ALTON, Va. (Aug. 26, 2023) – Corvette Racing and driver Antonio Garcia weathered intense heat Saturday to qualify on the second row for Sunday’s Michelin GT Challenge at Virginia International Raceway – the second of two GT-only races this season for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
Garcia posted a best lap of 1:45.133 (111.972 mph) in the No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R to qualify third. It was a close and intense 15 minutes with the top seven cars within 0.667 seconds – almost a mirror of the final practice where the five fastest cars had just 0.172 seconds between them… with Garcia part of that group.
Saturday was another scorcher of a day at VIR with air temperatures approaching 100 degrees by the start of qualifying and high humidity. Sunday’s peak ambient temperature is expected to be about 10 degrees lower than Saturday.
Corvette Racing is hoping to improve on last year’s runner-up finish and record its seventh class victory at the highly challenging 3.4-mile, 17-turn circuit. Garcia and teammate Jordan Taylor were overall winners in 2020 and finished second the last two years.
Garcia and Taylor won earlier this year at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in GT Daytona (GTD) PRO, their lone win so far this season. They’ve been on the class podium in four other races. Returning to Victory Circle also would keep championship hopes alive for the No. 3 Corvette drivers, their team and Chevrolet. The group is second in points and badly in need of victories in any of the remaining three rounds to challenge for the GTD PRO Drivers, Teams and Manufacturers titles.
The Michelin GT Challenge at VIR is scheduled for 2:10 p.m. ET on Sunday, August 27. The race will air live on USA beginning at 2 p.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.
ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – QUALIFIED THIRD:
“These were tricky conditions. The track is warm, and it was difficult to gauge the lap and the grip together with the setup we decided to go with in qualifying. We probably didn’t do the correct thing. The car wasn’t doing as I was expecting, so that led to a few mistakes. Instead of leaving the car the way it was to try and do something different, we ended up losing time to how it felt in FP2. Itcs only qualifying but we should be there for the race. We are still close.”
2023 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship – GTD PRO
(After eight of 11 events)
Driver Standings
1. Ben Barnicoat/Jack Hawksworth – 2,810
2. Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor – 2,641
3. Daniel Juncadella/Jules Gounon – 2,594
4. Klaus Bachler/Patrick Pilet – 2,587
5. Alex Riberas/Ross Gunn – 2,468
Team Standings
1. No. 14 Vasser Sullivan – 2,810
2. No. 3 Corvette Racing – 2,641
3. No. 79 WeatherTech Racing – 2,594
4. No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports – 2,587
5. No. 23 Heart of Racing Team – 2,468
Manufacturer Standings
1. Lexus – 2,810
2. Chevrolet – 2,641
3. Mercedes-AMG – 2,594
4. Porsche – 2,587
5. Aston Martin – 2,479
Source:
Corvette Racing at Chevrolet
Related:
Corvette Racing at VIR: A GT Challenge
[VIDEO] Corvette Racing’s Costly Refueling Penalty at Road America Explained
Corvette Racing at Road America: Back on the Podium
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Corvette won VIR…. Good job Gentlemen….
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