No. 36 Corvette rolling off second in GTD for IMSA season’s first sprint race
LONG BEACH, Calif. (April 17, 2026) – DXDT Racing’s Robert Wickens thrilled his team and fans at Long Beach on Friday with second-place qualifying effort for Saturday’s Grand Prix of Long Beach in the No. 36 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R specially equipped with a hand-control system.
Wickens set a lap of 1:18.562 (90.181mph) in Friday’s 15-minute session for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s GTD class. He was just 0.151 seconds off the class pole-winning time.
Long Beach will be his first race of the season back in the cockpit of the Corvette as he embarks on a five-race campaign in IMSA’s sprint rounds with full-season DXDT driver Mason Filippi.
Friday’s result was his best since joining DXDT Racing and Corvette a year ago. Long Beach in 2025 was the site of Wickens’ debut both in the WeatherTech Championship and in the Corvette.
The Z06 GT3.R features a fully electronic braking system by Bosch with a specially constructed steering wheel attachment that allows Wickens to accelerate and brake with his hands. The advancement is a revolutionary and collaborative effort between DXDT Racing, Bosch, General Motors and Pratt Miller, which is the constructor of the Corvette GT3.
DragonSpeed’s No. 81 Corvette and the No. 13 entry from 13 Autosport will start Saturday’s race from the eighth and ninth rows of the GTD grid, respectively.
Chevrolet and the Corvette brand have been a fixture at Long Beach since the Corvette Racing program first visited Long Beach in 2007. In 18 visits, Corvette GT cars have captured eight victories with two additional in the Corvette Daytona Prototype 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 Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach is set for 1:05 p.m. PT on Saturday from the Long Beach street circuit in southern California. It will air live on NBC starting at 4 p.m. ET with streaming coverage on Peacock. IMSA Radio will stream live audio coverage on XM 206, Channel 996 on the SiriusXM app and IMSA.com.
CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R POST-QUALIFYING DRIVER QUOTES
ROBERT WICKENS, NO. 36 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “We’ve been having some radio issues here and there so I heard I went P1 at the checkered. And then I didn’t hear anything for the rest of the lap because of the static. But yeah, P2 is alright! As soon as I heard that I missed it by a tenth, I knew exactly where I could have found that to snag P1. DXDT Racing gives me a good racecar, and the Corvette Z06 GT3.R is a dream around here. Living a good life!”
(Do you feel like you’re getting back in a comfort zone?) “Especially this weekend. The last time I drove a car was VIR last year. So it’s been a steep learning curve. Ironically I felt more prepared last year even though it was my debut in the series. This team is so strong. Mason (Filippi) has been doing an amazing job getting me up to speed. It’s a full team effort here. Hopefully we can play from P2 and try to get a podium.”
(Satisfying after last year’s qualifying?) “A bit of a redemption from last year, even making it through FP2 and having a clean weekend this year compared to last. DXDT Racing and Corvette Racing are doing an amazing job. The car is so nice to drive. When I heard I missed it by a tenth, you immediately know as a driver where you could have found it. It’s a good problem to have. We had the equipment to put it on the pole today. Hopefully with a little more experience, I can get a little more from the car and from the hand control system from Bosch. Going into this weekend, if you told me I’d be on the front row, I would have taken it.”
(Thinking about Turn One at the start?) “I’m not really thinking about Turn One. I’m more thinking about the hairpin to take the green. I feel like when you’re the slower class on the starts, it’s a bit of free-for-all and you can go wherever you want. I’m more worried about getting stuck on the outside of the hairpin and maybe getting a bad exit. I’m going to spend some time tonight and tomorrow looking at race starts over the past few years and see what I can learn.”
Team Chevy high-resolution racing photos are available for editorial use.
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GM Motorsports, including the Cadillac Formula 1® Team, develops and proves advanced technologies in the most demanding environments, accelerating innovation in performance, safety, efficiency, and electrification for its production vehicles. Cadillac Racing is one of the leading manufacturers in the IMSA and FIA World Endurance Championships (WEC). Chevrolet competes in single-seaters in the US INDYCAR series, and in NASCAR with multiple team partners and drivers. Corvette customer teams compete in GT series across the globe including IMSA and WEC. Learn more at GM.com.
