AWA Corvette builds on Akin Award lead with seventh-place GTD finish
ALTON, Va. (August 25, 2024) – Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports suffered an uncharacteristic tough day at Virginia International Raceway as mechanical gremlins impacted both of the team’s Corvette Z06 GT3.R entries during the Michelin GT Challenge at VIR.
The No. 4 Corvette of Tommy Milner and Nicky Catsburg finished eighth in GTD PRO, a spot ahead of teammates Alexander Sims and Antonio Garcia in the No. 3 Z06 GT3.R.
The result for AWA’s No. 13 Corvette Z06 GT3.R was a bright spot as Orey Fidani and Matt Bell finished seventh in GTD. Adding to that was the No. 13 Corvette’s position as the highest-finishing car in IMSA’s Bob Akin Award standings for the second time this year.
After a run of trouble-free races during the summer, separate issues plagued the No. 3 and No. 4 GTD PRO entries. Catsburg lost time when the Corvette wouldn’t restart after a pit stop with an hour to go. He and Milner did finish on the lead lap and were buoyed by the race’s only full-course caution with a little more than 30 minutes to go but couldn’t advance up the order.
Garcia started second and ran third at the time of the No. 3 Corvette’s first pit stop at the 49-minute mark. Sims rejoined fifth and was getting up to speed before the car lost power on the backstretch. Following a couple of attempts to reset the power cycle, the team brought Sims back to the garage to replace the power steering pump.
Sims also was at the wheel when the No. 3 suffered a suspension issue with 45 minutes to go.
In GTD, Fidani drove the No. 13 Corvette for the first 47 minutes and gained a spot in class before handing off to Bell. The No. 13 went from 13th at the time of the stop to its final position in the final two hours, including a hectic fight through the field after the yellow with high track temperatures and high tire degradation.
With the result, Fidani grew his lead in the Akin Award championship with the highest points-scoring Bronze driver at the end of the season earning an automatic entry to the following year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.
The Michelin GT Challenge at VIR is scheduled for 12:10 p.m. ET on Sunday, August 25. The race will air live on USA starting at noon ET with live streaming on Peacock inside the United States and IMSA.com outside the U.S. IMSA Radio will air all on-track sessions beginning with Friday afternoon’s opening practice at IMSA.com with the race call also on XM 206 and SiriusXM Online 996.
CORVETTE RACING BY PRATT MILLER MOTORSPORTS POST-EVENT DRIVER QUOTES
ALEXANDER SIMS, NO. 3 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:
“Today is what it is. No one wants to have issues, but that was the reality today. As has been common this year, we showed decent pace and were holding our own in third with Antonio. I think the pit cycle was going to be pretty favorable for us on strategy. As far as I understand it, we would have effectively been first in that middle stint once all the pit cycles were finished. I felt pretty comfortable out in front of the Aston Martin, and we were holding our own. That’s when the car cut out on me, and the power steering failed. After a few laps, I understood why these are designed to have power steering. This isn’t a formula car in terms of the steering weight where you could get through it. But after four or five laps, I knew it wasn’t going to last. I just tried to give the guys enough time to at least preempt what we needed to do in the garage, but it was a big change and set us way back. That’s the way it goes, unfortunately. The suspension issue was pretty bizarre. There was no contact on my side, and Antonio looked like he had a completely clean race. We need to understand the two issues, and try to react and come back stronger.”
TOMMY MILNER, NO. 4 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:
“A bit of gut punch today for the whole team. Having quite a few races with no issues, and then today with both cars having both problems is going to make quite a few people on this team unhappy. We’ll go back to look at it, figure out what happened and improve the car for the future. But yeah, a tough day for us.”
AWA POST-EVENT DRIVER QUOTES
MATT BELL, NO. 13 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:
“It was another great IMSA battle and a great IMSA race. We made all the right calls at the right times. Tire deg and tire management was a huge part of this race. We had to be smart and give up pace at certain times but also know when to push and know when to go for it. I got great information and great support from everyone on the pit stand – everyone from AWA and Corvette Racing really helped out. This was as much as any of the other races – if not more – a real team effort to come through the pack like that. It’s a big credit to everyone on this program. I just had to try and make it work.”
OREY FIDANI, NO. 13 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:
“It was quite a hot with the air conditioning off. It was a little tough for me at the start as I didn’t go on brand new tires. I went on older tires and struggled with understeer. It seemed to get a little better as the fuel burned off and I was able to get some pace. But it was tough. Matt did a great job to get us up the order at the end.”
Source:
CorvetteRacing.com
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It was clear within 10 mins of the start that BOP neutered the Corvettes.
I agree. It is quite evident that IMSA over BoP’d the Chevy Corvettes. IMSA needs to make it right & take some of the restrictions off so they can be competitive again. But will they? I’m not going to hold my breath.
BOP also neutered the championship leaders AO Racing Porsche and Vasser Sullivan Lexus. Corvette should regroup for next year.
I get that the cars are new, but there have been an obscene number of reliability problems that have afflicted this team this year. Use the rest of the season to work fixes for next season, because there will be no excuse for random component failures, especially not for a works team.
If the team can’t get out of their own way next year, start searching for a new service provider. DXDT seems to have their bearings about this car; Callaway would do it in a heartbeat too.
I still think that PMM is still the best option. All the teams have had issues. Oh by the way PMM is at the track and in the paddock helping DXDT when they race.
Agreed and fully understand that; we’ve all read how they support customer teams. If this is down a bandwidth (aka resource allocation) issue, all the more reason to look for another service provider.
The fact of the matter is that they’re a works operation that can’t seem to shake the bad luck they always seem to have- bad luck that doesn’t really afflict other OEM works efforts. I understand that PMM has helmed this program from the start 20-plus years ago, but with all these troubles, at some point, you have to look towards the team as a point of failure. Just saying.
So, all the more reason to use the rest of the season and the off season to identify and fix issues. No excuses next year.
Exactly as Boba commented.
It seems that the team is always working for top pole positions and then in the race they suffer also pase as seen in the several last raced.
So why this semi- works-team is not able to deliver same results as the DXDT-team in Fanatec-races?
At Corvette RACING AND PM THERE ARE SOME PEOPLE TO STUDY ABOUT THEIR STRATEGY HOW TO PREPARE THESE CARS FOR MORE SUCCES AS THEY HAVE THE CAPACITY TO DO SO.
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