IMSA Dogfight on Detroit Streets, June 1st

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Chevy & Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports are in their own backyard this week for the Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic, the first appearance in the Motor City for the program since 2021.

The pair of yellow Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs are part of an 11-car field in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s GTD PRO class. Tommy Milner and Nicky Catsburg will team in the No. 4 Corvette and are coming off the first podium finish for the Z06 GT3.R in the last GTD PRO race at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.

Of note, Milner also was part of the Corvette’s first victory two weeks ago at Circuit of the Americas for DXDT Racing in GT World Challenge America.
Not to be outdone, Catsburg drove the Z06 GT3.R to its first IMSA pole at Laguna Seca.

In the No. 3 Corvette, Antonio Garcia and Alexander Sims sit fifth in GTD PRO points and just ahead of their teammates.
The pair was in prime position to contend at Laguna Seca before an ill-fated safety car that came out on Garcia’s in-lap barely an hour into the race.

Milner and Garcia are the only Corvette drivers who have contested Detroit, albeit on the Belle Isle circuit. They were part of a non-points GT Le Mans race, in which the Corvette Racing factory team brought two Corvette C8.Rs to the island. Before that, and owing to the closeness of the Detroit race and the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Corvette team’s two other appearances on Belle Isle came in 2007 and 2008 as part of the GT1 class.

The downtown Detroit circuit, which runs around the Renaissance Center and the global headquarters of General Motors, is the shortest on the calendar at nine turns and 1.654 miles around.
Neither GTD PRO nor the GTP categories raced at Detroit last year (it was the same weekend as the Le Mans Test Day), so very few drivers in the field have any experience at the circuit.

To help the team prepare, 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 should allow the Corvette team to roll right into its setup program to be in the best possible position for Friday’s qualifying and Saturday’s race.

The Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic is scheduled for 3:10 p.m. ET on Saturday, June 1.
The race will air live on the USA Network, with full streaming coverage also on Peacock. IMSA Radio will air all on-track sessions at IMSA.com along XM 206, SiriusXM Online 996.

CORVETTE RACING BY PRATT MILLER MOTORSPORTS PRE-EVENT DRIVER QUOTES

ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:

“We want to do well in Detroit. For sure, the target is to win. We are running around the RenCen, so obviously it will be very important if we can win there.
So I’m looking forward to It’s a new track for me and most of the other drivers. I had a chance to do a few laps in the simulator, and it looks very stressful.

But I’m sure it will bring a lot of action and tight racing. I don’t know the weather is going to be, but it will be good to our own street race because I did miss racing at Long Beach this year. So I am looking forward to getting back to a street track.”

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

“We did an initial run on the simulator some time ago just to get a read on it and check to see if the track model was working and behaving itself.
The Corvette felt reasonably sensible around there. It’s definitely a very bumpy circuit, as you would expect with a street track.

A bit of undulation, a couple of rises and slightly blind corners. It’s a busy little track and not a huge amount of speed anywhere outside the long straight. Overtaking will be pretty tough. It’s going to be pretty crazy with the GTPs. I’ve not been to Detroit before and didn’t do the previous Detroit races.
It will be a cool thing for all of us. It will be nice to be there and to have a completely new experiences. Some of those are few and far between for me, so I’m looking forward to it.”

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

“I’ve driven in it in person in a rental car and some sim work also. It’s exciting to be in the downtown part of Detroit. Racing in the shadow of the RenCen is very cool. It’s going to be a challenging racetrack, for sure. It’s short but, like any street track, there are a lot of places where you can get yourself in trouble.
Furthermore, it’ll be a lot to learn as it’s a basically new track for everybody.

As with any street tracks we’ve done in the past, it’s great to be in the city and on top of everything that is happening around the race.
Detroit does some unique things with free viewing areas for fans, which is something you don’t see anywhere in the world. I’m excited to go back to Detroit.”

NICKY CATSBURG, NO. 4 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:

“I raced at Belle Isle in a Lamborghini in World Challenge many years ago. It was a cool track then. This is a home race for the team, so it makes it extra cool to go to. Some families of the crew will be out, and we’ll have some things to do around the race as well. The added pressure of it being a home race will for sure make it a very tough event.

