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With the Chevy Corvette Z06 GT3.R’s first win in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship now in the rearview mirror, next up, naturally is trying to get its second.
The next round of the IMSA schedule and the Corvette Racing program’s 300th all-time start is a natural fit for both the back-to-back attempt and the Corvette brand as a whole.
Historic Road America has long been a playground for Corvette race and production cars for more than 60 years, evidenced by thousands of testing miles and eight IMSA victories for Corvette Racing cars dating back to 2002.
Three of the first-year Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs will be in action across two classes in Sunday’s IMSA SportsCar Weekend event at the 4.048-mile, 14-turn road course in rural Wisconsin.
In GTD PRO, Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports will look to make it two straight wins after a 1-2 finish at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park a little more than two weeks ago.
Antonio Garcia and Alexander Sims capped a stellar weekend for the team at the Chevrolet Grand Prix with a race win, class pole position and fastest race lap in the No. 3 Corvette.
They led teammates Tommy Milner who recently won both rounds of GT World Challenge America at VIR in a Corvette and Nicky Catsburg in the No. 4 Z06 GT3.R across the finish line for the program’s 71st 1-2 finish in IMSA the most for any team in the series.
As the Corvette Racing factory program, the Pratt Miller team has recorded eight victories at Road America over the years, the most recent coming with the Corvette C8.R in 2020. That also was the last time the team finished off the class podium at the circuit.
In GTD, AWA is hoping to rebound after an unfortunate early end to its home race at CTMP. Orey Fidani and Matt Bell will again team in the No. 13 Corvette for their first race around Road America in the Z06 GT3.R. The track has been good for the pairing lately, with consecutive LMP3 podiums the last two years, including a runner-up finish in 2022.
Despite being spun out and having to retire the previous race, Fidani continues to lead 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.
The IMSA SportsCar Weekend race at Road America is scheduled for 2:10 p.m. CT on Sunday, August 4. The race will air on CNBC from 6-9 p.m. 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 PRE-EVENT DRIVER QUOTES
ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:
“It’s always nice to come into a race having won the previous one. The entire team has worked very hard to get us into these positions, and it was nice to finally deliver the first IMSA win for the Z06 GT3.R. Getting a second this weekend at Road America will be very tough.
Still we know that there is more to winning races than outright speed. We need to keep taking chances and being clever with our strategy to put us toward the front. From there, we know that anything can happen, as we have seen with a few Corvette wins at Road America over the years.”
ALEXANDER SIMS, NO. 3 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:
“In terms of what the car can do, the Corvette is excellent at cornering and on the brakes, so with the heavy braking zones we should be good. Sections like the Carousel and the Kink should be quite exciting to drive. It’s a great track and fun to drive. It’s a lovely set of corners and a cool track to race one with a lot of places to overtake. Furthermore, it should be a good weekend.
“These to me are the type of tracks that I really enjoy. It rewards seat-of-the-pants, high-risk and high-reward driving. With multi-class racing, it’s an added craziness where you have to pass in corners where ordinarily you’d never think of it. Everyone on track has to respect each other and make it work. It’s what makes me get up in the morning and do what we do.”
TOMMY MILNER, NO. 4 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:
“It’s really nice to do so much more racing this year. Going from the same platform across two different series, but being back in IMSA full-time and now adding GT World Challenge, this stretch of the year is always busy. It feels like one weekend leads right into the next one.
You get very familiar with the car and really get a chance to get deep down into the details and manipulate the car in such a way with setup to get it exactly to where you want it to feel. Doing the two series gives you a chance to in some ways fine-tune your driving even more.
From my perspective, it’s all good. It’s busy, for sure, but this is something I’ve wanted to do for the last two or three years – doing more racing. Getting that opportunity, I’m excited about this stretch to do a lot of racing toward the end of the season. I feel like both programs are hitting their stride a little bit
. We’re knocking on the doorstep with Pratt Miller of getting a win. Podiums are great, but the team is pushing really hard for wins. So I feel like we’re close here. Obviously, we’ve already had some great success with DXDT Racing at COTA, and we definitely want to keep carrying that momentum forward.”
NICKY CATSBURG, NO. 4 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:
“This part of the calendar that is the most challenging one but also the one I have looked forward to most. That’s because it is all of these cool tracks that I haven’t been to before yet, and now I get to experience them.
The first was Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, and that went quite well from the start. It was really enjoyable to push the limits on a new track from the get-go. We tested a few months ago at Road America, and that for sure helps.
It’s very challenging and nice to push your own boundaries and be useful to the team and not a liability or someone that is holding back the team. It’s a nice challenge, and I am enjoying it so far.
“Road America is one of those places like CTMP. It’s high-commitment with a lot of risk versus reward. If you go off, you’re going to have a big issue. When you haven’t been somewhere, and you have to work yourself up to the limit, you need some time and we don’t have that time. So you need to push your own limits a lot to get there are quickly as possible. The Kink, the Carousel and those kinds of corners aren’t scary but tricky and places where you need to be brave.”
AWA PRE-EVENT DRIVER QUOTES
MATT BELL, NO. 13 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:
“Another iconic track on the IMSA calendar, I love going back to Road America. I had my first podium with Orey and AWA there back in 2022, and we managed to do it again last year, so we want to keep that pattern going.
The whole team is highly motivated for this one, we put ourselves in a great position for an awesome result at CTMP before being taken out, and we all want to finish that job this weekend!”
OREY FIDANI, NO. 13 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:
“As a driver, Road America is a stop on the calendar that we all look forward to every year. It’s fast, it’s intense, and it requires full commitment and concentration from start to finish.
This is a track that we’re very familiar with. We know we can do well here again, and I’m looking forward to the challenge.
