Corvette GT3.Rs ready to battle this weekend, shown on the USA Network Live

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“Nothing feels more like home than VIR in a Corvette.”

The quote is Tommy Milner’s, the Washington, D.C., native who has long considered VIRginia International Raceway a home track. And it was spoken earlier in 2024 after the new Corvette Z06 GT3.R won a pair of races at VIR in another series.
But the quote is an excellent, simple summation of Corvette Racing at VIR in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, particularly since 2014 when it became a GT-class only race.

Corvette Racing has won three of the past four Michelin GT Challenge at VIR races and delivered six total wins at the track (2012, 2016, 2017, 2020, 2021, 2023).
Longtime driver Antonio Garcia reflected on some of them, having won four of those six.
“I personally like this racetrack and Corvette Racing has always been successful there,” he said.

“I don’t know if it’s because we run alone there as a GT-only race and that probably helps to keep everything tidy as far as strategy and the classes aren’t shuffling the order too much.
“It suited the (Corvette) C7.R. It definitely suited the C8.R, so I’m looking forward to going back there and seeing where we are.”
Under IMSA’s former class structure, VIR served as the stalwart GT-only event, highlighting the GT Le Mans (GTLM) and Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) classes.

In those years from 2014 to 2021, Michelin produced bespoke tires for each of its original equipment manufacturers competing in GTLM. At VIR, when Michelin took over race naming rights in 2016, the event gave the GTLM competitors their shot at an overall win and highlighted the best collaboration of teams, drivers and tire combinations.

That frequently favored Corvette Racing, through its own run of chassis over the years. The ground-pounding, front-engine C7.R raced from 2014 to 2019, before the revolutionary mid-engine C8.R GTE-specification car premiered in 2020. It only had two years in GTLM before being modified to the GT3-specification type in 2022 to run in the Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) class that replaced GTLM, with another two-year run before the debut of the all-new Z06 GT3.R for 2024.

The 2022 class structure change coincided with a shift from confidential tires to a single Michelin specification tire for all competitors in both GTD and GTD PRO, where Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports competes today. Corvette Racing made no secret of noting the challenges in adapting in 2022 but has gotten a handle on the new tire compound this year, the Pilot Sport Pro GT1 H1.

How did Corvette fare at VIR over the decade? Not too shabby. Garcia won with Jan Magnussen in 2016 after Magnussen scored the pole. The pair repeated the race win a year later and came second in 2018 en route to that year’s GTLM class championship. A third-place finish followed in 2019.

Once the C8.R premiered, Corvette really got on a roll. Garcia, then paired with Jordan Taylor, took the 2020 victory before coming second to teammates Milner and Nick Tandy in 2021. The ‘21 race was a barnburner as both Corvettes engaged in a thrilling scrap with Kevin Estre’s WeatherTech Racing Porsche 911 RSR, in the second-to-last GTLM race.

The C8.R GTD version finished second in 2022 with Garcia and Taylor, before returning to the top step last year with one of the most poignant wins in Corvette Racing’s program history. It served as the final win for the GTD-specification C8.R Corvette, the last for Corvette Racing solely as a factory team before its shift to a customer-focused program in 2024, and as Taylor’s last victory before he moved into Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class racing with the Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06 effort.

“This will definitely be one of the most special wins I’ll ever have. This was a classic Corvette Racing victory,” Taylor said after last year’s win.
Garcia, who’d watched the finish from the pit box rather than the driver’s seat, admitted that was unusual. But he was impressed with the overall team effort.
“Jordan was fantastic today,” Garcia said then. “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.”

A year later, Garcia is back at VIR, racing with another new co-driver, Alexander Sims, who shares the No. 3 Corvette Z06 GT3.R. Milner is with Nicky Catsburg in the sister No. 4 car. Sims is a past VIR winner, having triumphed with BMW in 2018 in GTLM, while Catsburg is set for his VIR debut.
Garcia is keen to defend his triumph and add a second win this season to the one the No. 3 achieved at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. He also explained what he likes about VIR.

