Sims, Garcia withstand street fight to take first Detroit GTD PRO victory

DETROIT (May 30, 2026) – Chevrolet and Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports won their home race Saturday as Antonio Garcia and Alexander Sims claimed the GTD PRO class victory in the Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic.

The duo in the No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R capitalized on pole position and led 75 of 79 laps for the Corvette Racing program’s first points-paying win in the Motor City since 2007. In addition to the GTD PRO victory, General Motors also won the race overall with the No. 31 Cadillac V-Series.R.

“What a special day for General Motors and the Cadillac Racing and Corvette Racing teams in Detroit,” said Mark Reuss, President, General Motors. “Winning both classes of the Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic on the streets of the Motor City is a tremendous achievement for our motorsports, design and engineering teams. Congratulations to Whelen Cadillac and Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports teams on hard-earned victories at our home race.”

The No. 4 Corvette of Tommy Milner and Nicky Catsburg finished seventh in GTD PRO following a late-race penalty for incident responsibility. The pairing did retain the lead in the class Drivers and Teams championship standings while Chevrolet grew its lead in the Manufacturers standings to more than 100 points.

“Congratulations to Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports on winning the Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic in GTD PRO,” said Scott Bell, Vice President, Chevrolet. “This is an extra-special achievement on the streets of the Motor City against a deep field of world-class manufacturers. There is tremendous pride in seeing Corvette take the checkered flag at our home race. It means a lot to celebrate that moment with our GM team members, especially the people who contribute to the Corvette program every day.”

The No. 3 Corvette led in class from the outset Saturday with Sims getting an ideal getaway at the start to pull clear of his three closest pursuers. The pole-sitter built upwards of a three-second lead and ran first in class for the entirety of his 31-minute stint. 

While Sims had a mostly trouble-free run, Garcia caught the worst of the traffic – both the overtaking GTP cars and the tail of the GTD PRO pack – not long after the driver change. He left the pitlane with a nearly five-second lead but it went down to nearly nothing as he attempted to get by the No. 77 Porsche – the last car on the lead lap – for nearly 15 minutes.

Garcia also had to weather two restarts inside the final 20 minutes, one of which resulted in left-side damage when the No. 14 Lexus hit the Corvette during an overtake under yellow immediately after a restart. 

On the other side of the pitbox, Milner ran a little wide at the first corner and fell back to fourth by the end of the first racing lap.

The No. 4 Corvette was the first of the two Z06 GT3.Rs to make its lone stop for fuel only. Catsburg rejoined fifth in class but moved back into podium position with 45 minutes to go. Garcia’s fight with the Porsche brought the No. 4 back into a fight for the lead before the penalty and subsequent drive-through penalty that sent the Corvette down the order.

Corvette Racing’s next event in IMSA is the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen on Sunday, June 28.

CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R WINNING DRIVER QUOTES

ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “We really wanted this one. We were on pole two years ago, last year we had the pace but we couldn’t manage to go around the Ford. So I’m super happy to be on Victory Lane on Chevrolet land and underneath the RenCen tower. I think all the big bosses will be as happy as we are! Fantastic drive by Alex to put it on pole and opening up a big gap so the driver change was a little less stressful.”

(Late-race battles) “I don’t know if I would have wanted to be in the pits during those laps. In the car it was super-stressful especially with the cars that were fighting for their lives and defending to not go alap down. I knew I had to be a little bit risk-free after the pit stop and deal with the gap that I had. But eventually it got frustrated at times but managed to get around the 77. It was stressful on the restarts. After one of them, there was some oil on the track at Turn Three and it was difficult to be the one leading the pack because I didn’t know what to expect after I went through it before everyone else.”

ALEXANDER SIMS, NO. 3 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “My race was super-easy, to be honest. I was quite nervous before the race, knowing how easy it is to trip up around here in all sorts of situations. The opening stint for me was pretty easy going for me. The Corvette was working so well for us in that first stint. I had one restart to contend with, I think. Everything went pretty smoothly. That was really nice to be able to have some fairly clean laps, a lot of clear laps and build a reasonable lead to come into the pits. 

(On winning in Detroit for GM and the team) “It’s been a really strong weekend for us with Chevrolet and Pratt Miller with our Corvette. It’s a really tough circuit to eke everything out of it. We already arrived with a good package on our Corvette, on the No. 3 car. We had to optimize it a little bit more than the No. 4 car. It’s been working well all weekend. The real difficulty with that situation is that everything is building up so well and you’re at the front of the field the whole time. It almost feels as if you can only lose in the race. It’s huge relief to be able to be able to finish first, and then close it out. Even in the last half an hour, there was so much mayhem going on around the track, it is so easy to be caught out by something. Very, very pleased and proud of the whole team.”