Milner/Tandy pairing comes out on top against Taylor/Garcia in Corvette street fight

LONG BEACH, Calif. (Sept. 25, 2021) – Corvette Racing’s Tommy Milner and Nick Tandy won their second straight race in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship on Saturday – a GT Le Mans (GTLM) victory in the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach with the No. 4 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R.

Milner passed No. 3 Corvette Racing teammate Jordan Taylor near the 50-minute mark, and Tandy drove a traffic-filled final stint as the Corvette Racing program won for the eighth time at the southern California street event. It’s the second street circuit win of the year for the Milner/Tandy duo, which also won a non-points race in June at Detroit’s Belle Isle circuit.

Milner won for the fourth time his career at Long Beach while Tandy took his second victory there.

Tandy took a 0.75-second victory over Antonio Garcia, Taylor’s teammate in the No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Corvette C8.R. The runner-up result did move Garcia and Taylor closer to their second straight GTLM Drivers Championship and a repeat Manufacturers crowd for Chevrolet.

As is typically the case at Long Beach, traffic played a huge role throughout the 100-minute sprint. Taylor began on pole position with Milner never more than two seconds behind. The ebb and flow of being passed by faster prototypes but passing slower GT Daytona (GTD) cars caused the gap between the two C8.Rs to fluctuate throughout.

The winning move came at the race’s halfway point as Taylor was balked by a GTD car, which allowed Milner to find some extra momentum and get alongside his teammate just before the short backstretch. The two Corvettes ran in that order before Taylor made the No. 3 Corvette’s only stop of the race with 41 minutes to go. Milner came in a lap later for the switch-over to Tandy, who rejoined the race in the lead and clear of Garcia by about two seconds.

As was the case in the first part of the race, traffic made Tandy’s lead grow and shrink over the course of a lap. But neither Corvette driver put a foot wrong for the final stint.

Corvette Racing’s next event is the Michelin GT Challenge at Virginia International Raceway on Oct. 8-9.

TOMMY MILNER, NO. 4 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – GTLM WINNER:
WE DIDN’T GET A GOOD LOOK AT THE PASS. TELL US WHAT HAPPENED. “The pass was done in Turn Six. I did a 360 and then a kick-flip afterward… Nah, lap traffic is always such a huge part of this race. When you have two cars that are so close and so competitive here together, trying to find an opportunity to pass on the racetrack is difficult. My plan was to stick with Jordan as best I could and take any opportunity that arose in traffic. That’s what happened at Turn Six. Because the GTD cars have ABS, they can brake later than we can. Jordan went for a move on the inside of that corner and it didn’t quite stick. His exit was compromised and I was able to get outside of him on the entry and that’s the preferred line there. At times it’s frustrating being stuck behind somebody. I’ve raced here for a long time and it’s happened to me. Just using that experience worked out for us. The pit stop was massively important here. It’s always limited by the driver change and four tires. That was the case again here, and everything lined up right. Nick did a great job. You have to make good decisions in traffic always. One bad decision can mean seconds of lap time and it can mean losing a position. He did an awesome job of managing traffic well and bringing our Corvette home.”

RACING HARD AGAINST TEAMMATES: “It’s the age-old rule in racing: you can’t hit your teammate. That’s kind of the rule we live by at Corvette Racing, but we are allowed to race. We can try to pass each other on the racetrack – even without traffic – if the opportunity arises. Because the cars are so close and it’s the same equipment, we know exactly where they are strong and where we are strong. We can look at the same video and data. To find a big difference on the track in pure pace is pretty hard to do. In those situations, the traffic usually affords you the opportunity to make a pass that can be clean. I really only had the one opportunity and thankfully I was close enough to take advantage of that.”

WINNING AT LONG BEACH: “The atmosphere here at Long Beach is fantastic with the crowd and energy that they bring. Not that we haven’t had fans for a year-and-a-half now, but this was the first time I really felt the energy of the fans. You miss it in some ways. Before the start of the race, there was so many fans in the stands. It’s one of the things that you get accustomed to after a long time. Now that we haven’t had it for a long time, to feel it again here at Long Beach is fantastic. I’m not sure that has any impact when you’re in the car, but it makes for a fun event for them and us as drivers and as a team.”