In IMSA, the practice times are always quite limited. On a street course, that makes it extra hard. It’s hard to explore the limits there.
On other tracks, you can go over the limit and dial it back a little bit, and then you’ve found your speed quickly. Hopefully it will be a weekend of more positive results for the Corvette.

Green flag is Saturday, June 1 from 3:10p to 4:50p ET TV: USA Network Stream: Peacock

 

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The GTD PRO entry list for the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear, the fifth round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, grows by two from its normal sprint race size with the addition of two GTD teams joining the fray. The extras bring the total entry for the June 1 GTP and GTD Pro-only contest to 21.

Vasser Sullivan Racing is bringing both its Lexus RC F GT3s to Detroit, and classing the normal GTD pairing of Parker Thompson and Frankie Montecalvo as a PRO entry. Vasser Sullivan also ran two cars at Long Beach in GTD, rearranging its driver lineup to do so, and Thompson and Barnicoat took the victory there.

Conquest Racing is usually competing in GTD with Manny Franco and Albert Costa Balboa. For Detroit, it’s putting Ferrari ace Daniel Serra in Franco’s place in the No. 35 Ferrari 296 GT3 to run GTD PRO, marking one of the few, if not only, appearances of a Ferrari in GTD PRO in a sprint race this season.

With no conflict with the World Endurance Championship for the Detroit round, Heart of Racing will be back it its regular GTD PRO lineup of Ross Gunn and Alex Riberas in the NO. 23 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo.

The rest of the GTD PRO field is as usual as they head into their only race without GTD traffic to deal with. Seb Priaulx and Laurin Heinrich lead the GTD PRO points heading into Detroit, courtesy of a victory in the AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
The AO Racing pair has 981 points to 925 for Barnicoat and Jack Hawksworth as the defending champions look for their second victory of the season. The Paul Miller Racing duo of Madison Snow and Bryan Sellers are third at 888.

GTP will have its usual complement of 10 cars, two cars each for the factory teams for Acura, BMW, Cadillac and Porsche, plus the two privateer Porsche 963s from JDC-Miller MotorSports and Proton Competition. Proton retains its Laguna Seca lineup of Bent Viscaal alongside Gianmaria Bruni.

Felipe Nasr and Dane Cameron lead the GTP standings for Porsche Penske Motorsports with 1,357 points coming into Detroit, followed by Whelen Cadillac Racing’s Pipo Derani and Jack Aitken with 1,307 and Renger van der Zande and Sebastien Bourdais at 1,269 for Cadillac Racing. Four different GTP teams have won the four races so far this season; GTD PRO has had three different winners in the three races the class has been featured.

The 1.654-mil, nine-turn temporary street circuit in downtown Detroit will be new for all the IMSA teams, although the NTT IndyCar Series with which the WeatherTech Championship shares the bill christened it last year, supported by the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge GS class.
The last time the WeatherTech Championship raced in Detroit, it was on the Belle Isle circuit in 2022. Bourdais and van der Zande won that race for Cadillac in DPi, and Barnicoat and Kyle Kirkwood won GTD for Vasser Sullivan and Lexus.

Bourdais and van der Zande won at Long Beach in April, so perhaps a bit of street-circuit prowess will carry over for Detroit; but Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti’s Jordan Taylor has more victories in Detroit than any other driver. There is one driver in the GTD PRO field who has experience on this circuit, Ford Multimatic Motorsports’ Joey Hand, who ran the Michelin Pilot Challenge race last year.

Two practice sessions will be followed by qualifying on Friday, May 31.
The 1h40m race is scheduled for a green flag on Saturday, June 1 at 3:10pm ET. Qualifying coverage will be on Peacock and IMSA.tv at 4:35pm ET on Friday, and the race will be broadcast live on USA Network beginning at 3pm ET, as well as Peacock.
IMSA radio (IMSA.com and RadioLeMans.com) will feature commentary during each session, qualifying and race.

