Corvette Racing at Indianapolis: Getting Closer

INDIANAPOLIS (Sept. 16, 2023) – Corvette Racing’s Jordan Taylor qualified fifth in the GT Daytona (GTD) PRO class Saturday ahead of the team’s return to Indianapolis Motor Speedway for Sunday’s TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

It’s a key weekend for Taylor and teammate Antonio Garcia in the GTD PRO title race. The No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R won in its last race at Virginia International Raceway to solidify the Corvette program’s second-place standing in the Drivers, Manufacturers and Teams points battle with two races left in the season.

The weekend marks the first time in nearly a decade that Corvette Racing has turned laps around the famous Yard of Bricks but first trip with the mid-engine C8.R. The engineering and crew teams spent practice sessions Friday and Saturday tuning and tweaking the Corvette to the track surface and the 2.439-mile, 14-turn circuit.

The goal was to validate the pre-event virtual work, much of which was focused on efforts in the Chevrolet Driver in the Loop simulator. That – plus feedback from the manufacturer’s IndyCar program, which raced twice this year on the IMS Road Course – aided the team in establishing its baseline setup along and looking at the effects of predicted changes to help bridge the gap to the rest of the GTD PRO field.

Corvette Racing finished fourth and fifth in the GT Le Mans (GTLM) class in 2014 in the team’s only previous IMS appearance.

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

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

“Not what we wanted but what we kind of expected. Practices were tough and that carried over to qualifying. The car feels good and pretty solid. We’ve gone quicker each session and we’re getting closer to the front. But the gap in performance between us and the rest of the class is evident, though. We will see. It will take a perfect race, which we are capable of doing. After that, things are out of our control.”

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 Indianapolis: Back at the Brickyard
Corvette Racing at VIR: All the Right Calls in Overall Victory
Corvette Racing at Road America: Back on the Podium