“I like it there, especially after the new pavement (was added) from a couple of years ago. It really brought up the overall grip,” he said.

“That made it very, very similar, even in GTD cars, pretty close to how the GTLM cars felt. So, more grip is always fun. You’re going faster, but obviously, the mistakes are there. If you make one, you can always hit something there. So, I always like it. It produces good racing and I always look forward to going back there and seeing how the weather does because at times it’s tricky.”

Garcia and the rest of the GT D PRO and GTD competitors will take on the Michelin GT Challenge at VIR beginning with practice on Friday.
Sunday’s race airs on the USA Network, Peacock and IMSA Radio starting at noon ET.

 

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A total of 23 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTD Pro and GTD cars are set for this weekend’s Michelin GT Challenge at Virginia International Raceway, marking the lone GT-only race of the season following the elimination of Lime Rock Park from this year and next year’s calendars.

Antonio Garcia heads into Sunday’s two-hour and 40-minute race as the only driver who can defend his win from last year in class. Garcia, who holds four class wins at the 3.27-mile circuit in Alton, Vir., teamed with Jordan Taylor for top honors, in what came as the last victory for the GTE-spec Chevrolet Corvette C8.R in worldwide competition.

Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow, who won last year’s race in GTD, meanwhile, have moved up to GTD Pro to face off against the pair of factory-supported Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs, works-run Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang GT3s and the championship-leading AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R, among others.

Laurin Heinrich will have his third co-driver in as many races, with the AO driver joined by Klaus Bachler in an expected one-off appearance for the Austrian. Julien Andlauer, who was the first to step into Seb Priaulx’s vacated seat last time out at Road America, is racing for Proton Competition in this weekend’s European Le Mans Series race.

Canadian Corvette squad AWA was the first to officially confirm its 2025 WeatherTech Championship program earlier this week, which will see Orey Fidani and Matt Bell return to the team’s No. 13 GTD class entry.
AWA has not ruled out returning to a two-car operation next year, according to the team’s competition director Jeff Braun, who said they continue to have both the capacity and desire to run two Corvettes.

 

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Madison Snow led the way in Friday’s one-and-only IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship practice session for the Michelin GT Challenge at Virginia International Raceway.

The BMW factory driver took his No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 to a fast lap of 1:43.561 early in the 90-minute session.
It was 0.509 seconds quicker than GTD Pro points leader Laurin Heinrich in the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R.

Alexander Sims posted the third-quickest time overall and in class in his No. 3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, followed by Alex Riberas in the No. 23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo.

GTD was paced by the No. 70 Inception Racing McLaren 720S GT3 Evo of Frederic Schandorff, thanks to a 1:44.381 lap time.
Schandorff was one-tenth clear of the second-placed No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Philip Ellis.
Stevan McAleer posted the third quickest time in class in the No. 66 Gradient Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo22.

All 23 cars set times in the session, which ran without any red flags but saw a handful of incidents.
It included an off-course excursion by the No. 86 MDK Motorsports Porsche of Anders Fjordbach and a spin into the barriers for VIR rookie Harry Tincknell in the No. 64 Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang GT3.

Practice 2 is on tap on Saturday at 10:15 a.m. EDT.

 

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Several drivers, including Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports’ Nicky Catsburg, Harry Tincknell of Ford Multimatic Motorsports and AO Racing’s Laurin Heinrich, turned their first laps of Virginia International Raceway in official conditions in Friday’s opening practice session for the Michelin GT Challenge at VIR.

***Castsburg said: “The track seems really nice. It’s a typical American track in that if you go off-track where if you go off, you’re into the grass or into the wall, which is cool. There are some nice high-speed sections and is a little more abrasive that some other places we’ve had this year. So it will be a bit of a tire-life game. It’s a cool track. The car feels OK, so I’m quite pleased. We’ll try to focus on getting into a window for qualifying and then hopefully have a good race.”

***It’s understood that Heart of Racing Team’s Ross Gunn and Roman De Angelis have been among the latest drivers to have sampled the Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR-LMH in Europe as the testing program with the car continues ahead of its debut in the WeatherTech Championship and FIA World Endurance Championship next year. Heart of Racing refused to comment on the matter when reached by Sportscar365.

