Media interview transcript ahead of this weekend’s Michelin GT Challenge at VIR
Corvette Racing factory driver Antonio Garcia was part of a media Zoom today to talk about this week’s Michelin GT Challenge at VIR and the lone GT-only race in this year’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. He is a four-time winner at VIR with Corvette and will team with Alexander Sims in Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports’ No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R.
VIR is a place where you’ve had quite a lot of success in the past. What is it about that racetrack that seems to resonate with you and the Corvette team and how do you carry that momentum with that this weekend?
“I don’t really know. I mean, I personally like this racetrack and as you said, Corvette Racing has always been successful there. I don’t know if it’s only because we only run alone there as a GT-only race and that probably helps to keep everything tidy as far as strategy and the classes aren’t shuffling the order too much. It suited the C7.R. It definitely suited the C8.R. So I’m looking forward to going back there and seeing where we are. We definitely have had very strong performances this year especially in qualifying. We only managed to win in Canada but I think we just need to keep putting everything together to be able to go to the end and finally get another Corvette 1-2 like we did there.”
You have four wins at VIR. Do you have a favorite? Is there one you like more than others?
“Those are difficult to choose from. I really liked last year because we kind of knew that Jordan (Taylor) was going away from the team and it was nice to see him going across the line in the same week after he actually announced that he was not coming back with us this year. So it was cool. I seem to forget all the other wins! I remember the last one with Jan (Magnussen). I always like it there, but I don’t have a favorite, I don’t think. I do like all of them. But yeah, I’ve had a lot of racing there.”
VIR seems to be a kind of love-it-or-loathe-it track. And sometimes that changes for a driver on the day. But generally the consensus is it’s a real driver’s track, but one where mistakes can be very costly. What do you agree with? Do you love it? Do you loathe it?
“I like it there, especially after the new pavement from a couple of years ago. It really brought up the overall grip. That made it very, very similar, even in GTD cars, pretty close to how the GTLM cars felt. So, more grip is always fun. You’re going faster, but obviously, the mistakes are there. If you make one, you can always hit something there. So I always like it. It produces good racing and I always look forward to going back there and seeing how the weather does because at times it’s tricky. This year doesn’t seem like it will be as hot as it was last year, but yeah, let’s see what it brings this year.”
There was a lot of contact at Road America, and when the drivers comment about it, invariably, they say contact is part of IMSA racing. Are we getting to a point where there’s too much contact from your point of view?
“Probably, yes. I never like contact too much. I don’t really like ABS and at times that brings in times where everybody dives in and just prays for the car to stop. There’s a lot of big moves and at times you just rely on your systems, and at times the system doesn’t quite work as well as you think. That’s probably one of the things. The cars are going faster and faster, and the braking zones are getting also way shorter, so the whole thing is kind of going in the wrong direction from that perspective. We were unlucky. I felt we didn’t deserve what happened at the last race where we got hit on the very first lap and obviously the car wasn’t quite what it needed to be after that. But for sure that always happens at the end of the year, also. Everyone wants to get a good result and at times decisions are not as good as they are at the beginning of the season. I believe we are on the high end of where I would like racing to be. But let’s see how it goes in the last three races. We’ve always seen that Petit Le Mans is always crazy. And if we are at this level now, I don’t know what’s going to happen at Petit.
VIR is highly technical, high speed. Is this a track, due to its nature, where it’s important to be careful about contact?
“There are some big braking points, and everywhere else it’s pretty much single-file unless you make a big divebomb into a corner. With tire degradation being a little bit lower than previously at VIR, the speed differential is also not too big so passing opportunities are less. The yellow-flag situations are not as big, so I wouldn’t be surprised if we have a caution-free race. I don’t know how it’s going to play out. But I always like being at VIR because you need to be fast and every single lap counts.”
You’re fourth in Teams and Drivers points, I think, 190 points back. How are you approaching the team’s championship hopes at this point?
“We’re still going for the Manufacturers title first and obviously thinking also about the Teams and Drivers championships. We’ve been on the wrong side of things many times this year. After the race at Detroit, we kind of lost track of where we needed to be in the championship. But after Watkins Glen, I would say everything looked to be on the right path. So I would still think on a race-by-race basis and if we have a good result this weekend, we’ll get that much closer. But I’m not really looking at driving points. I’m looking at every event as an individual one, and I just want to, if possible, win the last three. Even if we do that, I’m sure it will be pretty tight or maybe not able to win the championship. I will just think about race race-by-race again.”
Corvette has a good track record at VIR but it’s the first one in IMSA with the new car. From a technical point of view, how does the car need to be set up for a track like this, and how do you expect the car to perform?
“Last year, we definitely didn’t have the ultimate pace (throughout the year). As we saw in qualifying, we never had much of a chance to be really up toward the front. I don’t know the reason for that, but for sure this car produces the laptime in a way that is much closer to our competitors in the same way, let’s put it that way. I was surprised at many races this year where I was not expecting to be competitive at all, like Laguna, for example, and then all of a sudden we were. So I think the new Corvette GT3 really works everywhere, as we have seen. I believe the package and the pace we have works everywhere we go. I expect the car to be decent at VIR, for sure. I don’t know the level… if it will be very competitive or not much, but I would think we will be up there. My only question mark would be Indianapolis, where we really didn’t perform well last year. I would assume or I would think that we’ll be better also at Indy. This car has been really good ever since we got rid of all the little problems we had earlier in the year. I expect we will have another chance for a win, and let’s see if that’s true. But so far, the car has been performing well on every single track, so I don’t think VIR will be different.”
Could you give us a snapshot of the season with the new car? At what point in this year did you feel that you fully untapped the potential with this car. And do the various Corvette Racing customer programs help, specifically with Tommy running over in the SRO Championship and some data that you can then bring back to the table?
“I think the car has been good since Sebring. That was the one where we really had the pace but the strategy kind of didn’t go our way. I think we hit the pits closed twice when we were about to pit, and we had that at Laguna as well. That’s part of racing. The last round of bad luck we had was at Detroit where I led only for a lap. From that point on, the car has been very, very competitive and it was just a shame that we couldn’t really convert (those earlier instances) into a win. We took the weight of our shoulders with the win at Mosport.
“(The Z06 GT3.R) is a way more-balanced car and that works all around in this class. We don’t have to be extreme like we were last year with setups in order to be competitive against the rest of the class. Now we just try to make the car fast and that’s it. We don’t need to play and gamble on crazy setups. So it’s made things a little bit easier.
“Having the No. 4 car back gave us more chances to have a bigger test program on the same weekends, so now we can divide the program and kind of work toward the same direction in order to make the car good for the race. That really helps compared to previous years when we were alone. Then to have cars everywhere else like in SRO or even racing in WEC… that not only puts mileage on the car, but that also helps overall for fixing little things that a new car needs. The car needs mileage, and now that the car is racing in not only one championship but three championships, that speeds up everything. Every single team has had little things that we can fix, and I think that helps everyone. I only see positive things about this car and being able to race not only in IMSA and in some other championships, too.”
