Bell, Fidani showing pace, potential of No. 13 Corvette Z06 GT3.R
LONG BEACH, Calif. (April 19, 2024) – AWA’s No. 13 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R is set to make its debut at the famed Long Beach Street Circuit after Friday’s qualifying session for the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. Orey Fidani piloted the Corvette that he will share with Matt Bell to the eighth row of the GT Daytona (GTD) grid for Saturday’s 100-minute race.
This is the first race on a street circuit for AWA and the Corvette Z06 GT3.R, and the first time at Long Beach for Bell and Fidani, whose best lap in qualifying was a 1:20.072 (88.480 mph).
Friday began well for AWA as Bell set the fastest GTD lap in the opening practice – a 1:18.911 (89.782 mph) lap, good enough to put AWA on the top of the time sheets for the first time with Corvette. Bell backed that up with the fourth-fastest time in the afternoon’s final practice.
The AWA duo is coming off ninth-place class finish in last month’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Cadillac. This time around it’s an all-out sprint race for the No. 13 Corvette with close-quarters racing the norm between the concrete barriers along the 1.968-mile, 11-turn Long Beach street circuit.
Chevrolet and the Corvette brand have been a fixture at Long Beach since the Corvette Racing program first visited Long Beach in 2007. In 15 visits, Corvette GT cars have captured eight victories with two others in the Corvette DP era.
Combined with results from the NTT INDYCAR SERIES, Chevrolet boasts a total of 22 victories in the Grand Prix’s two premier events.
The Grand Prix of Long Beach for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship is scheduled for 4:35 p.m. ET on Saturday, April 20. The race will air live on USA Network starting at 4:30 p.m. ET with full streaming coverage also on Peacock. IMSA Radio will have coverage of the race at IMSA.com with Sirius 211, XM 206, SiriusXM Online 996 also providing radio coverage of the race.
OREY FIDANI, NO. 13 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R – QUALIFIED 15TH IN GTD: “It was a challenging but overall positive day on the demanding streets of Long Beach. I feel like every corner tests the limits of our car. Qualifying was tough but it sets us up for a day of fighting hard, learning and pushing forward. We’re ready to take on the challenges of this iconic urban track. From here, the only way is upwards, and we’re excited to show what we can do in the race tomorrow.”
MATT BELL, NO. 13 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R (after Practice 1): “The team’s first P1 in the Corvette era, so I’m really happy with that. It’s nice to roll out very competitive. The Corvette Racing guys have given us a lot of help coming into here. They’ve passed on a little bit of their knowledge of this place onto us. They’ve been very successful here in the past, and we’ve rolled out pretty good. I wasn’t expecting that in my first time here. I have heard a lot of stories about how daunting this place is, and on my first couple of laps I was in 100 percent in agreement! But I got a clear lap later on and the car was hooked up and I could put something together. Hopefully we can continue in the vein and find another couple of tenths yet.”
2024 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Points
GTD Drivers Standings
- Indy Dontje/Philip Ellis/Russell Ward – 725
- Antonio Fuoco/Giorgio Sernagiotto/Roberto Lacorte – 589
- Adam Adelson/Elliott Skeer/Jan Heylen – 570
- Albert Costa Balboa/Cedric Sbirrazzuoli/Manny Franco – 545
- Francois Heriau/Miguel Molina/Simon Mann – 485
- Lars Kern/Matthew Bell/Orey Fidani – 347
GTD Teams Standings
- No. 57 Windward Racing – 725
- No. 47 Cetilar Racing – 589
- No. 120 Wright Motorsports – 570
- No. 34 Conquest Racing – 545
- No. 21 AF Corse – 485
- No. 13 AWA – 347
GTD Manufacturers Standings
- Mercedes-AMG – 751
- Porsche – 634
- Lamborghini – 616
- McLaren – 550
- Lexus – 527
- Chevrolet – 505
CORVETTE RACING BY THE NUMBERS: Long Beach
- 3: Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs in competition this weekend – No. 13 of AWA at Long Beach, No. 81 and No. 82 of TF Sport at Imola
- 4: Generations of Corvette ZR1 (C3, C4, C6 and C7). The eighth-generation Corvette ZR1 will be revealed this summer
- 6: Iterations of Corvette GT entries at Long Beach since 2007 – Corvette C6.R GT1 (2007-09, Corvette C6.R GT2/GT (2010-13), Corvette C7.R (2014-2019), Corvette C8.R GTE (2021), Corvette C8.R GTD (2022-2023) and now the Corvette Z06 GT3.R
- 8: Number of drivers who have competed at Long Beach for Corvette Racing – Olivier Beretta, Antonio Garcia, Oliver Gavin, Jan Magnussen, Tommy Milner, Johnny O’Connell, Nick Tandy and Jordan Taylor. That list grows this year with addition of Orey Fidani and Matt Bell in the No. 13 AWA Corvette Z06 GT3.R
- 8: Number of Long Beach victories in 15 appearances for the Corvette Racing program
- 10: Number of Long Beach sports car victories for Chevrolet. Throw in 12 INDYCAR wins, and Chevrolet has claimed 22 victories in the event’s two premier races.
