Corvette Racing at Indianapolis: Back at the Brickyard

First Indy race for program since 2014 with major GTD PRO title implications

DETROIT (Sept. 12, 2023) – Corvette Racing and Indianapolis Motor Speedway. They are two of the most iconic names in motorsports and finally come together after nearly a decade apart when the team returns this weekend with the rest of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

Sunday’s TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks is the next-to-last IMSA race for the season and a critical event for Corvette Racing’s championship hopes. The No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R – in the hands of drivers Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor – enters off a victory in the most recent round at Virginia International Raceway.

It kept the Corvette team, its drivers and Chevrolet very much in the GT Daytona (GTD) PRO title hunt with Indy and Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta’s Petit Le Mans still to go. The gap to the championship-leading Lexus in the Drivers, Manufacturers and Teams standings is 144 points with 770 possible points available in the final two races.

The 2.439-mile, 14-turn road course inside the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway is the only track on the current IMSA calendar where Corvette Racing hasn’t recorded a victory. That should not be too much of a surprise considering that the team only competed at the Indy Road Course in 2014 – the first season of the Corvette C7.R.

Corvette Racing finished fourth and fifth in the GT Le Mans (GTLM) class that year. Garcia was part of that effort, and both he and Taylor have multiple starts in GT and prototype machinery at Indianapolis, although neither have been on the podium yet. Given the championship scenario, there’s no better time to fix that than Sunday.

Although the team hasn’t tested at Indianapolis, valuable information is available to Corvette Racing from Chevrolet’s NASCAR and IndyCar programs – both of which competed on the Indy Road Course earlier this year. Correlating data on track conditions and features as well as tire performance will be a focal point for the Corvette engineering team in order to arrive with an ideal baseline for the weekend’s two practice sessions ahead of Saturday qualifying.

Chevrolet has a sterling record at the Brickyard in stock car, open-wheel and sports car competition. The manufacturer’s NASCAR Sprint Cup and Xfinity teams have won 23 times in 42 races at Indianapolis dating back to the first Brickyard 400 in 1994. In IndyCar competition, Chevrolet teams have won 12 times at the Indy 500 with nine additional wins on the IMS Road Course.

In IMSA competition, Action Express Racing won the last time the series raced at Indy in a Corvette Daytona Prototype. A Chevrolet Camaro also won at IMS in the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge in 2012 and 2014.

The TireRack.com Battle of the Bricks is scheduled for 1:10 p.m. ET on Sunday, Sept.17. The race will air live on NBC beginning at 1 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’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:

“It will be good to go back to a historic place like Indianapolis. We just need to carry on doing what we are doing. I think we’ve shown that we know how to win over the last few races. Keeping the momentum is key. We haven’t tested at Indianapolis, but Corvette Racing is good enough to overcome and deal with that. Let’s keep everything running the same way and putting pressure on everyone. If we do our thing, people will focus on us and that’s what we need. If they are focusing on us, then maybe they will make mistakes and we can capitalize. That’s the strength of a team and reputation like Corvette Racing.”

JORDAN TAYLOR, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R:

“I’ve driven a Camaro at Indianapolis in 2012 so there’s some of that experience there. I’ve good and bad memories from races there, but it’s always a fun place to compete. This is the first time they’ve opened the infield for camping, so that’s pretty cool. I’m sure we’ll draw a good crowd there. It’s a racing town, so to have a sports car race there is a really big deal. There’s been testing there that we didn’t do, but we’ve gotten some good simulation time to get ahead of it. Hopefully we’ll have a decent car there. I’m sure there is some track-dependent things that the engineers have correlated from IndyCar. That’s the good thing about a big GM family and a simulator that is shared between all the platforms so we can share information between all the different series as a manufacturer, especially with track details like curbing changes and things like that.”

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

Driver Standings
1. Ben Barnicoat/Jack Hawksworth – 3,165
2. Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor – 3,021
3. Klaus Bachler/Patrick Pilet – 2,915
4. Daniel Juncadella/Jules Gounon – 2,886
5. Alex Riberas/Ross Gunn – 2,774

Team Standings
1. No. 14 Vasser Sullivan – 3,165
2. No. 3 Corvette Racing – 3,021
3. No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports – 2,915
4. No. 79 WeatherTech Racing – 2,886
5. No. 23 Heart of Racing Team – 2,774

Manufacturer Standings
1. Lexus – 3,165
2. Chevrolet – 3,021
3. Porsche – 2,915
4. Mercedes-AMG – 2,886
5. Aston Martin – 2,785

Source:
Corvette Racing at Chevrolet

Related:
Corvette Racing at VIR: All the Right Calls in Overall Victory
Corvette Racing at Road America: Back on the Podium
Corvette Racing at CTMP: Winners in Canada!

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