***AO Racing could have Julien Andlauer back in the team’s No. 77 Porsche 911 GT3 R for October’s Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta according to team principal Gunnar Jeannette, who told Sportscar365 that they’re waiting on a final call from Porsche for the last two races of the season. Heinrich is joined by Klaus Bachler for this weekend, marking the team’s third different co-driver in the last three races.

***Jeannette wouldn’t confirm that ‘Rexy’ would return for Indianapolis but said that the fan-favorite green dinosaur livery will be back on the car before the end of the year following its summer break, indicating that it would be in action for the season-ending Petit Le Mans.

***Sportscar365 understands of at least two additional GTD Pro/GTD entries for next month’s Battle on the Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, both of which are set to make their second starts of the season, but with one featuring an all-new driver lineup.

***Erik Skirmants, formerly of Porsche Motorsport North America, has been named the new senior motorsports' manager for Lamborghini North America. Skirmants is on his first official race weekend in his new role here at VIR.

***Skirmants and Alexandra LaDuca, who joined Lamborghini as its senior coordinator for Super Trofeo North America back at Watkins Glen, have effectively taken over the role of Chris Ward, who was let go from the company late last year. Ward, meanwhile, has since gone on to become the President of HSR.

***Among the series on the support bill this weekend is the debuting HSR NASCAR Classic presented by Petty’s Garage, which sees a 15-car grid of stock cars that have retired from active competition. Past and present stock car and sports car racing notables such as Joe Nemechek, Mike Skeen and PJ Hyett are competing this weekend, with seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion and Hall of Famer Richard Petty also on-site.

***Former IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge champion Owen Trinkler is making his return to racing this weekend in International GT competition at Watkins Glen International, driving a Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car. Trinkler, who raced with third-degree burns in this year’s Pilot Challenge season-opener at Daytona International Speedway, has been left without a ride in the series since parting ways with Team TGM.

***Pilot Challenge competitor Todd Coleman was spotted in the WeatherTech Championship paddock on Friday trying on Pfaff Motorsports’ McLaren 720S GT3 Evo, accompanied by his current co-driver Aaron Telitz. The two currently share an Aston Martin Vantage GT4 entered by Archangel Motorsports.

***Random Vandals Racing, which made its GT3 debut in last weekend’s Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS weekend, has ended its Pilot Challenge season early following a double compression vertebrae fracture by team owner/driver Paul Sparta in the Pirelli GT4 America race at Road America.

***Sparta was due to share his BMW M4 GT4 this weekend with Kenton Koch, who is now fully focused on his WeatherTech Championship GTD duties in the No. 32 Korthoff Preston Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.

***This week’s announcement of Leigh Diffey joining NBC’s NASCAR broadcast team as its new lead play-by-play announcer is believed to provide the option for the U.S.-based Australian to possibly still have a presence on NBC’s IMSA broadcasts for the first half of the season next year when NASCAR is not on the network.

***NBC has yet to detail its 2025 TV talent lineup for the WeatherTech Championship, amid some expected changes due to the network no longer carrying the NTT IndyCar Series next year.

***Brian Till and Calvin Fish will be in the NBC Sports booth for Sunday’s Michelin GT Challenge, with Matt Yocum reporting on pit lane.
Live coverage begins 12 p.m. EDT on the USA Network and Peacock, while the IMSA Radio team of John Hindhaugh, Jeremy Shaw and Shea Adam will have their usual coverage across multiple platforms, including on IMSA’s YouTube channel for international viewers.

 

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Madison Snow will start Sunday’s Michelin GT Challenge at Virginia International Raceway from the pole after storming to the top position in qualifying on Saturday, the first for Paul Miller Racing in GTD Pro.

Snow, in the No. 1 BMW M4 GT3, reeled off a best time of 1:43.206 to edge out
the No. 3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Chevy Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Antonio Garcia by 0.140 seconds.