RACING AGAINST GTD CARS: “That class has gotten super competitive the last couple of years. They’re doing the same job we are. For us at Corvette Racing, we don’t look at that class as something easy in any way. If anything it’s more difficult. For those guys to get wins in that class is very difficult. Whoever races in that class next year is going to have a hard time.”

NICK TANDY, NO. 4 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: “I’m really happy to win again at Long Beach and with Tommy. My job was pretty simple in the end. The stint Tommy did running up to the pitstop was crucial. Getting past the 3 car enabled us to deny them track position before the stop was a good call. Once we came back out in front, we knew the car coming out in front after the stop cycle would be difficult to beat. It worked out perfectly. The team did a flawless stop, and that’s one of the key things at Long Beach. It’s often that we are fuel-defined by the pitstop time. Here we don’t need to take a full tank, so often it’s down to the driver change time and tire change. Pretty much everything synced together. I got my belts tight and off we went.”

WINNING AT LONG BEACH: “I’d reiterate what Tommy said. It’s awesome to be back at this event. I think I’ve seen more people here this weekend than ever. Anytime you get to come race at Long Beach, it’s a classic event. It’s always a favorite to come to. The races are frenetic. Getting a trophy from the Long Beach Grand Prix is always a big one.”

LONG BEACH NEXT YEAR: “If Corvette Racing goes into GTD next year, we’ve been in the paddock with these teams and drivers. You can see the level that the category is top professional racing. We always look to have great racing. We always know that the best wins are when you face the toughest competition. This is what Corvette Racing wants to do. We want to race the best competition possible no matter where that may be. It’s great that we have all these different types of cars and classes within sports car racing that these teams and manufacturers can go racing in.”

ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – SECOND IN GTLM: “Obviously you always want to win. The pit cycle didn’t go our way and we lost track position right before the stop. From that point on, we didn’t have the advantage of over-cutting so we had to pit early. The car was really good. Even if I had a two- or three-second deficit initially, I was able to catch back up again to Nick. As we saw, it’s almost impossible to pass unless you hit traffic the right way. That’s the main thing. I stayed where I was and wait for a mistake and a little traffic. On a street circuit, you can’t risk it like if we were fighting another manufacturer. You want to win but you always know that is your teammate, too. It was fun to go flat-out around this track, and I could tell Nick was trying hard, too.”

JORDAN TAYLOR, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – SECOND IN GTLM: “It wasn’t a bad race and to finish second. It definitely was tricky with traffic. Some guys did not want to lift or let anyone go, which was frustrating but it’s part of the race. Everyone has to deal with it. So another good day for Corvette Racing with a 1-2 finish. For us in the 3 car, I think we’re pretty close to the championship. It opens things up to take more risks the next races, which will be fun.”

About Chevrolet
Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is now one of the world’s largest car brands, available in 79 countries with more than 3.2 million cars and trucks sold in 2020. 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.

Rob Ferriol Improved Four Positions in His Opening Stint; Katherine Legge Turned Second Quickest Lap of the Race in the
No. 88 Richard Mille/GridRival Porsche 911 GT3 R

LONG BEACH, California (September 25, 2021) – Team Hardpoint co-drivers Rob Ferriol and Katherine Legge scored a ninth-place in Saturday’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GT Daytona (GTD) at the Long Beach Grand Prix with the team’s No. 88 Richard Mille/GridRival Porsche 911 GT3 R.

The top-10 finish was a strong effort for the team, making their debut on the Long Beach temporary circuit and competing in just the second street race in Team Hardpoint’s short history.

The Saturday race meant that the IMSA Championship had two practice sessions and qualifying on Friday, leaving minimal time for Team Hardpoint and Ferriol, making his Long Beach debut, to learn the track prior to qualifying. Ferriol qualified just 15th of the 17 GTD cars entered to the event, but had a car ready for the longer run in the race.

