Garcia, Taylor, No. 3 C8.R team take season’s second IMSA victory at VIR

ALTON, Va. (Aug. 27, 2023) – Corvette Racing claimed victory at Virginia International Raceway again as Jordan Taylor and Antonio Garcia drove the No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R to a win in the Michelin GT Challenge on Sunday.

Corvette Racing took the VIR triumph for the third time in four years as the Garcia/Taylor duo won for the second time in four years in the GT-only event for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Sunday’s result was critical as Corvette Racing and Chevrolet remained in the hunt for the GT Daytona (GTD) PRO championship with two races to go.

Sunday marked the second win for Corvette Racing in IMSA this season and it’s 126th worldwide victory – 114 coming in IMSA competition.

The race was one largely between two cars. Garcia, who qualified in the Corvette on Saturday, began the race third but moved to second place behind the pole-sitting No. 14 Lexus after the second lap. It stayed that way in class – and mostly in the overall order – for the next two-and-a-half hours.

Garcia brought in the C8.R for its first stop at the 54-minute mark with the Corvette team adding fuel and taking fresh Michelin tires. The team elected to change drivers with Taylor going the rest of the way as the pair of leading cars committed to a two-stop strategy.

Taylor was the first of the two leaders to pit for the final time with 57 minutes to go. Excellent pit work by the Corvette Racing crew – a quick tire change and fuel fill – proved crucial as Taylor got around Ben Barnicoat as the Lexus left the pitlane after stopping a lap later than the Corvette.

With a 3.7-second gap in-hand, Taylor set off for the final 54 minutes needing to save fuel while keeping the No. 14 at bay. He did just that in crossing the finish line by a little more than two seconds.

Corvette Racing’s next event in IMSA is the Battle of the Bricks on Sept. 15-17 from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course.

ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – RACE WINNER: “This is the perfect weekend for sure. Road America looked like a perfect weekend, too, before we lost the race. So this is the perfect turnaround. Even here, we didn’t look as competitive here as we did at Road America but the team did an amazing job. I was lucky enough to be up there with the Lexus at the start to keep some pressure on them. I knew they were strong, but that’s what we had to do. When the yellow came, Jordan obviously kept the pressure and it was time to do something different on the last stop like we always try to do. That undercut definitely help. I don’t know if that put pressure on them. They stalled coming out of the pits, so that was another two or three seconds. That buffer is kind of nice to be able to control your pace. If you have to save fuel, it’s not close enough for them to make a move. Jordan was fantastic today. It was very stressful for me! I’m not used to seeing that in the end! I prefer to be in the car, but you know when Jordan is in that he will do an amazing job. I’m glad he ended this weekend the way he did.”

On what it took to win: “I would say consistency. Yesterday we tried to do something different in qualifying because everyone seemed to be so close. That probably gave us an indication about how to set up the car for today. The morning warm-up was pretty good. I’m glad that during the first stint the car was where it needed to be. I was able to go up to second, and I knew the Lexus was very, very strong. In a way, we managed to stay in contention with not a lot of time behind them. We had to be there putting pressure and eventually someone would make a mistake. It wasn’t us today, and then Jordan drove really, really well for the rest of the race. It’s another great example of consistency and a good race from Corvette Racing.”

On the satisfaction of winning after Road America: “It’s very satisfying. It’s the best turnaround after what happened at Road America where we felt everything was done and everything slipped away. It’s a massive turnaround. We were not as competitive as we were at Road America, but again you can’t give up. You just need to be prepared, be consistent and put pressure on everybody. In the end, one little mistake in GTD PRO makes the difference. Today we weren’t the ones to make mistakes.”

On Taylor moving away in 2024 and getting at least one more win together: “It’s one more win with hopefully two more to go! So let’s make Indianapolis and especially Petit Le Mans the last two wins this year.”