Harry Tincknell gave Ford Multimatic Motorsports its best qualifying performance to date, slotting his No. 64 Ford Mustang GT3 in third, followed by teammate Joey Hand in fourth.

Tommy Milner completed the top-five overall and in GTD Pro in the No. 4 Corvette.

 

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Antonio Garcia will start on the outside of the front row Sunday after leading the group of Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R drivers in qualifying for the Michelin GT Challenge at VIR.

Garcia, in the No. 3 Corvette from Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports, set a best qualifying lap of 1:43.346 (113.908 mph) in Saturday’s 15-minute qualifying session. That put him 0.140 seconds off the GTD PRO pole-winning time around the 3.27-mile, 17-turn Virginia International Raceway circuit.

Tommy Milner in the No. 4 Z06 GT3.R was fifth in class at 1:43.745 (113.470 mph) and four-tenths of a second from the front row for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s lone GT-only event.
The Virginia driver was on the back foot early after being balked on his first flying lap by another car that ran ahead of both Corvettes.

The Pratt Miller squad claimed six victories at VIR under the Corvette Racing factory banner through the end of last season, including last year’s win for Garcia and Jordan Taylor in the Corvette C8.R. The Z06 GT3.R already has two VIR wins this year, as DXDT Racing swept both rounds of GT World Challenge America there earlier this year with Milner as one of its drivers.

In GTD, Orey Fidani qualified the No. 13 AWA Corvette Z06 GT3.R 14th in class with a lap of 1:47.306 (109.704 mph).
He and Matt Bell are coming off a season-best, fifth-place finish the last time out at Road America.
A repeat or besting that result at VIR would solidify Fidani’s lead in the Bob Akin Award standings, with the highest points-scoring Bronze driver at the end of the year earning an automatic entry to the following year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.

 

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Madison Snow and Bryan Sellers drove to a commanding victory in Sunday’s Michelin GT Challenge at Virginia International Raceway for Paul Miller Racing and BMW.

Snow, who started on pole, took the No. 1 BWM M4 GT3 to a 3.368-second win over the No. 64 Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang GT3 of Mike Rockenfeller in the two-hour and 40-minute contest.
A late-race full-course caution for the No. 70 Inception Racing McLaren 720S GT3 Evo, which suffered an apparent engine failure, set up a 22-minute shootout to the finish but didn’t see any major changes up front.

Rockenfeller took over second place in the closing hour after the No. 23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo of Ross Gunn was assessed a drive-through penalty for not adhering to the minimum refueling time.

Gunn had led the race outright during the middle stint before the Paul Miller BMW jumped Gunn in the final round of stops.
It marked the first GTD Pro victory for Paul Miller and back-to-back class wins for the team at VIR after Snow and Sellers took top class honors in GTD last year.
The drive-through for Gunn ultimately only cost them one position, having dropped to third overall.

Crucially, Gunn finished ahead of GTD Pro points leader Laurin Heinrich in the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R, which was forced to make an additional stop in the final hour after going off-sequence because of an black and orange flag for a tire operational requirement at the 35-minute mark.

It came on top of a drive-through penalty for Heinrich for spinning the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 of Jack Hawksworth.
The AO Porsche finished 10th overall and seventh in class, one position behind Hawksworth and co-driver Ben Barnicoat.

The No. 65 Multimatic Mustang GT3 of Dirk Mueller and Joey Hand, which also had a drive-through for not meeting the minimum refueling time, was able to rebound to finish fourth, with the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports McLaren 720S GT3 Evo completing the top-five after battling a radio issue during Marvin Kirchoffer’s middle stint.

Both of the Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs hit trouble, with power steering and suspension woes for the No. 3 car and a suspected starter motor problem for the No. 4 machine.

 

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Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports suffered an uncharacteristic tough day at Virginia International Raceway as mechanical gremlins impacted both of the team’s Corvette Z06 GT3.R entries during the Michelin GT Challenge at VIR.
The No. 4 Corvette of Tommy Milner and Nicky Catsburg finished eighth in GTD PRO, a spot ahead of teammates Alexander Sims and Antonio Garcia in the No. 3 Z06 GT3.R.