It’s unforgiving by nature, but that’s exciting because it means we should have good opportunities that we can capitalize on.”
The next round of the IMSA schedule and the Corvette Racing program’s 300th all-time start is a natural fit for both the back-to-back attempt and the Corvette brand as a whole.
Historic Road America has long been a playground for Corvette race and production cars for more than 60 years, evidenced by thousands of testing miles and eight IMSA victories for Corvette Racing cars dating back to 2002.
Three of the first-year Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs will be in action across two classes in Sunday’s IMSA SportsCar Weekend event at the 4.048-mile, 14-turn road course in rural Wisconsin.
In GTD PRO, Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports will look to make it two straight wins after a 1-2 finish at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park a little more than two weeks ago.
Antonio Garcia and Alexander Sims capped a stellar weekend for the team at the Chevrolet Grand Prix with a race win, class pole position and fastest race lap in the No. 3 Corvette.
They led teammates Tommy Milner who recently won both rounds of GT World Challenge America at VIR in a Corvette and Nicky Catsburg in the No. 4 Z06 GT3.R across the finish line for the program’s 71st 1-2 finish in IMSA the most for any team in the series.
As the Corvette Racing factory program, the Pratt Miller team has recorded eight victories at Road America over the years, the most recent coming with the Corvette C8.R in 2020. That also was the last time the team finished off the class podium at the circuit.
In GTD, AWA is hoping to rebound after an unfortunate early end to its home race at CTMP. Orey Fidani and Matt Bell will again team in the No. 13 Corvette for their first race around Road America in the Z06 GT3.R. The track has been good for the pairing lately, with consecutive LMP3 podiums the last two years, including a runner-up finish in 2022.
Despite being spun out and having to retire the previous race, Fidani continues to lead 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.
The IMSA SportsCar Weekend race at Road America is scheduled for 2:10 p.m. CT on Sunday, August 4. The race will air on CNBC from 6-9 p.m. 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 PRE-EVENT DRIVER QUOTES
ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:
“It’s always nice to come into a race having won the previous one. The entire team has worked very hard to get us into these positions, and it was nice to finally deliver the first IMSA win for the Z06 GT3.R. Getting a second this weekend at Road America will be very tough.
Still we know that there is more to winning races than outright speed. We need to keep taking chances and being clever with our strategy to put us toward the front. From there, we know that anything can happen, as we have seen with a few Corvette wins at Road America over the years.”
ALEXANDER SIMS, NO. 3 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:
“In terms of what the car can do, the Corvette is excellent at cornering and on the brakes, so with the heavy braking zones we should be good. Sections like the Carousel and the Kink should be quite exciting to drive. It’s a great track and fun to drive. It’s a lovely set of corners and a cool track to race one with a lot of places to overtake. Furthermore, it should be a good weekend.
“These to me are the type of tracks that I really enjoy. It rewards seat-of-the-pants, high-risk and high-reward driving. With multi-class racing, it’s an added craziness where you have to pass in corners where ordinarily you’d never think of it. Everyone on track has to respect each other and make it work. It’s what makes me get up in the morning and do what we do.”
TOMMY MILNER, NO. 4 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:
“It’s really nice to do so much more racing this year. Going from the same platform across two different series, but being back in IMSA full-time and now adding GT World Challenge, this stretch of the year is always busy. It feels like one weekend leads right into the next one.
You get very familiar with the car and really get a chance to get deep down into the details and manipulate the car in such a way with setup to get it exactly to where you want it to feel. Doing the two series gives you a chance to in some ways fine-tune your driving even more.
From my perspective, it’s all good. It’s busy, for sure, but this is something I’ve wanted to do for the last two or three years – doing more racing. Getting that opportunity, I’m excited about this stretch to do a lot of racing toward the end of the season. I feel like both programs are hitting their stride a little bit
. We’re knocking on the doorstep with Pratt Miller of getting a win. Podiums are great, but the team is pushing really hard for wins. So I feel like we’re close here. Obviously, we’ve already had some great success with DXDT Racing at COTA, and we definitely want to keep carrying that momentum forward.”
NICKY CATSBURG, NO. 4 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:
“This part of the calendar that is the most challenging one but also the one I have looked forward to most. That’s because it is all of these cool tracks that I haven’t been to before yet, and now I get to experience them.
The first was Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, and that went quite well from the start. It was really enjoyable to push the limits on a new track from the get-go. We tested a few months ago at Road America, and that for sure helps.
It’s very challenging and nice to push your own boundaries and be useful to the team and not a liability or someone that is holding back the team. It’s a nice challenge, and I am enjoying it so far.
“Road America is one of those places like CTMP. It’s high-commitment with a lot of risk versus reward. If you go off, you’re going to have a big issue. When you haven’t been somewhere, and you have to work yourself up to the limit, you need some time and we don’t have that time. So you need to push your own limits a lot to get there are quickly as possible. The Kink, the Carousel and those kinds of corners aren’t scary but tricky and places where you need to be brave.”
AWA PRE-EVENT DRIVER QUOTES
MATT BELL, NO. 13 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:
“Another iconic track on the IMSA calendar, I love going back to Road America. I had my first podium with Orey and AWA there back in 2022, and we managed to do it again last year, so we want to keep that pattern going.
The whole team is highly motivated for this one, we put ourselves in a great position for an awesome result at CTMP before being taken out, and we all want to finish that job this weekend!”
OREY FIDANI, NO. 13 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:
“As a driver, Road America is a stop on the calendar that we all look forward to every year. It’s fast, it’s intense, and it requires full commitment and concentration from start to finish.
This is a track that we’re very familiar with. We know we can do well here again, and I’m looking forward to the challenge.
It’s unforgiving by nature, but that’s exciting because it means we should have good opportunities that we can capitalize on.”