JORDAN TAYLOR, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – RACE WINNER: “This win is down to Corvette Racing calling that strategy to get us track position. When they told me the fuel number, I was definitely worried but the car was so good in fuel-save mood that it helped me save the tires. I know the announcement (about going to GTP in 2024) has come out, but I’m glad to give these guys one back.

More on the win: “We were pushing the whole race even on the first cycle to close the gap to the Lexus to see if we could make them make a mistake. When the second yellow came out, I wasn’t sure what was going to happen. Those guys really restart strong so I thought we were kind of out of it. But the Corvette guys made an amazing call to short-fill on the last stop to get us out front and get the track position. It was down to saving fuel and managing tires from there. I was counting down the laps from about 25 to go, so I was very happy to see that checkered flag.”

On the next two races with Corvette: “It’s been an amazing run. This one is definitely for all the Corvette Racing fans out there. Since the announcement, the outpouring from the fans from the Corvette side has been the best part, just to see the appreciation and respect on my decision to move away. Corvette Racing will always be my family no matter where I am, what I drive and what I do. Deep in my heart, I’m a Corvette guy.”

How special is this win? “This will definitely be one of the most special wins I’ll ever have. This was a classic Corvette Racing victory. We didn’t have the fastest car. Antonio was able to stay in contention in that first stint, and we made some gains on fuel-savings in that first stint to get closer to the Lexus for when I was in the car. In that last pit cycle, the guys made an amazing call on the short-fill to get that track position. They gave me a fuel number to hit to get to the end, and it was my job to save that amount and not lose any laptime. We nailed it. The fuel reserve came on, but it must have been tight because I couldn’t do a burnout in the end! This win goes to Corvette Racing.”

On if the undercut strategy would have worked if the 14 didn’t stall: “If they had beaten us out, there’s no way I would have gotten by him unless he made some mistakes. In this series these days, one mistake can lose you the victory. We’ve seen that this year. We probably lost two or three this year that we could say that we could have won. They’re probably going to say the same thing after this one… that they could have won had they not stalled. Today was our day. It was a very deserving victory and down to our guys making that call.”

The attempted pass on the 14 on the second restart into T14: “I didn’t have a ton of confidence going in there. The lap before I braked kind of late and had a bunch of ABS interaction and almost hit the back of him. That lap, I knew I was going to be off-line so I wasn’t 100 percent confident that I’d make the corner. He did the exact same thing to me last year where I had a similar run. I knew he was going to go deep. At that point in the race, I knew that had we gotten track position then it would have transformed the race for us but I also didn’t want to throw away the race with an hour-and-a-half to go. I knew there was a lot of racing to go. We hadn’t done a full stint yet to see where all the cars were on tire deg. I knew we had a lot to play for, and it wasn’t worth taking that big risk.”

On seeing the 14 come out of pitlane after the last stop: “The engineers just told me to push on the out-lap, so I knew it was all down to my out-lap, my in-lap and the short fill and calculating how much we needed to jump them. They told me when he was leaving the pits, and it was quite early so they didn’t say he stalled; they said he’s leaving so I thought he’d be pretty far ahead of me by the time I got there. I crested the hill and saw he was still at pit-out, and I had so much momentum that I knew for sure I was going to go by him. I’m not sure what he was doing, but he drifted all the way across the racing line. He for sure saw me, so I’m not sure what that was about. But I wasn’t going to lift. I would have driven through him if I had to at that point to get the lead.

“It was a sigh of relief because I didn’t know I had to save fuel at that point. But they told me after that what the fuel number was, and the stress crept in until I kind of found a rhythm of hitting that number with my lift points and finding the laptime. Once I got into a rhythm, I felt pretty good. With about 15 laps to go, I felt pretty confident that the tires weren’t dropping too much.”

About Chevrolet
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ALTON, Va. (August 27, 2023) – Reigning Idemitsu Mazda MX-5 Cup presented by BFGoodrich® Tires Champion Jared Thomas (No. 96 JTR Motorsports Engineering) was declared the Round 12 race winner after an incident on the final lap led to a post-race penalty. He extended his points lead over teammate Aaron Jeansonne (No. 24 JTR Motorsports Engineering) who finished second.

