Corvette Racing at Road America: Taylor Third in Qualifying

Inside second-row starting position could prove beneficial in push for season’s second win

ELKHART LAKE, Wisc. (Aug. 5, 2023) – Jordan Taylor put Corvette Racing on the inside of the second row in class Saturday for qualifying ahead of Sunday’s feature event for the IMSA SportsCar Weekend at Road America.

Taylor set a best lap of 2:03.143 (118.340 mph) in the No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R that he shares with Antonio Garcia in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s GT Daytona (GTD) PRO class. Critically, the result put Taylor and the No. 3 C8.R on the inside of the second row of the GTD field on a track that is much more of a one-lane surface following a track repave late last year.

Just as key is that the Corvette gained critical class points as it qualified ahead of the GTD PRO championship-leading Lexus. The Taylor/Garcia duo, Corvette Racing and Chevrolet entered Road America second in the Drivers, Manufacturers and Teams championship standings with four races left in the season.

A victory Sunday would be the ninth class at the circuit for Corvette Racing.

This is the first time for the Corvette program on the recently repaved Road America track. Gone is the cheese-grater of a surface that promoted high levels of tire wear and degradation with high levels of grip available around the circuit… provided cars stay on the racing line. As a result, track position – and qualifying toward the front, as a result – has a higher level of importance this year compared to past Road America races.

Key was cross-program tire analysis from Chevrolet’s IndyCar teams, which provided valuable input from their race in June at the circuit. That, combined with pre-event work at GM’s Driver in the Loop simulator, played a prominent role in the results so far this weekend.

Road America and the Corvette brand have a lengthy history dating back nearly 60 years. Chevrolet routinely used the track to test and validate the performance of early-generation Corvettes with that tradition continuing into the present day. Road America was the site of the first on-track running of the Corvette C8.R in 2018.

The IMSA SportsCar Weekend race at Road America is scheduled for 10:10 a.m. ET on Sunday, August 6. The race will air live on USA beginning at 11 a.m. ET and stream live on Peacock inside the United States and IMSA.com outside the U.S. IMSA Radio will air all on-track sessions beginning with Friday morning’s practice at IMSA.com with the race call also on XM 207 and SiriusXM Online 992.

JORDAN TAYLOR, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – QUALIFIED THIRD IN GTD PRO:

“We were quickest yesterday and made some gains in laptime from then, but everyone else made humongous jumps. We are where we thought we would be laptime-wise. It just wasn’t enough for pole. It’s kind of been the trend of the year where qualifying is a bit of struggle for us but we race better. Hopefully that plays out tomorrow. We’re closer in qualifying now than we have been the past few rounds, so hopefully that’s another good sign.

“It’ll be tricky to race. Off-line around here is very slippery. Track position is very important and being somewhat defensive when guys are making moves not to be put in a precarious position is going to be tricky. There will be a lot of mistakes tomorrow because of that.”

2023 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship – GTD PRO
(After seven of 11 events)

Driver Standings
1. Ben Barnicoat/Jack Hawksworth – 2,462
2. Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor – 2,311
3. Daniel Juncadella/Jules Gounon – 2,302
4. Klaus Bachler/Patrick Pilet – 2,281
5. Alex Riberas/Ross Gunn – 2,083

Team Standings
1. No. 14 Vasser Sullivan – 2,462
2. No. 3 Corvette Racing – 2,311
3. No. 79 WeatherTech Racing – 2,302
4. No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports – 2,281
5. No. 23 Heart of Racing Team – 2,083

Manufacturer Standings
1. Lexus – 2,462
2. Chevrolet – 2,311
3. Mercedes-AMG – 2,302
4. Porsche – 2,281
5. Aston Martin – 2,094

Source:
Corvette Racing at Chevrolet

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