 

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In a year of change for Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports, a home race marks a welcome return to the team’s calendar.
The quirks of IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship schedules over the years produce certain locations where only selected series classes run, rather than all of them.

The Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic, in its former home on Belle Isle Park and now ahead of its new downtown venue encircling the Renaissance Center, has been one of the most pronounced of those quirks.

Corvette Racing, in its full factory GT Le Mans class program, last competed at Detroit on Belle Isle in 2021, but even that was abnormal as GTLM ran that event as a non-points race. Now operating as a factory-supported outfit that anchors the iconic make’s new customer racing program worldwide, Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports has a pair of the familiar racing yellow ‘Vettes entered this week in the GT Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) class as the WeatherTech Championship visits the downtown circuit for the first time.

It’s been since 2008, two iterations of the circuit ago, when Corvette Racing ran for points against the backdrop of its home city on Belle Isle. General Motors has still been well represented with other makes and models, from Cadillac and Chevrolet prototypes to other Chevrolet GT cars, notably the Camaro, in multiple championships.

Not that Corvette Racing doesn’t know how to win in Detroit. Far from it. In fact, the team is a perfect two-for-two in points-paying races and part of nine Chevrolet wins at Detroit in IMSA competition, including the Corvette Daytona Prototypes that won five races in a row from 2012-2016. Jan Magnussen and Johnny O’Connell (2007) and Oliver Gavin and Olivier Beretta (2008) captured consecutive GT1 class wins for Corvette Racing in the old Corvette C6.R.

Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller engineers leaned on the learnings of Chevrolet’s IndyCar program last year at the new Detroit circuit to establish a baseline for a handful of simulator sessions for the IMSA drivers. That should allow the team to roll into its on-track program in the best possible position for Friday’s qualifying and Saturday’s race on the tight 1.654-mile, nine-turn downtown circuit.

“I’ve driven it in person in a rental car and some sim work also,” Milner said. “It’s exciting to be in the downtown part of Detroit. Racing in the shadow of the Ren Cen is very cool.”

Milner shares the No. 4 Corvette with Nicky Catsburg, who comes in with momentum as well. He’s fresh off delivering the first IMSA pole for the Z06 GT3.R which came at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca earlier this month, where he and Milner

Alexander Sims shares the No. 3 Corvette with Antonio Garcia. Sims, back in GT competition this year after winning the Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) championship with Pipo Derani in the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-Series.R last year, is enjoying a homecoming of his own, having been a Corvette Racing endurance driver in 2021 and ’22.

“Coming back to the GTD field, working with Pratt Miller and driving the Corvette, the phrase ‘a comfy pair of slippers’ comes to mind but I don’t think that’s quite correct!” Sims said. “But it felt really nice and familiar straight away when I drove the car back in November.

“So far, my personal performances have been reasonable again, and it just feels like I’m back in the flow of things, where I’m comfortable doing my job and working with great people in the team with Pratt Miller and all the drivers. We get along well together, and I’m really enjoying it.”
What would it mean for either pairing to get the first IMSA win for the Z06 GT3.R in Detroit, in the shadows of GM’s global headquarters? Sims is keen to block out the pressure.

“It totally is a big thing, but our job is to ignore that,” he said. “When we get down to doing our work at the track, you can’t shoulder that extra responsibility and have that running through your mind when you’re on track.”
Catsburg revealed a more expected answer about winning the home race.
“It would be great. It would be the perfect location to do so,” he said. “Many of our team members will invite family also, so it would be a great confirmation of the great work they have done in the last months.”

Garcia, the longest tenured driver with Corvette Racing, backed up that assessment.
“We want to do well in Detroit. For sure, the target is to win,” he said. We are running around the Ren Cen, so obviously it will be very important if we can win there.
“It’s a new track for me and most of the other drivers. I had a chance to do a few laps in the simulator, and it looks very stressful, but I’m sure it will bring a lot of action and tight racing.”

The Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic is a 100-minute sprint race with coverage starting at 3 p.m. ET Saturday on the USA Network and Peacock

 

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It’s been a while since a classic Ford vs. Chevy battle on the streets of Motown. Sure, such rivalries may be played out daily on Woodward Ave., but in a proper race, it’s been since the Ford GTs and Chevrolet Corvettes in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTLM category faced off on Belle Isle. Before that it was Mustang vs. Camaro in Trans Am, and then back to the CART IndyCar days, with Ilmor Chevrolet and Ford Cosworth power plants in the back of Reynards and Lolas fighting for Detroit glory.

With both companies headquartered in metropolitan Detroit, the rivalry takes center stage in this year when each have introduced new GT3 cars, the Mustang GT3 and the Corvette Z06 GT3.R. It’s going to be company pride on the line with many employees of both on hand to witness the battle.

The Ford Multimatic Motorsports drivers, along with Mustang GT3 Rs, toured several Ford campuses on Wednesday. And Dirk Mueller was very much looking forward to seeing the Ford GT with which he, Joey Hand and Sebastien Bourdais won the 24 Hours of Le Mans at The Henry Ford museum before getting down to business.
“The pressure’s right there just because we want to be winning and be on pole and winning races coming to Detroit,” Mueller said. “Honestly, I just got goosebumps thinking about it. I get to be together with everybody. We are heading to the Henry Ford Museum. And I are going to see my winning Le Mans car, which is sitting there.
We have a full day planned, being with the Ford family, being in the plant. So it's a huge day coming up, which I’m already really looking forward to seeing the employees, and you have a little interaction there. And then you want to extra-perform.”

“You go into Detroit, and it’s a big deal for everybody,” added Hand. “I know we have a lot of Ford people there and Ford family, I’m sure.”

The pressure is on the Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports drivers as well. First, the weekend is called the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix Presented by Lear. Second, the 1.654-mile, nine-turn street circuit goes around the Renaissance Center, the site of General Motors’ headquarters.

Plus, car builder Pratt Miller is nearby. Like the Mustang GT3, the Corvette Z06 GT3.R has yet to notch its first win in IMSA competition, although it has scored victories in Fanatec GT World Challenge America with DXDT.
Nicky Catsburg and Tommy Milner scored the Corvette’s first podium at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in the last outing.

“Obviously, we want to do well there, for sure,” said Antonio Garcia, driver of the No. 3 Z06 GT3.R with Alexander Sims.
“The target is to win there. We are running around the RenCen, so for us, it’s very, very important if we can win around there.”

The Corvette squad has been leaning on its Chevrolet IndyCar Series brethren, who have an already run a race on the new downtown street circuit, although it’s slightly revised for this year.
The data has gone into the driver-in-the-loop simulator, so they might have an edge.
In the Ford camp, though, Hand ran the Michelin Pilot Challenge race on the circuit last year in a Mustang GT4, so he has first-hand knowledge.
Either way, both teams are eager to get their first wins with the new cars, and Detroit would be the ideal place to do it.

“I think it would be great,” said Catsburg.
“Honestly, that would be the perfect location to do so. I believe that many of our team members will invite family also, so it would be a great confirmation of the hard work that they’ve done over the last month and obviously a bit of a change for all of us.”

The 100-minute race, the fifth round of the WeatherTech Championship, is scheduled for a green flag at 3:10pm ET on Saturday.

 

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First practice results

2nd practice 11:30 AM ET
Qualify at 4:40 PM ET today

Alexander Sims set the quickest time in the GTD Pro ranks, taking the No. 3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports to a best time of 1:10.509.

It was 0.337 seconds quicker than Joey Hand in the No. 65 Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang GT3, qho ended up second.

Tommy Milner put the No. 4 Corvette in third, ahead of Albert Costa Balboa in the No. 35 Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 and class point's leader Seb Priaulx, who completed the top-five in class in the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R.

The 90-minute session was interrupted with a single red flag for a dislodged manhole cover that halted action for 15 minutes in the early running.

 

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Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports swept the GTD Pro ranks, led by the No. 4 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Tommy Milner.
Milner’s 1:09.654 lap time was 0.167 seconds quicker than teammate Antonio Garcia in the No. 3 Corvette.

The No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R of Seb Priaulx was third in class.
The two-hour session saw four red flags, including two involving GTD Pro machinery.

