Corvette Racing at Road Atlanta: What Might Have Been

Photo Credit score: Richard Prince for Corvette Racing
Fifth-area GTD Pro end for Garcia, Taylor, Catsburg in No. 3 Corvette C8.R

BRASELTON, Ga. (Oct. 1, 2022) – Corvette Racing closed its time in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship on Saturday with a fifth-location finish in the GT Daytona (GTD) Pro course just after the 10-hour Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.

Antonio Garcia, Jordan Taylor and Nicky Catsburg entered Saturday hoping to replicate their victory from previously this calendar year at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hrs of Sebring. Finally, two different incidents of get hold of did not enable the No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R’s quest for its second victory of the season.

The result was plenty of for Garcia and Taylor to take third in the GTD Motorists Championship and Chevrolet to end third in the ultimate Brands standings.

The day commenced robust with Garcia transferring forward from the environmentally friendly flag. He picked up two positions to 3rd on the opening two laps of the race and moved to the guide just previous the hour mark. He drove the to start with 92 minutes before handing off to Taylor, who ran initially or 2nd for the initial 90 minutes of his time in the Corvette.

The day’s initially setback arrived around the 3-hour mark when Taylor’s appropriate-rear Michelin went down even though leading on a restart following make contact with with the No. 9 Porsche. He was ready to dive directly into the pits for 4 refreshing tires but fell down to sixth.

The march again towards the front arrived in excess of the next two hrs as two more total-study course yellows and penalties to some of its competitors allowed the Corvette to make up keep track of posture. By the time Catsburg took about near the four-and-a-50 %-hour mark, the No. 3 was again with the lead back in GTD Pro and ran as superior as 2nd before Garcia returned to the driver’s seat around the seven-hour mark.

Issues came undone for the No. 3 Corvette with a little more than two hours to go as Garcia spun at Switch 11 immediately after call with the 62 Ferrari. He dropped from 3rd to fifth and then down to sixth as Corvette Racing engineers instantly went on an alternate pit strategy in hopes of a yellow to get the C8.R back into contention.

The race’s ultimate yellow came with 52 minutes remaining and brought Garcia to in just 5 seconds of the lead within the closing 30 minutes but could not draw closer at the conclude.

Corvette Racing closes its 2022 method with the 8 Hrs of Bahrain and the closing race of the FIA Entire world Endurance Championship on Nov. 10-12.

ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – Completed FIFTH IN GTD Professional:
“It’s challenging when you have GTD cars and trucks fighting for the identical thing as you and their efficiency is completely reverse of yours. It is difficult to race when one particular vehicle achieves a lap time in one particular way and the relaxation do it an additional. I will have to say it’s the story of the period. We confirmed at the beginning of the race that if we are up entrance and can do our individual speed, we’re great and we can race. As soon as you have someone in front of you that you simply cannot go and one more automobile receives to you, they will go earlier due to the fact you have practically nothing to assist you protect. Which is been the detail this year. Annoying day, irritating season… but the exertion from anyone at Corvette Racing has been terrific all year. We could not ask for a lot more from the crew. Which is 110 percent.”
On the start out: “The commence of the race was uncomplicated and comfortable in a way. We had good rate to the other cars and trucks in entrance of all those and managed to leap most of people in the pits. Then the rate was actually fantastic. I had to catch the 79, which seemed doable and acquired into the guide. But one particular far more 12 months exactly where I have gained numerous stints at Petit Le Mans but under no circumstances the full race.”
JORDAN TAYLOR, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – Completed FIFTH IN GTD Professional:
“I feel like we set ourselves in some fantastic places currently. At the stop of it, we just did not have the tempo to struggle guys. After that last restart we had been type of in a position to battle yet again but bought motored by. That was fairly significantly our season in one race. With any luck , we can go into the offseason, figure out what all we learned and appear back stronger next 12 months.”
Opening stint: “Our vehicle was decent. We had a little little bit of make contact with, which was unlucky. It variety of cycled us to the back again but we had been still in a superior posture. It’s definitely really hard to pass all around here with the website traffic. I was not heading to give the position (to the 9 Porsche). I was trying to be intense and maintain him off. We ended up racing for the Stamina Cup so I think that is why we had been racing that aggressively that early on.”
NICKY CATSBURG, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – Completed FIFTH IN GTD Pro:
“It was a difficult race. We did not have the rate at the stop. It looks like all people else experienced one thing left and we didn’t. I experienced fun but unfortunately this was the highest we could do.
“Honestly there wasn’t a good deal of outrageous motion. It was very pleasurable. Sadly on both pit entries, I obtained held up by a pair of stints and shed some time. But that did not indicate so significantly for our pace. It just implies that all the hard work you put in during the stint is then lost for no cause, which is incredibly troublesome.”
Supply:

Corvette Racing at Chevrolet


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[VIDEO] At the rear of the Scenes at VIR with Jordan Taylor


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