Corvette Racing at Road Atlanta: Title Fight Set

Oct 2, 2026

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Corvette Racing at Road Atlanta: Title Fight Set

Photo Credit: Corvette Racing

Catsburg, Sims start on second row of GTD PRO in battle for class championship

BRASELTON, Ga. (October 2, 2026) – Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports and Chevrolet will start from the second row of the GTD PRO grid Saturday for the 10-hour Petit Le Mans and the fight for the class championship at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.

Nicky Catsburg qualified the championship-leading No. 4 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R third in class with a lap of 1:18.355 (116.699 mph), just ahead of teammate Alexander Sims in the No. 3 Corvette. Both of the yellow Corvettes were within 0.211 seconds of the class-winning pole time heading into the final IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship event of the season.

With qualifying in the rear-view mirror, Catsburg and teammate Tommy Milner now know what they need to do to wrap up the GTD PRO Driver Championship. If they and Nico Varrone finish first or second, the pair will win the title and the No. 4 crew will take the Team Championship.

A third-place finish will also net the titles as long as the pole-sitting No. 1 BMW doesn’t win the race. Beyond that, there are still numerous scenarios in play. The points differential between first and 14th is 180 points, meaning there are still six teams mathematically eligible as they are within that margin.

In the Manufacturer Championship race, Chevrolet leads Ford by 75 points and will win the championship as long as it is the fourth-highest finishing manufacturer among the nine in the class. If Ford is second, Chevrolet needs to be at least the sixth-highest finishing marque. A third GTD PRO Corvette in the race – the No. 74 from DragonSpeed – will start 13th in class and can potentially figure into the Manufacturer title picture.

In GTD, Salih Yoluc qualified DXDT Racing’s No. 36 Corvette Z06 GT3.R 12th in class; he will drive with Corvette factory driver Charlie Eastwood and Mason Filippi.

Orey Fidani will start not far behind in the No. 13 Corvette from 13 Autosport but, importantly, ahead of his closest competition for the Bob Akin Award among Bronze-rated drivers in the class. Fidani, Matt Bell and Lars Kern can finish second among all Akin-eligible cars and win the title plus a 24 Hours of Le Mans invite for the third straight year.

Petit Le Mans from Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta is scheduled for 12:10 p.m. ET on Saturday. It will air live on NBC from noon to 3 p.m. ET. Live and complete streaming coverage is on Peacock in the U.S. and IMSA’s YouTube channel internationally. IMSA Radio will air the audio call at IMSA.com, XM 252 and SiriusXM Online 996.

CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R POST-QUALIFYING DRIVER QUOTES

NICKY CATSBURG, NO. 4 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:

“It’s perfect to have Alex next to me. I couldn’t wish for a better wingman on the second row. I honestly feel like we did a really good job in qualy. The pace of the 1 to me was incredible. I don’t know where they got it from but they’ve seen to have it all year. So hopefully they don’t have it in the race. We just need to keep it clean. I feel like we have a better team – the best team. We’re gonna hopefully out-execute them and bring this home.”

ALEXANDER SIMS, NO. 3 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:

“The positioning with the 4 car and the gap and everything, I’m very happy with that. I felt like we’ve been behind the 4 car through practice at various points and never really got it together. Now to have had qualifying and both of us doing a very similar job is nice. Our Corvette felt on rails and I got a decent amount of it. So very satisfied.

“The entire aim of tomorrow is to maximize Manufacturer and Driver points for Tommy and Nicky. We’re going to try to race hard and fair but there obviously are cars that we have to focus on. It’s tough. For the first eight hours, I think you have to run your race as best as possible to be in the right part of the field toward the last crucial hours. But I feel like we have prepared well and are in as good a spot as we can be to help things.”