- 14: Manufacturer Championships for Chevrolet and Corvette Racing since 2001
- 19: Number of street circuit victories for Corvette Racing – more than any other IMSA entrant at the circuit.
- 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
- 45: Number of drivers in Corvette Racing entries since 1999. Rui Andrade, Sebastien Baud, Hiroshi Koizumi and Tom Van Rompuy joined the list at Qatar to open the WEC season
- 71: Years since Corvette was introduced to the world on Jan. 17, 1953 in New York City. A total of 300 cars were produced that year
- 127: Victories worldwide for Corvette Racing – 115 in North America, nine at Le Mans and three in the FIA WEC
- 287: Event starts by Corvette Racing since 1999
- 4,225.27: Number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing in its 15 previous trips to Long Beach. That represents 2,147 laps around the 1.968-mile street circuit.
- 371,612.71: Total number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing entries since 1999. 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
Corvette Racing at Long Beach (wins in bold)
2007
No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Jan Magnussen/Johnny O’Connell – 2nd in GT1 (Magnussen fastest race lap)
No. 4 Corvette C6.R: Olivier Beretta/Oliver Gavin – 1st in GT1 (Gavin pole)
2008
No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Johnny O’Connell/Jan Magnussen – 1st in GT1 (Magnussen pole)
No. 4 Corvette C6.R: Olivier Beretta/Oliver Gavin – 1st in GT1 (Gavin fastest race lap)
2009
No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Jan Magnussen/Johnny O’Connell – 2nd in GT1
No. 4 Corvette C6.R: Olivier Beretta/Oliver Gavin – 1st in GT1 (Beretta pole, fastest race lap)
2010
No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Jan Magnussen/Johnny O’Connell – 2nd in GT2
No. 4 Corvette C6.R: Oliver Gavin/Jan Magnussen – 9th in GT2 (Gavin fastest race lap)
2011
No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Olivier Beretta/Tommy Milner – 5th in GT
No. 4 Corvette C6.R: Oliver Gavin/Jan Magnussen – 2nd in GT (Magnussen fastest race lap)
2012
No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 4th in GT
No. 4 Corvette C6.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 1st in GT (Gavin fastest race lap)
2013
No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 5th in GT
No. 4 Corvette C6.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 4th in GT (Gavin fastest race lap)
2014
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 1st in GTLM (Magnussen pole)
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 3rd in GTLM (Milner fastest race lap)
2015
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 3rd in GTLM
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 7th in GTLM
2016
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 9th in GTLM
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 2nd in GTLM
2017
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 5th in GTLM (Magnussen pole)
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 1st in GTLM
2018
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 4th in GTLM
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 1st in GTLM
2019
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 2nd in GTLM
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 3rd in GTLM
2021
No. 3 Corvette C8.R: Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor – 2nd in GTLM
No. 4 Corvette C8.R: Tommy Milner/Nick Tandy – 1st in GTLM
2022
No. 3 Corvette C8.R: Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor – 3rd in GTD PRO (Taylor pole)
2023
No. 3 Corvette C8.R: Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor – 2nd in GTD PRO
About Chevrolet
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