Garcia goes under old track record, will roll off third on grid in GT-only showcase
LAKEVILLE, Conn. (July 21, 2023) – Corvette Racing and Antonio Garcia will charge toward the first corner for the Northeast Grand Prix on Saturday from inside the second row after a third-place result in qualifying Friday at Lime Rock Park.
Garcia, in the No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R, set a best time of 50.897 (104.257 mph) in a record-breaking, 15-minute session around the 1.474-mile, seven turn Lime Rock layout.
He’ll start Saturday’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race and will team with Jordan Taylor – the same duo that won the GT-only race in 2021 with the No. 3 Corvette.
The five cars in the GTD PRO class were under the previous track record of 51.079; they were all separated by 0.481 seconds.
Garcia set the fastest GTD PRO lap in Friday’s first practice and was quickest overall in the final session prior to qualifying. That’s a good sign for the long-run pace of the Corvette, which won for the first time this year two weeks ago at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.
While the Garcia/Taylor pairing currently sits third in points, the No. 3 Corvette is in the thick of the GTD PRO championships with 109 points separating the team from the class-leading No. 14 Lexus in the standings.
With six victories at the 1.474-mile, seven-turn road course in northwestern Connecticut, no team in IMSA history has won more times at Lime Rock than Corvette Racing. In fact, no team in the paddock has half the number of victories at the circuit.
This is the first of two races this season to feature only GTD PRO and GTD cars, the second coming at Virginia International Raceway in August. Of note, six of Corvette Racing’s 126 victories worldwide have been overall wins, including the 2021 Lime Rock win for the No. 3 Corvette.
The FCP Euro Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park is scheduled for 12:10 p.m. ET on Saturday. The race will air live on USA and stream live on Peacock inside the United States and IMSA.com outside the U.S. IMSA Radio also will air the race beginning at 11:30 a.m. ET at IMSA.com with the race call also on XM 207 and SiriusXM Online 992.
ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – QUALIFIED THIRD IN GTD PRO:“It was a bit messy with the traffic, for sure. Obviously in practice it is way easier to find a rhythm and finding a gap. Here everyone was finding their way in, and I didn’t quite manage to do it. It doesn’t mean I would have done anything different. The balance of the car changed a tiny bit compared to practice. It just wasn’t quite there. We know that we can go from there and that we have a decent race car.”
2023 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship – GTD PRO (After six of 11 events)
Driver Standings
- Ben Barnicoat/Jack Hawksworth – 2,110
- Daniel Juncadella/Jules Gounon – 2,014
- Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor – 2,001
- Klaus Bachler/Patrick Pilet – 1,955
- Alex Riberas/Ross Gunn – 1,698
Team Standings
- No. 14 Vasser Sullivan – 2,110
- No. 79 WeatherTech Racing – 2,014
- No. 3 Corvette Racing – 2,001
- No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports – 1,955
- No. 23 Heart of Racing Team – 1,698
Manufacturer Standings
- Lexus – 2,110
- Mercedes-AMG – 2.014
- Chevrolet – 2,001
- Porsche – 1,955
- Aston Martin – 1,709
CORVETTE RACING AT LIME ROCK: By the Numbers
- 1: As in one team, one manufacturer and one model of car for 25 years of racing: Corvette Racing, Chevrolet and the Chevrolet Corvette
- 4: Generations of Corvette Racing entries at Lime Rock Park since 2004 – Corvette C5-R (2004), Corvette C6.R (2005-13), Corvette C7.R (2016-2019) and Corvette C8.R, which made its Lime Rock debut in 2021
- 6: Number of victories at Lime Rock for Corvette Racing, the most of any entrant in IMSA.