It was difficult to keep up with the number of lead changes during the 45-minute race, which was somehow even more thrilling than Saturday’s event. There was never a clear leader, instead a pack of 11 cars broke away from the field, running nose-to-tail.

At the front of the train, Gresham Wagner (No. 5 Spark Performance) and Connor Zilisch (No. 72 Hixon Motor Sports) traded the lead several times, with Max Opalski (No. 2 Copeland Motorsports), Nate Cicero (No. 83 McCumbee McAleer Racing) and Jeansonne taking their turns at the front as well.

With 10 minutes to go, the pack of 11 dwindled to a pack of seven. Michael Carter (No. 19 Saito Motorsports) and Thomas were waiting in the wings for anyone to make a wrong move.

Based on Saturday’s finish, most expected the move for the win to happen in the final turn, but this time it happened several turns before. Carter, who was in fifth, bumped into the back of Jeansonne in the Rollercoaster and caused a chain reaction of hits up to the leader. This knocked Wagner, Zilisch and Opalski into the grass.

As Jeansonne scrambled to stay on track, Carter and Thomas sailed past. Jeansonne pulled it together just in time to hold off Cicero and crossed the line in third.

Race officials deemed Carter to be the instigator of the madness and handed him a drive-through penalty post-race, which effectively removed him from the podium and gave the win to Thomas.

“It was a hard-fought battle at the front,” Thomas said. “The leaders were getting pretty dicey and I was hanging out, saving tires and waiting for the end. I ended up being in the right place at the right time. There was some contact at the end and I came across the line in second.”

The win extends Thomas’ lead in the MX-5 Cup point standings with only two more rounds to go. His nearest rival for the 2023 title and the $250,000 prize that comes with it, is teammate Jeansonne, who finished second.

“That was an interesting race,” Jeansonne said. “Both of these races have been the hottest of the year. We had a strong backup car that we were able to put on pole yesterday. I ran toward the front all day and I tried to be smart and pick my spots and think about what I wanted to do for the last couple of laps. When I was told we were coming to the white flag, I knew I had to go for it. I got a push from behind going into Rollercoaster on the last lap. It moved a lot of people out of the way and shuffled things up. It was an interesting finish, but I’m really proud of the team and all the hard work they put in this weekend, so coming away with a good finish is awesome.”

The podium was a relief for Jeansonne who had mechanical issues that ended his race early on Saturday.

“We’ve had a few bad-luck races, so it felt really good to stand on the podium again. It gives us a fighting chance going into the finale at Road Atlanta for the $250,000 prize.”

MX-5 Cup rookies have their eyes on an $80,000 prize for Rookie of the Year. With a win on Saturday and a third-place finish on Sunday, Cicero strengthens his lead in the rookie points.

“We led a couple of laps, which is great,” Cicero said. “I was having quite a bit of fun. It was really tricky with the car overheating as soon as you tried to push anyone. The weekend was a nine out of ten; a great weekend. I love this place and to get these solid results, I’ll take that, but there’s always more to learn.”

Just like Saturday, Opalski barely missed the podium on Sunday, finishing fourth.

Rookie Thomas Annunziata (No. 10 Hixon Motor Sports) completed the top five and stays within striking distance of Cicero for the Rookie of the Year title.

Both races are available to view on the RACER YouTube page.

As expected, the 2023 MX-5 Cup Championship will come down to the final two races at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, October 11 – 13. Both races will be streamed live on RACER.com.

About: The Idemitsu Mazda MX-5 Cup presented by BFGoodrich® Tires is the signature spec series for Mazda Motorsports. The series has been operated by Andersen Promotions since 2017 and is currently sanctioned by IMSA. Mazda-powered grassroots champions can earn Mazda scholarships for this pro-level series. The Idemitsu Mazda MX-5 Cup awards more than $1 million in prizes and scholarships.