The No. 64 Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang GT3 of Harry Tincknell and No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports McLaren 720S GT3s were stationary in the Turn 1 runoff to bring out separate reds.

Additional stoppages were for a dislodged advertising banner and debris, respectively.

Both the No. 6 Penske and No. 85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Porsches were held for ten minutes at the start of the session due to exceeding the time permitted on carry-over tires from the Rolex 24 at Daytona.

GTP teams were permitted to utilized up to one set of extra soft compound Michelin tires from the season-opener but only within the first 60 minutes of the session.

 

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How qualify went and how GTD Pro will line up for tomorrow's race

 

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Antonio Garcia, who claimed pole in GTD Pro, said he feels more comfortable having Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports teammate Tommy Milner alongside him on the front row, owing to the extreme challenge of passing on the downtown Detroit street circuit.

Garcia said: “In a place like this where it’s almost impossible to pass, it’s excellent to have track position. Maybe a ton of people roll the dice and the whole thing changes. We see these where the fastest car doesn’t always win. If everything falls as it should, it’ll be great to have a Corvette 1-2 around the RenCen.”

Reigning Nürburgring 24 overall winner Nicky Catsburg, who is in Detroit this weekend for his full-season GTD Pro commitments with Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports, admitted that he has “big-time FOMO” this weekend.

The Dutch driver was part of Frikadelli Racing’s historic victory in a Ferrari 296 GT3 last year.

The future of Anthony Mantella’s Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R remains “TBD” according to Corvette GT3 program manager Christie Bagne, who said: “It’s unfortunate that Mantella has parted ways with Corvette and AWA.” The car was listed for sale earlier this year after Mantella withdrew from WeatherTech Championship competition after only two races.

They understand that AWA has kept on the majority of its crew despite being forced to downsize to a single-car GTD effort for the time being, with the hope of returning to a two-car operation at some stage.

After a delay for a wall repair following Jack Harvey’s shunt in IndyCar practice, IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship qualifying got underway, with the 11 GTD Pro cars taking to the track en masse for their 15-minute session.

Daniel Serra’s fourth lap in the Ferrari 296 was a 1m10.741s, withstanding the fifth-lap efforts of Corvette drivers Tommy Milner and Antonio Garcia.

Their sixth laps were a different story.

Milner set a benchmark of 1min09.949s, just 0.019s ahead of Garcia, yet somehow AO Racing’s Seb Priaulx managed to split them with the Porsche 911 GT3 R.

Priaulx then bested himself to go top, but only for a second, because both Corvettes moved ahead, Garcia producing a 1m09.458s, then 1m09.227s and finally a 1m09.092s on his 13th lap. That left Milner 0.336s adrift but still in second, surviving a scary near-miss with a wall.

Jack Hawksworth scraped walls on his way to third in the Lexus RC F, but he was still 0.5s away from Garcia’s remarkable run.
Still, he pushed Priaulx down to fourth.

Serra was mere hundredths ahead of Ross Gunn’s Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage, while Harry Tincknell and Joey Hand were seventh and ninth in the Ford Mustangs, split by Oliver Jarvis’s McLaren 720S.

 

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Garcia puts No. 3 Z06 GT3.R on class pole with Milner second in shadow of GM RenCen

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 the 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, excellent.
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 racetracks 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.”

 

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About time GM got new drivers, they stink
Start 1-2 and end up looking like fools :-(

Laurin Heinrich and Seb Priaulx came out on top in the production-based ranks, benefitting from contact between the two class-leading GTD Pro cars.

Heinrich took the No. 77 Porsche 911 GT3 R to a XX-second win over Ben Barnicoat’s damaged No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3,
which got into the then-leading No. 4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Nicky Catsburg
No penalty was called by IMSA race control for the incident, which dropped the No. 4 Corvette to a ninth place finish.

A late-race off for Marvin Kirchhofer gave the No. 23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo of Alex Riberas and Ross Gunn the final podium position in third.

The class pole-sitting No. 3 Corvette of Antonio Garcia dove into the pits on the opening lap with an alternator failure, costing the car some 15 laps

 

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