- 7: Number of drivers who have won races at Lime Rock for Corvette Racing – Oliver Gavin (four), Olivier Beretta (three), Jan Magnussen (two), and Johnny O’Connell and Tommy Milner (one each). Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor joined the list with last year’s victory
- 7: Fastest race laps for Corvette Racing drivers at Lime Rock. Antonio Garcia (2017) was the most recent
- 7: Pole positions at Lime Rock for Corvette Racing, the most of any entrant in IMSA. Jordan Taylor (2021) was the most recent
- 14: Manufacturer Championships for Chevrolet and Corvette Racing since 2001
- 27: Tracks at which Corvette Racing has won races – Baltimore, Charlotte Motor Speedway, COTA, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park/Mosport, Daytona, Detroit, Houston, Laguna Seca, Le Mans, Lime Rock, Long Beach, Miami, Mid-Ohio, Monza, Portimão, Portland, Road America, Road Atlanta, Sebring, Sonoma, St. Petersburg, Texas, Trois Rivieres, Utah, VIR, Washington DC and Watkins Glen
- 34: Number of drivers for Corvette Racing since 1999. Ben Keating and Nico Varrone joined that list with their participation – and victory – in the 1,000 Miles of Sebring for the World Endurance Championship
- 100: As in Corvette Racing’s 100th program victory at Lime Rock Park in 2016
- 126: Victories worldwide for Corvette Racing – 113 in North America, nine at Le and three in the FIA WEC. The most recent came in the last IMSA round at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park
- 277: Event starts by Corvette Racing since 1999.
- 6,708.24: Number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing in its 15 previous trips to Lime Rock Park. That represents 4,412 laps or 64 trips from the Empire State Building in New York City to the track
- 359,080.28: Total number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing since its inception. To put that in perspective, Corvette Racing is more than halfway to the distance traveled by Apollo 13 – the longest manned spaceflight in history: 622,268 miles. That means Corvette Racing has raced to the moon… and then some!
Corvette Racing at Lime Rock Park (wins in bold)
2004
No. 3 Corvette C5-R: Ron Fellows/Johnny O’Connell – 2nd in GTS
No. 4 Corvette C5-R: Olivier Beretta/Oliver Gavin – 1st in GTS (Beretta pole, fastest race lap)
2005
No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Ron Fellows/Johnny O’Connell – 2nd in GT1
No. 4 Corvette C6.R: Olivier Beretta/Oliver Gavin – 1st in GT1 (Beretta pole, fastest race lap)
2006
No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Ron Fellows/Johnny O’Connell – 2nd in GT1
No. 4 Corvette C6.R: Olivier Beretta/Oliver Gavin – 4th in GT1 (Beretta fastest race lap)
2007
No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Jan Magnussen/Johnny O’Connell – 2nd in GT1 (O’Connell fastest race lap)
No. 4 Corvette C6.R: Olivier Beretta/Oliver Gavin – 1st in GT1
2008
No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Johnny O’Connell/Jan Magnussen – 1st in GT1
No. 4 Corvette C6.R: Olivier Beretta/Oliver Gavin – 2nd in GT1 (Gavin pole, Beretta fastest race lap)
2010
No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Olivier Beretta/Johnny O’Connell – 12th in GT2
No. 4 Corvette C6.R: Oliver Gavin/Jan Magnussen – 5th in GT2
2011
No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Olivier Beretta/Tommy Milner – 9th in GT
No. 4 Corvette C6.R: Oliver Gavin/Jan Magnussen – 10th in GT
2012
No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 2nd in GT
No. 4 Corvette C6.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 3rd in GT
2013
No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 2nd in GT
No. 4 Corvette C6.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 6th in GT
2016
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 2nd in GTLM
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 1st in GTLM (100tth Corvette Racing win; Gavin fastest lap)
2017
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 4th in GTLM
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 8th in GTLM
2018
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 2nd in GTLM (Garcia pole)
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 4th in GTLM
2019
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 5th in GTLM
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Marcel Fässler – 6th in GTLM
2021
No. 3 Corvette C8.R: Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor – 1st in GTLM (Taylor pole)
No. 4 Corvette C8.R: Tommy Milner/Nick Tandy – 2nd in GTLM
2022
No. 3 Corvette C8.R: Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor – 4th in GTD PRO
About Chevrolet
Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is now one of the world’s largest car brands, available in nearly 80 countries with nearly 2.7 million cars and trucks sold in 2021. Chevrolet models include electric and fuel-efficient vehicles that feature engaging performance, design that makes the heart beat, passive and active safety features and easy-to-use technology, all at a value. More information on Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.com.
