Podium finish in wild Sahlen’s Six Hours for Garcia, Taylor, No. 3 C8.R
WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. (June 25, 2023) – Corvette Racing’s Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor recorded their third podium finish of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season Sunday in the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen.
The duo drove the No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R to a third-place finish in GT Daytona (GTD) PRO, an improvement of three spots from their sixth-place starting position. Garcia and Taylor inched up a spot in the class Drivers Championship to third after five races.
Despite two penalties and a pace deficit to the class front-runners, Garcia found himself leading inside the final 30 minutes thanks to some great strategic calls, fuel-saving and maximizing performance out of the No. 3 Corvette. Nevertheless, the C8.R team left Watkins Glen encouraged with a solid points day.
Three early full-course yellows and a pace deficit made it tough to establish a rhythm early. The Corvette pit crew did its part, however, and jumped three cars on the first pit stop at the 46-minute mark to move Taylor to fourth on the restart.
Unfortunately for the Corvette squad, IMSA officials penalized the No. 3 team after the No. 23 Aston Martin drove through the Corvette’s pitbox and hit a tire that clearly was inside the C8.R’s pit space. The Corvette team provided the series with evidence that its tire was within the pitbox boundary, but the penalty stood.
That knocked Taylor down one position in class but well down the order in the overall GTD category. Undeterred, he battled back through the slower traffic and passed eight GT cars prior to the halfway mark. Misfortune struck again as officials required the No. 3 Corvette to stop about seven laps early due to a faulty tire pressure sensor.
The team elected to make the change from Taylor to Garcia, who was in the Corvette for the final three-plus hours.
Despite the setback, the No. 3 Corvette cycled back up to fourth in class and gained back a considerable amount of track position due to the race’s fourth full-course yellow with a little more than two hours to go. That caution period moved Garcia to third when the No. 63 Lamborghini was caught up in a prototype crash that necessitated the full-course yellow.
Garcia gained another spot when the then-second place Aston Martin had to pit to correct a tire pressure problem. The Corvette crew called him in with 62 minutes remaining – on the same lap as the class-leading No. 14 Lexus. However, it had to serve a penalty for a drive-through penalty, which elevated Garcia to the lead.
It was a small lead, though, as the No. 14 re-emerged from the pitlane with 59 minutes left and right on the Corvette. Forced to save fuel and hold off the No. 14 and the hard-charger No. 62 Ferrari, Garcia did a masterful job keeping the two challengers at bay before they found their way past with a little more than 30 minutes left.
Corvette Racing’s next event in GTD PRO is the Chevrolet Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park on Sunday, July 9.
ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: “Corvette Racing has always been good at Watkins Glen. We usually are quite decent there, and it seems like we always have a chance in this race. Watkins Glen is a track that I’ve always liked, and it’s always good to turn laps there. Being part of the Michelin Endurance Cup adds something extra for us. We are in contention in that and in the regular championship, so this weekend has added importance. This is six hours, so it’s one of those races that has something extra for the competitors.”
JORDAN TAYLOR, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: “It feels like we haven’t been at the track in months since Laguna, so it’ll be great to get back to racing at Watkins Glen. We didn’t have the fastest car there last year, but we somehow found ourselves in contention. I feel like we’ve made some big gains this season that should benefit us there. We haven’t had the results to show our true performance this year, so hopefully we can have a clean weekend and start getting back into the championship fight.”
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