SEBRING, Fla. (Nov. 13, 2020) – Corvette Racing’s Antonio Garcia claimed his second pole position of the season Friday ahead of the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, adding yet another exclamation point to a championship season for the No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R.
Garcia set a GT Le Mans (GTLM) track record in time trials for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season finale – 1:55.456 (116.615 mph) in the mid-engine Corvette that he shares will GTLM Drivers co-champion Jordan Taylor as well as Nicky Catsburg.
Tommy Milner qualified the No. 4 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Corvette fourth in class at 1:56.446 (115.624 mph) and just 0.3 seconds from the front row.
Garcia’s effort was the seventh pole position for Corvette Racing this season and sixth for the No. 3 C8.R. Garcia also claimed pole position for the 10-hour Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, and Taylor captured poles at Sebring in July, Mid-Ohio, Charlotte and WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – GTLM POLE-WINNER: “It was a perfect lap. From yesterday, we flipped around the car a little bit. With not as much track time as in years past, qualifying is almost like practice for us, too. We gambled on something different and it seems to be working. I’m happy with that. The Corvette Racing guys did a fantastic job. It’s been an amazing season. This year I had my first pole at Petit Le Mans and today is my first pole at Sebring. I’m very, very happy for that, too. That defines how 2020 has been for us. Let’s hope we can carry on that way. The C8.R seems to be really good although I’m expecting a lot of close fights with BMW and Porsche. We are starting in the best place, so let’s see what tomorrow brings. It’s not a two-hour, 40-minute one like in July. Tomorrow will the classic race where we finish at night. We’ll see what the new Sebring date brings us.”
WHERE WERE THE GAINS FROM PRACTICE? “It was all around the racetrack. Jordan had a very similar lap here in July, so yesterday I could compare our laps to that one, even though it was almost three seconds faster than what we did yesterday. It gave me a target to know what the car was capable of. We made a big swing on the setup today, but I knew it was possible and that the C8.R could do a 1:55 around here. On the lap, the car felt fast everywhere. This is the fastest I’ve ever been around here. It was cool with zero mistakes and I just nailed it.”
DOES CLINCHING THE GTLM TITLE TAKE PRESSURE OFF FOR THIS WEEKEND? “I’ve always enjoyed this race. Since we found out about the date change, I knew that finishing at Sebring would have been very tough. Fighting for a championship at such a hard event would have been difficult. I’m glad we got it out of the way, and I hope next year we are back to a normal schedule where no one thinks about championships at Sebring! Daytona and Sebring at the beginning of the season, those are big enough races on their own. To put the championship on the line would be super stressful. For sure we will enjoy this weekend. But the rest of the cars in our class are very relaxed too. They’ll go all out to win this race. I can foresee this being an aggressive race but another classic Sebring.”
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