Media Q&A ahead of Chevrolet Grand Prix and team’s lone Canadian stop
Corvette Racing’s Jordan Taylor was part of a media Zoom today to talk about next week’s Chevrolet Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park and the sixth round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. He will team with Antonio Garcia in the No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R, which raced at CTMP for the first time a year ago. The duo finished third in the GTD PRO class last weekend at the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen
JORDAN TAYLOR, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R
ON THE FOLLOWING AND SUPPORT OF CORVETTE RACING AT CANADIAN TIRE MOTORSPORT PARK.
“It’s always a big weekend for us. Obviously being the Chevrolet Grand Prix, there’s a lot of Chevy supporters and Corvette supporters. The Corvette Corral that we have there every year is massive. It’s always exciting for us. Corvette Racing has 11 wins there over the year with the last one being in 2014. So we’re due for another win there. It’s been awhile, and last year we finished second. I feel like this year we’re a little bit stronger compared to this time last year when we first entered GTD PRO. This past weekend was a little bit of a struggle at Watkins Glen, but I don’t see why we can’t be a little bit closer to the front next weekend. It’s a big weekend for Corvette and Chevrolet every year we go there, and they are true sports car fans when we go north of the border.”
DOES THE MOVE TO CORVETTE RACING BY PRATT MILLER MOTORSPORTS FOR NEXT YEAR IN GT3 CHANGE ANYTHING FOR YOU AS A DRIVER?
“We kind of knew this was coming over the past year or two with the class going to GT3 and a customer-based program. Our history has always been in the GTLM and GTE classes, so with it going to GT3 it makes sense to rename it how they did. For me, it doesn’t change a whole lot. It’s still run by Pratt Miller. Corvette Racing always had Pratt Miller behind the scenes running the program from their shop in Michigan. Now it’s all going to be the same guys running the program. We deal with the same exact people on the management and contract side, so from the drivers perspective it changes nothing. The only thing that changes for us as Corvette drivers is that there will be more Corvettes on the track that we have to race with. It’s going to be interesting to see how it is. Obviously it makes it trickier when there are more cars on track in your class of car. But I think it’s great for the brand. There are so many Corvette fans in sports car racing worldwide that now going to this GT3 platform, we can see them racing at Le Mans, Nürburgring, Bathurst, Spa… it’s available to go anywhere now. For me, that’s super exciting to see. Obviously we’ve been locked down to IMSA and WEC the last few years. But with this new class for us, it opens things up a lot for drivers. I’m not sure what it holds for us as drivers, but for sure it would be cool to mix in some of these other races. You see other manufactures have their drivers going to Bathurst around Daytona time, Nürburgring around Le Mans time and Spa coming up this weekend. It would be cool to add some of those races to our calendar. I know a lot of guys in the Corvette stable are looking forward to that.”
HOW TOUGH IS TO TURN REALLY FAST LAPS AT A TRACK LIKE THIS THAT IS SO DAUNTING?
“It’s a place where you need a lot of confidence in yourself and in your car. If you’re lacking any of that, it’s definitely going to show up at a place like this. It’s nice that it’s in the middle of the season. I’d say that if this was the first race of the year when you’re getting back in the swing of things, it would be quite a shock to the system to get up to speed there. It’s always nice to have it back-to-back with Watkins Glen where you’ve come from a high-speed track, you’ve done six hours in your car and you kind of know the limits of it so when you get to CTMP, you’re mostly ready to go. It’s a high-risk, high-reward type of place especially when it comes to traffic. Having driven there in prototypes and now GT cars, you kind of see the perspective from both sides and see how much you can gain or lose in those situations. That definitely ramps up the intensity, especially the last hour of the race when guys don’t want to wait around. I’m sure it will be another classic IMSA fight all race long.”
THERE ARE SIX RACES STILL TO GO. WHAT DO YOU NEED TO DO IN ORDER TO TRACK DOWN THE 14?
“We’ve had a pretty good year. Other than Sebring when we got knocked off the track and our penalty at Laguna Seca, it’s been a pretty flawless season. At Daytona, we had a flawless race and finished second. At Long Beach, we had a good fight and had the third-fastest car and finished second. This weekend (at Watkins Glen), we had the fifth-fastest car and finished third. I feel like we are kind nailing our races pretty really and calling super-strong strategies. Our guys in the pits have been doing an unbelievable job on pit stops to jump guys when we can. Everything is going well – we just need to tick that last little box. Hopefully this weekend we can get it done.”
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE SPEED DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE GTP CARS TO THE GTD CARS WILL BE LIKE?
“It’s made it a little tricker in traffic to understand the capabilities of the GTP cars. We’re still used to DPis coming by us, and they used to fly by us in a lot of spots. You can tell guys are a little more hesitant with some of their moves especially with their tire allocation now; if they’re double-stinting their tires, they can be quite slow in some of the corners. At Sebring in some of the medium-speed corners, they’d be slower than us if we were on new tires. I’m not sure what their allocation is for next week for race stints, but I’d say if they are on a second stint on tires, they’ll struggle to get by us in some spots where they usually fly by us. It’s something for sure to think about and learn. It’s definitely a new challenge to figure out where they can pass you and where you need to defend. You can tell when they’re getting frustrated or they know certain spots where they need to get by or else they’re going to get stuck is where they start getting aggressive because they don’t want to wait around either. Understanding that is a big part of it so hopefully we’ll have a good amount of practice to get an understanding.”
WITH THE DYNAMICS BETWEEN GTP AND GTD PRO, IS THERE MORE PRESSURE RACING FOR WINS AND CHAMPIONSHIPS BECAUSE THE PERFORMANCE DIFFERENCES ARE UNDERSTOOD?
“For us, we haven’t won since Sebring 2022. If there are any openings to get a win, we’re definitely going to pounce at it. At the same time, we’re still racing for a championship and there is still a long way to go. If we have a third-place car, we need to finish second or third and not take a risk to finish fifth. Our race is against the Lexus at this point, so we might strategize a little bit around those guys to maybe make some moves.”
IS THERE A PART OF THE TRACK THAT’S HARD TO GET RIGHT EVERY TIME, AND IS THERE A FAVORITE SECTION?
“Turn Three. There’s also a bump on entry which makes it tricky to have a lot of confidence to attack. I’d say the best part about it is the flow between Turn One and Turn Two. It’s an amazing sequence of corners with blind entries and lots of elevation change. The fans in general at CTMP are also always special. I can’t remember what year – maybe 2017 or 2018 – but I went out to Turn Three and Turn Four to watch and the fans that camp there just love sports car racing. Not all tracks have authentic fans like that, so it’s always cool to see fans who have been going back since back in the day when old-school drivers and old-school cars were racing around there.”
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