CORVETTE RACING AT INDIANAPOLIS: Difficult Brickyard Return
INDIANAPOLIS (Sept. 17, 2023) – Corvette Racing struggled home to a fifth-place GT Daytona (GTD) PRO class finish Sunday in its return to Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks.
Teammates Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor had hoped to build on their momentum from a victory in the last IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race at Virginia International Raceway. Unfortunately for Corvette Racing, they were powerless to challenge for a repeat win, much less a class podium finish. The positive out of the race is that the drivers, Chevrolet and the No. 3 squad remain second in GTD PRO Drivers, Manufacturers and Teams points.
Taylor qualified the No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R began fifth in class but had a good run into the tight and difficult first corner to take fourth before a first-course yellow on the opening lap. Once the race went back green, Taylor’s day got better as the pole-sitting Porsche was penalized for changing lanes at the start to move the Corvette to third.
A large part of Taylor’s 50-minute stint saw him and the three other leading GTD PRO cars stuck behind a slow prototype. That hold-up allowed the Corvette to stay in touch with the leaders and Taylor to save a prodigious amount of fuel before the C8.R’s first stop of the race.
He came in with the championship-leading Lexus under the race’s second full-course yellow while the No. 79 and No. 23 entries had stopped 10 minutes earlier under green. Thanks to a speedy stop for fuel, tires and the change to Garcia, the No. 3 jumped the No. 14 Lexus in the pitlane and restarted third in class.
With no slower traffic ahead, Garcia was helpless to hold off the challengers behind him. He fell behind the faster Lexus after the restart with the two cars on the same pit strategy to the end. They both stopped with an hour left – one lap after the two other class contenders – but came out with a significant gap behind the eventual winning Mercedes and second-place Aston Martin.
Corvette Racing closes the IMSA season with the 10-hour Petit Le Mans on Saturday, Oct. 14 from Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.
ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – FINISHED FIFTH IN GTD PRO: “A frustrating day. We had a little bit of track position before the first stop thanks to the slow traffic and Jordan being able to save fuel. Once we went back to green and no one was holding us up, there was no chance to stay with the leaders. The only way for us to create laptime was no traffic and momentum. The others could go whenever they wanted while we struggled to stay up to speed getting through the traffic. And there was a lot of that. Even the GTDs had a pretty easy time getting by. The car was fine and ran well. We just couldn’t fight. I hope that gets better at Road Atlanta.”
JORDAN TAYLOR, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – FINISHED FIFTH IN GTD PRO: “I was very surprised at the start (to stick with the GTD PRO leaders). We got lucky with an LMP3 car holding guys up for a good portion of that stint. We were able to sit in the train and save fuel. It was going to be difficult to make a move on anyone, so we saved fuel and hoped jump those guys in the pits, which the guys did with a great stop. The car was decent. Like Antonio said, we had no power to race with anyone. It was wild out there. You could gain and lose a second or two a lap depending on when they get you and how aggressive they are.”
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