CORVETTE RACING AT DETROIT: Home Sweet Home

First event on downtown streets of Detroit for GTD PRO squad, Corvette Z06 GT3.R

DETROIT (May 28, 2024) – Chevrolet and Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports are in their own backyard this week for the Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic – the first appearance in the Motor City for the program since 2021.

The pair of yellow Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs are part of an 11-car field in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s GTD PRO class. Tommy Milner and Nicky Catsburg will team in the No. 4 Corvette and are coming off the first podium finish for the Z06 GT3.R in the last GTD PRO race at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.

Of note, Milner also was part of the Corvette’s first victory – two weeks ago at Circuit of The Americas for DXDT Racing in GT World Challenge America. Not to be outdone, Catsburg drove the Z06 GT3.R to its first IMSA pole at Laguna Seca.

In the No. 3 Corvette, Antonio Garcia and Alexander Sims sit fifth in GTD PRO points and just ahead of their teammates. The pair was in prime position to contend at Laguna Seca before an ill-fated safety car that came out on Garcia’s in-lap barely an hour into the race.

Milner and Garcia are the only Corvette drivers who have contested Detroit, albeit on the Belle Isle circuit. They were part of a non-points GT Le Mans race in which the Corvette Racing factory team brought two Corvette C8.Rs to the island. Before that, and owing to the closeness of the Detroit race and the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Corvette team’s two other appearances on Belle Isle came in 2007 and 2008 as part of the GT1 class.

The downtown Detroit circuit, which runs around the Renaissance Center and the global headquarters of General Motors, is the shortest on the calendar at nine turns and 1.654 miles around. Neither GTD PRO nor the GTP categories raced at Detroit last year (it was the same weekend as the Le Mans Test Day), so very few drivers in the field have any experience at the circuit.

To help the team prepare, Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports engineers leaned on the learnings of Chevrolet’s NTT INDYCAR program to help establish a baseline for a handful of sessions on Chevy’s Driver in the Loop simulator. That should allow the Corvette team to roll right into its setup program to be in the best possible position for Friday’s qualifying and Saturday’s race.

The Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic is scheduled for 3:10 p.m. ET on Saturday, June 1. The race will air live on USA Network with full streaming coverage also on Peacock. IMSA Radio will air all on-track sessions at IMSA.com along XM 206, SiriusXM Online 996.

CORVETTE RACING BY PRATT MILLER MOTORSPORTS

PRE-EVENT DRIVER QUOTES

ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “We want to do well in Detroit. For sure the target is to win. We are running around the RenCen, so obviously it will be very important if we can win there. So I’m looking forward to it It’s a new track for me and most of the other drivers. I had a chance to do a few laps in the simulator and it looks very stressful. But I’m sure it will bring a lot of action and tight racing. I don’t know the weather is going to be, but it will be good to our own street race because I did miss racing at Long Beach this year. So I am looking forward to getting back to a street track.”

ALEXANDER SIMS, NO. 3 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “We did an initial run on the simulator some time ago – just to get a read on it and check to see if the track model was working and behaving itself. The Corvette felt reasonably sensible around there. It’s definitely a very bumpy circuit, as you would expect with a street track. A bit of undulation, couple of rises and slightly blind corners. It’s a busy little track and not a huge amount of speed anywhere outside the long straight. Overtaking will be pretty tough. It’s going to be pretty crazy with the GTPs. I’ve not been to Detroit before and didn’t do the previous Detroit races. It will be a cool thing for all of us. It will be nice to be there and to have a completely new experiences. Some of those are few and far between for me, so I’m looking forward to it.”

TOMMY MILNER, NO. 4 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “I’ve driven in it in person in a rental car and some sim work also. It’s exciting to be in the downtown part of Detroit. Racing in the shadow of the RenCen is very cool. It’s going to be a challenging race track, for sure. It’s short but like any street track, there are a lot of places where you can get yourself in trouble. It’ll be a lot to learn as it’s a basically a new track for everybody. As with any street tracks we’ve done in the past, it’s great to be in the city and on top of everything that is happening around the race. Detroit does some unique things with free viewing areas for fans, which is something you don’t see anywhere in the world. I’m excited to go back to Detroit.”

NICKY CATSBURG, NO. 4 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “I raced at Belle Isle in a Lamborghini in World Challenge many years ago. It was a cool track then. This is a home race for the team, so it makes it extra cool to go to. Some families of the crew will be out, and we’ll have some things to do around the race as well. The added pressure of it being a home race will for sure make it a very tough event. In IMSA, the practice times are always quite limited. On a street course, that makes it extra hard. It’s hard to explore the limits there. On other tracks you can go over the limit and dial it back a little bit, and then you’ve found your speed quickly. Hopefully it will be a weekend of more positive results for the Corvette.”