Find out more at http://www.mx-5cup.com.

(Alton, Vir.) Aug. 27, 2023 — The Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport (WTRAndretti) team leave VIRginia International Raceway complete with a haul of podium hardware across the Lamborghini Super Trofeo (LST) Rounds 7 and 8 of the 2023 season. The weekend was highlighted by a historical podium result for the WTRAndretti team with an overall podium sweep for the first time in the WTRAndretti team’s history in the Lamborghini Super Trofeo series. Kyle Marcelli and Danny Formal captured the win while fellow teammates Ryan Norman and Nate Stacy rounded out the second and third positions on the overall podium, respectively.

An undefeated streak for Kyle Marcelli and Danny Formal continued as the pair started the weekend capturing pole positions for the doubleheader weekend. As Danny Formal brought the field to the green flag in Saturday’s Race 1, it was smooth sailing for the pair when Kyle Marcelli took control of the driver’s seat, leading the No. 1 Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo EVO2 to the checkered flag by over 19 seconds. Once Sunday’s green flag flew, Marcelli started behind the wheel and was quickly challenged for the lead by the No. 88. A patient, but aggressive, Marcelli kept the No. 88 in his sights and made a decisive move that regained the lead for the No. 1 team. Formal returned behind the wheel with the second half left to go and it was straight to the checkered flag as the pair captured their eighth win for the season.

Ryan Norman entered the Lamborghini Super Trofeo weekend at VIRginia International Raceway (VIR) with redemption on his mind. In his first appearance behind the wheel of his No. 84 Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo EVO2 at VIR, Norman quickly got up to speed and went to battle in Race 1 on Saturday, chipping away at the competitors ahead of him after starting fifth on the grid. Norman’s powerful drive moved the PRO driver into the second position overall and earned his fifth podium on the season. Starting from third in Sunday’s Race 2, Norman remained on the heels of the front running PRO class entries, before an unfortunate pit speed violation forced the No. 84 driver to serve a drive through penalty. Norman proved to have speed in his black and orange No. 84 as he was able to work his way back up to third position for a sixth LST podium to end the weekend.

Running in the PRO class for the weekend at VIR as co-driver Nick Persing had a schedule conflict, Nate Stacy was determined come away with the best result possible. With an impressive second-place PRO class qualifying position for Race 1, Stacy started the weekend on a high note and ready to contend for the lead. As the field shuffled around through the mandatory pit window, Stacy found himself on the outside looking in of the podium. As Stacy was running in the fourth position, the No.30 PRO entry received a 10-second time penalty to which that propelled the No. 8 onto the podium – completing the historic all WTRAndretti podium on Saturday. Sunday’s mission remained the same for Stacy starting from fifth in class and all looked promising, even posting the fastest lap of the race, until a mechanical issue forced the No. 8 team to retire early from the second race.

Graham Doyle entered the weekend at VIR as another new track for the 17-year-old, but that didn’t stop Doyle from challenging for position in his No. 10 DEX Imaging machine. Saturday’s Race 1 proved to be a learning race for Doyle as he continued to get familiar with the track and earned a top-five result in the LB Cup class. In Race 2, Doyle was able to take what was learned from Race 1 and apply to Sunday’s race. Starting second in class, Doyle battled alongside fellow LB Cup competitors all race long in attempt to keep his position on the podium. With a late race incident between Doyle and the No. 50 on track, Doyle was served a time penalty responsibility on track; however, the gap Doyle had created on track kept the driver of the No. 10 on the podium to finish second on the day.
With Rounds 9 and 10 up next on the Lamborghini Super Trofeo calendar, the WTRAndretti stable will head to the team’s home race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course on September 15-17th.