Ferriol was ready for the start of the 100-minute race, a full hour shorter than a traditional IMSA sprint race. He had moved forward two positions just eight minutes in, and picked up an additional position prior to the lone full course caution of the race that came just 12 minutes into the race.

When Ferriol came to pit lane with one hour and four minutes to go after completing his required 35 minutes of drive time, he was running 11th and passed the Porsche GT3 R to Legge.

“We feel really good,” Ferriol, also the Team Hardpoint owner, said. “We felt like we left a lot undone at Detroit with our rather early end to the race. We knew we had a good car for a street race based on what we had done at Detroit, and we felt coming into the weekend we were going to be strong. It’s a Porsche track, and we as a Porsche team are getting smarter. We showed that through practice, and had a bit of a bobble in qualifying. But for the race, if we had an opportunity to qualify better we would certainly have had a better finish because Katherine was the class of the field working her way through. I managed to pick up a couple of positions in my stint, so I’m happy. We moved up six spots over the course of a 100-minute race at probably one of the hardest tracks to pass at.”

Legge had a delay in pit lane, with the pitting car in the box in front of Team Hardpoint leaving a wheel in the way as she tried to leave. Legge spent the first half of her stint closing the gap to her fellow competitors. She moved by three in quick succession and was 10th with 27 minutes to go.

With the 1.968-mile track clear in front of her, Legge and the No. 88 Richard Mille/GridRival Porsche 911 GT3 R was the quickest car on track in the final 25 minutes of the race. Her best lap of 1:20.180 (88.361 mph) was the second-fastest of the race, just 0.042-second behind the GTD class best.

“The team did a really good job and gave me a really good car,” Legge said. “We were just unfortunate, honestly. We were hoping for a yellow, we were praying for a yellow. We wanted to catch the pack and go fight them because we had a good car and we could have done it. Both Rob and I made a couple of strong passes and the car was strong so on pace we should have finished a lot further up. It just wasn’t to be today. Having said that, look how far we’ve come since the beginning of the year. We’ve worked really hard on the setup and the tire side, where we haven’t been so strong on qualifying and at the start of the runs. We’ve always been stronger toward the end of the runs. We’ve been working really hard at putting together a better all-around package, and the team knocked it out of the park on this one.”

The team turns its attention to its home race in just two weeks, back on the east coast at VIRginia International Raceway (VIR). The Michelin GT Challenge, a two-hour, 40-minute sprint race featuring only IMSA’s GT classes, comes at the home of Team Hardpoint. The team’s 10,000 square foot race shop is located at VIR’s Virginia Motorsport Technology Park on the grounds at VIR.

“Seeing Katherine out there running fast lap after fast lap was a great moment for us on the timing stand, knowing how hard we continue to work week in and week out,” Ferriol said. “Despite what position we were in at the time, to see her being the fastest car on track was really good for us and we’re looking forward to coming back to VIR to get that result.”

The team moves to its home race running eighth in the GTD team championship with the No. 88 Porsche. The VIR round is another condensed two-day event for the WeatherTech Championship, with a two-hour, 40-minute race at noon EDT on Saturday, October 9. That race will air live over the air on NBC.

About Team Hardpoint:
Hardpoint Motorsports was founded by Rob Ferriol in 2018 with the vision of combining his experience as a successful entrepreneur with his passion for racing. Team Hardpoint EBM is a joint venture between Team Hardpoint and Earl Bamber Motorsport formed in late 2020 for Team Hardpoint’s Porsche Carrera Cup North America program to utilize the resources of EBM and co-owners Earl Bamber and Will Bamber and the early success of Team Hardpoint. Headquartered at VIRginia International Raceway, the team’s 2021 plans include a full-season effort in the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship in a Porsche 911 GT3 R and a multi-car effort in the IMSA Porsche Carrera Cup North America. More information on Hardpoint Motorsports can be found at www.hardpoint.com or through its strong social media presence on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.