The result for AWA’s No. 13 Corvette Z06 GT3.R was a bright spot as Orey Fidani and Matt Bell finished seventh in GTD.
Adding to that was the No. 13 Corvette’s position as the highest-finishing car in IMSA’s Bob Akin Award standings for the second time this year.

After a run of trouble-free races during the summer, separate issues plagued the No. 3 and No. 4 GTD PRO entries. Catsburg lost time when the Corvette wouldn’t restart after a pit stop with an hour to go.
He and Milner did finish on the lead lap and were buoyed by the race’s only full-course caution with a little more than 30 minutes to go, but couldn’t advance up the order.

Garcia started second and ran third at the time of the No. 3 Corvette’s first pit stop at the 49-minute mark. Sims rejoined fifth and was getting up to speed before the car lost power on the backstretch. Following a couple of attempts to reset the power cycle, the team brought Sims back to the garage to replace the power steering pump.

Sims also was at the wheel when the No. 3 suffered a suspension issue with 45 minutes to go.
In GTD, Fidani drove the No. 13 Corvette for the first 47 minutes and gained a spot in class before handing off to Bell. The No. 13 went from 13th at the time of the stop to its final position in the final two hours, including a hectic fight through the field after the yellow with high track temperatures and high tire degradation.

With the result, Fidani grew his lead in the Akin Award championship with the highest points-scoring Bronze driver at the end of the season, earning an automatic entry to the following year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The Michelin GT Challenge at VIR is scheduled for 12:10 p.m. ET on Sunday, August 25. The race will air live on USA starting at noon ET with live-streaming on Peacock inside the United States and IMSA.com outside the U.S. IMSA Radio will air all on-track sessions beginning with Friday afternoon’s opening practice at IMSA.com with the race call also on XM 206 and SiriusXM Online 996.

CORVETTE RACING BY PRATT MILLER MOTORSPORTS POST-EVENT DRIVER QUOTES

ALEXANDER SIMS, NO. 3 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:

“Today is what it is. No one wants to have issues, but that was the reality today.
As has been common this year, we showed decent pace and were holding our own in third with Antonio. I think the pit cycle was going to be pretty favorable for us on strategy. As far as I understand it, we would have effectively been first in that middle stint once all the pit cycles were finished.

I felt pretty comfortable out in front of the Aston Martin, and we were holding our own. That’s when the car cut out on me, and the power steering failed. After a few laps, I understood why these are designed to have power steering. This isn’t a formula car in terms of the steering weight, where you could get through it.

But after four or five laps, I knew it wasn’t going to last. I just tried to give the guys enough time to at least preempt what we needed to do in the garage, but it was a big change and set us way back. That’s the way it goes, unfortunately. The suspension issue was pretty bizarre.
There was no contact on my side, and Antonio looked like he had a completely clean race. We need to understand the two issues, and try to react and come back stronger.”

TOMMY MILNER, NO. 4 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:

“A bit of gut punch today for the whole team. Having quite a few races with no issues, and then today with both cars having both problems, is going to make quite a few people on this team unhappy. We’ll go back to look at it, figure out what happened, and improve the car for the future. But yeah, a tough day for us.”

AWA POST-EVENT DRIVER QUOTES

MATT BELL, NO. 13 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:

“It was another great IMSA battle and a great IMSA race. We made all the right calls at the right times. Tire deg and tire management was a huge part of this race. We had to be smart and give up pace at certain times but also know when to push and know when to go for it. I got great information and great support from everyone on the pit stand, everyone from AWA and Corvette Racing really helped out.
This was as much as any of the other races, if not a more real team effort to come through the pack like that. It’s a big credit to everyone on this program. I just had to try and make it work.”

OREY FIDANI, NO. 13 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:

“It was quite a hot with the air conditioning off. It was a little tough for me at the start as I didn’t go on brand-new tires. I went on older tires and struggled with understeer. It seemed to get a little better as the fuel burned off, and I was able to get some pace. But it was tough. Matt did a great job to get us up the order at the end.”