Kyle Marcelli, No. 1 WTRAndretti (PRO)
“Two poles and two wins here at VIR. The win streak remains alive! Each race saw different conditions and challenges. Race 1 was extremely hot and the tires didn’t like the heat so much. The car became more challenging to drive, but everybody on the grid actually did a fantastic job it was a green flag race the whole time. Race 2, I was a little bit conservative at the start and the left mirror getting knocked in and had no visibility on left side. I lost a spot but then kept the pressure on and forced the No. 88 into a mistake and re-took the lead. Danny’s confidence around this place was evident, he was quick late in the race and opened a nice 3-4 second gap before the end. Thanks to WTRAndretti, Harrison Contracting and Lamborghini Palm Beach for the support. We’ve got such a great group of people on this program; it’s been a lot of fun and successful. Looking forward to Indy!”

Danny Formal, No. 1 WTRAndretti (PRO)
“What can I say, what a weekend. Eight for eight, seven for seven yesterday. Broken our record of wins for a season, it’s just been a season to remember. History making for the WTRAndretti No. 1 Lamborghini Palm Beach Harrison Contracting. Kyle and felt super confident this weekend since the car rolled off the trailer and the team just gave us a rocket ship. Everyone in the team had incredible speed. We took care of the podium in the PRO class yesterday, 1-2-3, and today with Ryan finishing in third place and we won then Graham Doyle finished second (in LB Cup). Super excited for the Brickyard next in three weeks’ time and hopefully we can lock up the championship before heading to Europe for the World Finals.”

Ryan Norman, No. 84 WTRAndretti (PRO)
“Overall, a great weekend at VIR. We struggled to get a clean lap in Qualifying 1 and started sixth and stayed consistent to battle our way up to P2 in Race 1. For Race 2, we started third and moved up to P2 before the pit stops and I had an issue with my pit lane speed limiter for my pit stop, which resulted in a drive through. Luckily a yellow flag bunched the field up for the last few minutes of the race and the No. 84 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport Super Trofeo was on rails. We had a great restart and moved all the way back to P3 overall and had an intense battle for P2 the last lap. Thank you to the whole team for a great car and a great weekend and can’t wait to push on to Indianapolis race in a few weeks!”

Nate Stacy, No. 8 WTRAndretti (PRO)
“First of all, huge shoutout to WTRAndretti for doing such an amazing job this weekend, it was a fun weekend. The first race went well finishing P3 in the PRO class. The second race was a bit tougher with a mechanical issue retiring us from the race early. Despite this we still went fastest overall and will take that into the next round of Indy!”

Graham Doyle, No. 10 DEX Imaging with WTRAndretti (LB Cup)
“As a team this was an awesome weekend. Yesterday in Race 1, we were able to sweep the PRO class with a 1-2-3 finish and today, we finished first and third in the PRO class and I finished second in my class after a very good race with a lot of battles and lot of fun. I really think it was a great weekend, I learned a lot. This is a very complicated, hard track and it’s even harder to pass, so I think I really showed up today and was able to start passing and working on my skills. Altogether, it was a great weekend.”

ABOUT WTRANDRETTI’S DRIVER DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM.
Based in Indianapolis, Indiana, Wayne Taylor Racing, now with Andretti Autosport (#WTRAndretti), is a leader in sportscar racing, recognized worldwide for fielding championship winning racing efforts since 2007. WTRAndretti has run a stable of championship winning cars and drivers in the Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America series for over half a decade, forming the basis of their Driver Development Program. Since its inception in 2015, the team has clinched eight North American PRO Driver, Team and Dealer Championship titles, fielded the first woman World Finals race winner and became the overall 2017 Champions at the World Finals in Imola, Italy. WTRAndretti’s Driver Development program has grown into interim classes and series as it evolves to encompass a greater variety of skill and experience levels. WTRAndretti currently fields a GTP program with it Championship winning No 10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-06 effort as well as GT3 programs in both the IMSA Michelin Endurance Championship and Fanatec GT World Challenge with Harrison Contracting Company, Acura, Honda Performance Development (HPD) and Racers Edge Motorsports.

For more information on Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport’s Driver Development Program and how to get involved, contact Travis Houge at info@waynetaylorracing.com.