DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Jan. 26, 2020) – Corvette Racing’s new Chevrolet Corvette C8.R remained in the thick of the fight for Rolex 24 At Daytona honors as the opening round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship entered its second half.
Nicky Catsburg ran fourth in the No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Corvette C8.R as the 12th hour came and went at Daytona International Speedway. Catsburg was in his second run of the race in the Corvette, following Antonio Garcia – who led the class during his stint – and Jordan Taylor – who held the fastest race lap for the GT Le Mans (GTLM) category.
Despite its first race and a completely new Corvette mid-engine platform, Corvette Racing was well in position to challenge for its fourth Rolex 24 victory.
The No. 4 Corvette ran among the leaders in the opening 10 hours before returning to the garage with an oil leak. Corvette Racing team members continued to work on sorting the yet-to-be-diagnosed issue at the halfway point with the goal of returning to the race.
One of the great things about #Rolex24 is the length of darkness in the race. Gives a chance to hoof it down to the second Horseshoe and watch @AntonioGarcia_3 chase down the 911 for P3 #Corvette #C8R @TeamChevy @IMSA @DISupdates pic.twitter.com/JsKTYXmlkS
— Corvette Racing (@CorvetteRacing) January 26, 2020
ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R:
“The second run wasn’t bad. Out of the three stints I did, the first one wasn’t really good. Nicky had the contact one lap before he came in. Things felt a little bit funny and strange right away when I got in, so maybe I took it a little too easy and that didn’t help the tire performance. Once you lose confidence and you don’t know if the car is perfectly straight… that went against me a little bit. But the two stints after that were decent. So even though we dropped down at first, we were able to get back up. The pace looks to be good. We could race everyone but the leader. There’s still a long way, and it will be interesting.”
JORDAN TAYLOR, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R:
“I feel like we’re a little more in the mix now. At the beginning it felt like we were running our own program and settling in. Now we’re in the battle, which is good. We are seeing where are strong and where we can make some changes to be stronger. There’s still a long way to go; you can see other guys pushing and starting to make mistakes. As long as we stay smart and make it back through sunrise and the last couple of hours, we can be there and be strong.
“We were pretty strong when the sun was out. At night it’s tricky to keep the tire performance in the window. We’re making some small changes to compensate for that. But when the sun comes up we’ll know what to expect and what kind of car we have. We’ll be ready to fight.”
Source:
CorvetteRacing.com
Related:
[VIDEO] Corvette Racing’s Doug Fehan at the 2020 Rolex 24 Corvette Corral
Corvette Racing at Daytona: Second-Row Start for Corvette C8.R Debut
Corvette Racing at Daytona: Corvette C8.R Set for Spotlight
-
