Corvette GT3 teams show promise in Rolex 24 to open season
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (January 25, 2026) – Four of the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs entered for the Rolex 24 At Daytona completed the opening round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship as the Corvette Racing program kicked off its third season of competition.
Both Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports and 13 Autosport recorded fourth-place class finishes at the end of a crazy race that featured running in both warm sunshine and cool, gloomy fog.
The No. 4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports entry of Tommy Milner, Nicky Catsburg and Nico Varrone just missed the GTD PRO podium in their Corvette Z06 GT3.R, finishing fourth. In GTD, the 13 Autosport team of Matt Bell, Orey Fidani, Lars Kern and Ben Green showed the same performance that netted the team a class victory a year ago but came up just short this year.
Both of the Pro-class Corvette GT3s were the forces of the race through the first 20 hours. The pair of yellow Corvettes combined to lead for 319 laps – 160 coming from the No. 3 trio of pole-winner Alexander Sims, Antonio Garcia and Marvin Kirchhöfer. The cars ran in formation for much of the race – before and after a lengthy six-and-a-half, full-course yellow period due to fog – before the race went sideways.
It started with a suspension issue for the No. 3 Corvette with a little more than five hours to go that cost the team 46 seconds in its garage.
The sister Corvette continued to run at the front as late as two-and-a-half hours to go – due in part to a third-to-first move by Milner – before Varrone was shoved off-track shortly after a restart. That cost the No. 4 team time and track position back to seventh before the drive-back by Catsburg to the end.
GTD-class Corvettes also spent time out front of class before misfortune struck each of the customer cars. The 13 Autosport Z06 GT3.R led the GTD race four times for 32 laps in a solid start to its full-season championship push. The team mirrored its strategy to its 2025 victory by having Fidani and Kern drive much of the race’s first half before putting in the team’s two Pro-level drivers to the end.
DXDT Racing also led with its No. 36 Corvette with a similar strategy. After Salih Yoluc and Mason Filippi set the stage for most of the early parts, Charlie Eastwood and Scott McLaughlin pushed the DXDT entry to the front for 90 laps before a cracked gearbox ended the team’s day inside the final two hours.
New customer team DragonSpeed also had an encouraging early run in its Corvette debut. Giacomo Altoe, Henrik Hedman, Casper Stevenson and Matteo Cairoli ran solidly in the middle of the 21-car pack with their No. 81 Corvette, which was moving up before Cairoli was hit by a prototype car near the five-hour mark. The impact sent Cairoli into the tire barriers as the Corvette sustained left-side damage.
Despite losing 15 laps and nearly 25 minutes, the team carried on and used the rest of the race as an extended test session for its new Corvette.
The next event for Corvette Racing in IMSA is the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring on Saturday, March 21.
SELECT CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R DRIVER QUOTES
ALEXANDER SIMS, NO. 3 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “One of those that could have been for the whole team. The real shame is that it didn’t just happen to one car; both had issues to compromise the end result. Our Corvettes were working really well. We had decent pace but I don’t know if we would have been able to fight at the front right to the end. It seemed like others seemed to get quite strong at the end. Who knows. It would have been nice to have been in with a chance. The Pratt Miller team did a great job all race. We had flawless pit stops and just the one issue. The guys will look into that and we’ll come back stronger at Sebring.”
MARVIN KIRCHHÖFER, NO. 3 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “First off all, those six hours of full course yellow where I think I did three-and-a-half out of the maximum four was probably one of the most exhausting stints that I’ve ever had. It’s a lot of riding around and trying not to fall asleep. I’m gutted for the team, obviously. Everyone has done an outstanding job and worked very hard the last two weeks. When you lead the race for as long as we did and then have a mechanical issue in the last four or five hours, it’s tough. We were pushing hard along with the No. 4 car, which was always up front as well. The guys would have deserved a decent result here. Still, I enjoyed it. I’m not happy with the outcome but we will next go to the next race at Sebring and make it a good race over there.”
NICKY CATSBURG, NO. 4 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “Somehow it all went away for us. Of course there was the incident when the Ferrari smashed us off. I feel like even without that, it was not going to be easy. It seemed like everyone at the end of the race had an extra switch and could power up a bit. But that definitely did not help. Big hats off to the team. The execution was amazing with zero mistakes. The car was good and the setup was good. I think we finished second if you look at the full-season contenders so that’s not too bad. It’s unfortunate because I felt like we were going to come away with a new watch.”
MATT BELL, NO. 13 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “Thursday night, it looked like we were going to have a very different event, just to even finish the race flawlessly, let alone be not far up the order. Everybody should be really proud of themselves. I think we had a fourth-place car and we were in the game for a long part of it. There was a little bit of bumping and shoving at the end, but it didn’t change the outcome. Fourth is the maximum we had, and we achieved the maximum result that we were capable of this weekend. Everybody put together a great car. It was as fast as our Corvette was going to go, and we all drove the wheels off it. I am very proud of the team. It’s good to leave thinking you got the best out of your machine. We’ll crack on and try to get the win at Sebring.”
OREY FIDANI, NO. 13 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “After what we went through on Thursday, I couldn’t be prouder of this crew. Everyone dug deep, worked through the night, and we showed up ready to race, that says everything about this team. We were right in the fight all weekend, and while we wanted that podium, a fourth-place finish in the biggest race of the season is still extremely rewarding. Huge credit to the crew and my teammates for their work and dedication. We’ll take what we learned and go to Sebring even hungrier.”
LARS KERN, NO. 13 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “I’m really, really proud of the team. The car was flawless, I loved it. Everything on our side was good. It just wasn’t in our hands. Honestly, it feels horrible. The race just unfolded in an unlucky way for us. You can’t win this race every year, and unfortunately it wasn’t meant to be for us this time. That’s racing, the racing gods decide if you get to win or not, and this year they decided we weren’t going to.”
BEN GREEN, NO. 13 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “I’m really happy to finish the Rolex 24 at Daytona with 13 Autosport on my debut at the event. It’s great to make it to the end, and to finish fourth. Of course, we wish we were on the podium, because we were fighting for the win at different points throughout the race. I’m very proud of the effort from the entire team, and it’s been great to have support from GM as well. Our Chevy V8 was singing on the Daytona banking for 24 hours, faultless, and I’m proud of everyone’s work to make that happen.”
CHARLIE EASTWOOD, NO. 36 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “Not the finish we hoped for. This was probably one of the best weekends we’ve had together with DXDT. The pace was super-strong from rolling out for the Roar. It was the same in the race. We were keeping our nose clean and sitting in the top-three for a lot of the race and took the lead with about three-and-a-half hours to go before we developed a crack in the gearbox. We’re unsure how it happened, which is just gutting. It’s definitely the best chance I’ve had to win this race. But these things happen in endurance races. The pace was brilliant and Sebring is just around the corner. Hopefully we can go there and collect some trophies.”
GIACOMO ALTOÉ, NO. 81 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “I can see the potential of the car and the team. We for sure are still in the learning phases with this car and there is a lot to improve. It was important for us to finish the race and collect all the data possible to analyze it and continue learning. We will build from here.”
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