gisbergen and Connor Zilisch took the fight to the GTD PRO regulars and consistently ran in the class’s top half for the majority of the race.

DXDT Racing’s No. 36 Corvette was on pace for a solid result in its IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship debut before retiring at the halfway point with Charlie Eastwood moving toward the front.

The next race for the Corvette Z06 GT3.R program is 1812KM of Qatar – the opening race of the FIA World Endurance Championship – on Friday, February 28. The next round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship is the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring on Saturday, March 15.

ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “All race we were going everywhere, basically. We solved a wiring problem during the night, and the car got back to being alive. We were lucky our crew could fix that, and the car was back in contention and fast. Ever since I drove it at night, we at least had a chance. I don’t think it would have made a ton of difference, but it’s a shame that penalty that I had, which from my point of view, was a little bit on the edge and avoidable from both sides. Such a shame. That put us on our back foot, and no yellows for three hours, at least. That was painful because if there were a yellow, we could have made our way to P1 and P2. I think we were both fast enough to be P1 or 2 or be up front on regular strategy instead of gambling on our strategy. Here you only want to win, but the good thing you can take is championship points for manufacturers, drivers, and teams. We’ll go up from here. And congratulations to the AWA guys on their win in GTD with their Corvette.”

ALEXANDER SIMS, NO. 3 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “Right at the end for the last few hours, things really chopped and changed a lot for everyone in the field, really. But our Corvettes were working really well. We maybe didn’t have the pace overnight, but during the day things really came to us and we had the laptime. It was just a little bit difficult to race in a pack with a couple of the other manufacturer cars who were particularly fast on the straights and weaker in the corners, which is where we made our laptimes. Honestly, from where things looked like a few hours from the end, second is pretty good. But when you’re fighting super close for the win, you can’t help as a sportsman to feel disappointed not to get the win.”

Considering where you were a year ago…

“I thought that exactly too. Here we had a near flawless race. Our Corvette held up really, really well. The whole team did a fantastic job to execute so much of the race so well. It was a good start for the year.”

DANI JUNCADELLA, NO. 3 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “I’ve had some time to cool down and to be honest, it’s an amazing result to finish second. A great start to the year. Really thankful to the team. They made us believe in winning, and we ended up just short. Alex is an absolute legend. That last 30 minutes gave us the shivers and made us dream about the victory. We just came short. It is what it is. Tomorrow will taste way better and I think looking at the overall performance and where we’re coming from one year ago, it’s fantastic. So really happy for the Pratt and Miller guys, everyone at Corvette Racing. They gave us a fantastic Corvette GT3 car and that was good fun.”