Garcia’s late charge sends him, Sims to P3; AWA wins second straight Akin Award in GTD
INDIANAPOLIS (September 22, 2024) – Corvette factory drivers Antonio Garcia and Alexander Sims climbed back on the podium in GTD PRO on Sunday in the six-hour Battle on the Bricks at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course to lead the contingent of three Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs in the next-to-last race of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
Garcia drove the final three hours in the No. 3 Corvette from Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports and went from fifth to third in the final two laps to secure third place. It was the first podium for the Garcia/Sims duo since their victory in July at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.
Rain dominated the first half of the race, which saw three separate full-course yellow periods in the first 100 minutes. Sims and the No. 3 Corvette went toward the head of the class as the first GTD PRO car to take wet tires during the first yellow. A steady rain settled in not long after, with Sims taking the lead following a short pit stop during another full-course yellow.
A third caution period, this one for almost an hour, kept Sims out front until the rain stopped for good in the third hour. The No. 3 Corvette did lose some time having to make two stops 30 minutes apart to switch to slick tires just before the halfway mark.
Garcia drove the rest of the way in the No. 3 Z06 GT3.R, including a hard-fought battle during the final hour with the No. 14 Lexus and No. 23 Aston Martin for the final podium position. A restart with 55 minutes remaining set the stage for the finish with Garcia falling from fourth to fifth inside the final half-hour. He fought to regain the spot with five minutes left and gained another to third and the podium with two laps to go.
The GTD PRO pole-winning No. 4 Corvette of Tommy Milner and Nicky Catsburg finished 11th in class after losing four laps due to contact and subsequent repair with 75 minutes to go.
Catsburg led the first 15 laps from pole before making the team’s first stop during the initial full-course yellow. The No. 4 Z06 GT3.R was assessed an avoidable contact penalty near the one-hour mark before Milner was hit from behind by a prototype, which necessitated a lengthy stop to repair damage to the right-rear of the Corvette.
In GTD, the No. 13 AWA Corvette moved closer to securing an automatic invitation to next year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans with a sixth-place class finish and winning the Bob Akin Award competition for the Indianapolis round. Both Orey Fidani and Lars Kern kept their Z06 GT3.R on the lead lap throughout the 90-minute stints, allowing Matt Bell to drive from 14th in class and into the top-five late in class.
It was the third Akin race win for the AWA Corvette and second in a row. The award goes to the highest-finishing GTD entry featuring a Bronze-rated driver for each race as well as the full-season championship with Le Mans as the ultimate prize.
Both Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports and AWA close the IMSA season with the 10-hour Petit Le Mans on Saturday, October 12 at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.
CORVETTE RACING BY PRATT MILLER MOTORSPORTS POST-RACE DRIVER QUOTES
ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “Those last laps were tough. We had a good call to pit before a yellow, but the way things unfolded it kind of helped the ones that stayed out. So we lost a little track position to some of the cars that were ahead of me when we got to the last restart. The restarts with these guys and being so close is not easy. I made up a few places but with how hard the race was for everyone, there were times where I got caught in traffic and lost some spots. I thought we were done when the (No. 23) Aston Martin passed me, but somehow I regrouped and put everything together to get back up there to them. Maybe I had a little more than them with the tires or made some good choices. With two or three laps left, that’s it. It’s time to go! It was either a podium, fourth or fifth. I went for it, and it worked. It would have been nice to win, but I’m happy with where we finished.”
ALEXANDER SIMS, NO. 3 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “I was very happy that Antonio was in the car! He did a really, really good job. I really enjoyed the wet laps at the start of the race, so it was probably the right way around for the both of us. Antonio did a great job to keep in the fight. From the outside, I thought once Antonio got held up and passed by the Aston, I thought it would be hard for him to get back past with the pace situation as it was. Thankfully he stayed with them and kept fighting with them to the end… quite literally! It was great to watch.”
TOMMY MILNER, NO. 4 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “I think parts of the race we did things really well. Nicky did a great job at the start to keep us in the lead. There were some tricky conditions that were tough for both of us. The class interactions with the prototype cars weren’t ideal for us. He had an incident, and so did I with a P2 car. I don’t know what happened there. It’s one of those days where you feel like sometimes things are going your way. The cautions were getting us back into it, but there were just too many ups and down for us today. It’s unfortunate. It was a good little fight for the 3 guys to get on the podium there at the end. So now we’ll go to Petit Le Mans and try again.”
AWA POST-RACE DRIVER QUOTES
MATT BELL, NO. 13 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “I have absolutely no idea what happened in my three hours! I got updates every now and again from the guys on the pitbox, so I was trying to get by every GT car I could. We had a really, really good car especially early in the stints. I was able to be pretty aggressive, attack and go forward early in the stints. That put us in a great place for the team to be able to call some great strategy, and they called this race perfectly again. There’s been such good teamwork all year in the pitlane. There’s been so much hard work that’s gone into that. My two teammates did a great job in the first part of the race. An insane race! I absolutely love IMSA racing and GTD. It’s always so hard. I had some great fights out there and won more than we lost. We made great progress, and I’m really happy with the result.”
OREY FIDANI, NO. 13 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “That was the first time I’ve driven the Corvette in wet race conditions. We did a little bit of wet-weather testing earlier this year at Carolina Motorsports Park. It actually handles pretty well in the rain. It was awesome, and I think we’re in a good spot. At the start, there were a couple of cars in front of me that as the track came in, they were a little in the way a little and holding me and the cars behind me up. I needed to find my way around those guys but didn’t get to do that with the rain. But it’s fine. I’m pretty happy with things.”
LARS KERN, NO. 13 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “At the end of the day, we can be happy with the result. The team did a mega job. In my stint, I was struggling a lot when there was still a lot of water on the track. Once it dried, the car was rapid but we couldn’t really recover from this loss. So we could have finished better but I couldn’t activate the tires in my middle stint. I’m super-happy with what Matt did at the end. At one point I don’t think we really believed we could win the Akin Award today. Orey did great at the beginning and kept it clean. This was a big step toward our target of getting to Le Mans next year.”
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