2024 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Points

GTD PRO Drivers Standings

1. Laurin Heinrich/Seb Priaulx – 981
2. Ben Barnicoat/Jack Hawksworth – 925
3. Bryan Sellers/Madison Snow – 888
4. Mario Farnbacher/Ross Gunn – 867
5. Alexander Sims/Antonio Garcia – 812
6. Nicky Catsburg/Tommy Milner – 808

GTD PRO Teams Standings

1. No. 77 AO Racing – 981
2. No. 14 Vasser Sullivan – 925
3. No. 1 Paul Miller Racing – 888
4. No. 23 Heart of Racing Team – 867
5. No. 3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports – 812
6. No. 4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports – 808

GTD PRO Manufacturers Standings

1. Porsche – 1003
2. Lexus – 947
3. Aston Martin – 880
4. Chevrolet – 877
5. McLaren – 851

GTD Drivers Standings

1. Philip Ellis/Russell Ward – 1367
2. Patrick Gallagher/Robby Foley – 1154
3. Adam Adelson/Elliott Skeer – 1059
4. Parker Thompson – 1038
5. Mikael Grenier/Mike Skeen – 1033
6. Matthew Bell/Orey Fidani – 830

GTD Teams Standings

1. No. 57 Windward Racing – 1367
2. No. 96 Turner Motorsport – 1154
3. No. 120 Wright Motorsports – 1059
4. No. 32 Korthoff/Preston Motorsport – 1033
5. No. 43 Andretti Motorsports – 952
6. No. 13 AWA – 830

GTD Manufacturers Standings

1. Mercedes-AMG – 1457
2. Porsche – 1208
3. Lamborghini – 1199
4. Lexus – 1178
5. Aston Martin – 1059
6. Chevrolet – 1026

CORVETTE RACING BY THE NUMBERS: Detroit

• 2: Generations of Corvette Racing entries at Detroit – Corvette C6.R (2007-08) and Corvette C8.R/Z06 GT3.R (2020-present)
• 3: Wins in Detroit for Corvette Racing in as many starts – 2007 and 2008 in GT1, and 2021 in GTLM (although it was a non-points event)
• 8: Victories at Detroit for Chevrolet in IMSA competition. In addition to three wins for Corvette Racing, Corvette Daytona Prototypes won overall each year on Belle Isle from 2012-2016
• 14: Manufacturer Championships for Chevrolet and Corvette Racing since 2001.
• 27: Tracks at which Corvette Racing has won races – Baltimore, Charlotte Motor Speedway, COTA, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park/Mosport, Daytona, Detroit, Houston, Laguna Seca, Le Mans, Lime Rock, Long Beach, Miami, Mid-Ohio, Monza, Portimão, Portland, Road America, Road Atlanta, Sebring, Sonoma, St. Petersburg, Texas, Trois Rivieres, Utah, VIR, Washington DC and Watkins Glen
• 48: Number of drivers in Corvette Racing entries since 1999 – DXDT Racing’s Alec Udell being the latest in GT World Challenge America at Circuit of The Americas
• 71: Years since Corvette was introduced to the world on Jan. 17, 1953 in New York City. A total of 300 cars were produced that year
• 197: Victories worldwide for Corvette Racing – 115 in North America, nine at Le Mans, three in the FIA WEC and two in GT World Challenge America
• 293: Event starts by Corvette Racing since 1999
• 378,689.70: Total number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing entries since 1999. To put that in perspective, Corvette Racing is more than halfway to the distance traveled by Apollo 13 – the longest manned spaceflight in history: 622,268 miles

Corvette Racing at Detroit (all previously on Belle Isle)

2007

No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Jan Magnussen/Johnny O’Connell – 1st in GT1

No. 4 Corvette C6.R: Oliver Gavin/Olivier Beretta – 2nd in GT1

2008

No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Jan Magnussen/Johnny O’Connell – 2nd in GT1

No. 4 Corvette C6.R: Oliver Gavin/Olivier Beretta – 1st in GT1

2021 (unofficial race)

No. 3 Corvette C8.R: Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor – 2nd in GTLM

No. 4 Corvette C8.R: Tommy Milner/Nick Tandy – 1st in GTLM

About Chevrolet
Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is now one of the world’s largest car brands. Chevrolet models include electric and fuel-efficient vehicles that feature engaging performance, design that makes the heart beat, passive and active safety features and easy-to-use technology, all at a value. More information on Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.com.