Garcia puts No. 3 Z06 GT3.R on class pole with Milner second in shadow of GM RenCen
DETROIT (May 31, 2024) – Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports will roll off 1-2 in class for the hometown race for the team and Chevrolet after Friday’s 15-minute qualifying session for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic.
Antonio Garcia captured pole position in the GTD PRO class in the No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R with a lap of 1:09.092 (85.711 mph) around the 1.654-mile, nine-turn street circuit in downtown Detroit. He was 0.336 seconds clear of teammate Tommy Milner in the No. 4 Corvette.
It’s the second consecutive pole position in IMSA competition for the Z06 GT3.R following a pole for Nicky Catsburg – Milner’s teammate – earlier this month at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. The pair of yellow GTD PRO Corvettes also started first and second at Laguna Seca with Milner and Catsburg going on to finish third in class for the Corvette Z06 GT3.R’s first podium.
“Congratulations to Antonio Garcia on his pole-winning lap in GTD PRO with the No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R on the streets of Detroit – the second consecutive pole position for our new Corvette GT3 entry in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship,” said Scott Bell, Vice President, Global Chevrolet. “Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports continues to show the performance capabilities of the Z06 GT3.R, which is a testament to the work of the team, and our Chevrolet and GM engineering groups.”
Pre-race work at Chevrolet’s Driver-in-the-Loop simulator paid immediate dividends in each of Friday’s two practice sessions. 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 helped with the results in pre-qualifying running. Alexander Sims, who shares the No. 3 Corvette with Garcia, went fastest in GTD PRO during the opening 90-minute session. Milner paced the two-hour afternoon practice in the field’s final track time before qualifying.
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 the race at IMSA.com along XM 206, SiriusXM Online 996.
CORVETTE RACING BY PRATT MILLER MOTORSPORTS QUALIFYING DRIVER QUOTES
ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R – GTD PRO POLE-WINNER: “I think it’s great. That’s the first goal we had – to get as soon as possible up front. So having another Corvette one-two really helps with that. It’s nice to have two yellow Corvettes up front around these buildings. It means the whole team is running really, really good. We just need to keep everything together. Let’s hope it’s not like Laguna where we went from up there to somewhere else. So we just need to be cautious and we need to stay on track, for sure. There’s probably going to be some yellows, too. We just need to be smart. That’s it.”
Controlling the race from up front: “In a place like this, where it’s almost impossible to pass, it’s really good to have track position, for sure. But now we get to the point where maybe a ton of people roll the dice and maybe the whole thing changes. We’ve seen these things at these kinds of race tracks many, many times. The fastest race car doesn’t always win. We just need to play smart and that’s all we can do. If everything falls as it should, I think it would be great to have a Corvette one-two around the RenCen.”
TOMMY MILNER, NO. 4 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R – QUALIFIED SECOND IN GTD PRO: “I’m definitely happy. I would like to have been P1, but I just didn’t put the laps together. I’m curious to see what the best sectors would have been. I don’t think I had quite enough for pole with Antonio going fast again on his last lap. But overall I’m happy. It’s great to be here in Detroit, in the shadow of the RenCen and having both Corvettes on the front row it’s great. That’s the first part of the job done. The second part is to go win this thing tomorrow. We have two really great cars. The guys are working really hard and well right now. As long as we do our job tomorrow we should be in a good position.”
Race outlook: “It will be a challenge, no question about it. With the Lexus and the Porsche behind us, both those cars and guys are quick, obviously. Some are more aggressive than others. Passing is hard here so we’ll have to be prepared for how they normally race and be prepared to race as hard as they normally do.”
Team Chevy high-resolution racing photos are available for editorial use.
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