MONTEREY, Calif. (May 13, 2023) – Corvette Racing will roll off from the fifth spot in the GTD PRO field for Sunday’s MOTUL Course de Monterey – its 25th consecutive start at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
Jordan Taylor set a lap of 1:24.907 (94.889 mph) in Saturday’s 15-minute qualifying session for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. He will start Sunday’s race behind the wheel of the No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R that he shares with Antonio Garcia.
Taylor was seventh-fastest among all GTD cars but only four-tenths of a second off the pole time. Compare that to being more than a second off the pace in qualifying a year ago, and there is reason to be optimistic heading into Sunday’s race, which airs live at 3 p.m. ET on NBC.
A year ago, the Corvette qualified in the same position but an early strategy call to take fresh tires early helped gain track position and allowed Garcia and Taylor to gain a spot to fourth at the finish. A year on with a notebook full of car, tire and track data should help the Corvette program move further up the order.
This is the 25th straight year that Corvette Racing has visited the 2.238-mile, 11-turn Laguna Seca circuit. The track is one of two where the program has raced in each of its previous 24 years – Sebring is the other – with Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta joining the list at the end of the season.
This weekend also marks another important milestone: Garcia will become the first driver in the WeatherTech Championship to make 100 starts in the series since the start of the post-merger era in 2014 when the American Le Mans Series and GRAND-AM joined together for one American sports car championship.
Since that time, Garcia has won 20 races – including in 2014 at Laguna Seca – and four championships… all with Corvette Racing.
The MOTUL Course de Monterey Powered by Hyundai N is set for 12:10 p.m. PT / 3:10 p.m. ET on Sunday, May 14 and airs live on NBC with full streaming coverage on Peacock. IMSA Radio will have live audio coverage on XM 207, SiriusXM Online 992 and IMSA.com, which will have IMSA Radio coverage.
JORDAN TAYLOR, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – QUALIFIED FIFTH IN GTD PRO:“If you look at where we are this year in qualifying compared to last year, it’s much better. The BoP is in kind of a similar position to where we were last year, so it shows that we made some big gains on everyone else to be only four-tenths off pole. We made some good moves in strategy last year that gave us track position, and I think being more competitive this year opens up those options even more. I’m more excited now to go racing, and hopefully we can make some good calls and jump some guys in the pits.”
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