CORVETTE RACING AT DAYTONA: Tough Debut in GTD PRO
Corvette C8.Rs, team soldier through to complete full 24 hours
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Jan. 30, 2022) – Corvette Racing made it through a tumultuous Rolex 24 At Daytona on Sunday and gained valuable information on its Chevrolet Corvette C8.Rs in their new GT Daytona (GTD) PRO configuration.
The No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Corvette of Antonio Garcia, Jordan Taylor and Nicky Catsburg – 2021 winners in the GT Le Mans class – led Corvette Racing’s charge with a sixth-place finish. It was a solid drive back from ninth place in the middle of the night when an electrical issue cost the team 13 laps in the garage.
The No. 3 C8.R is the team’s full-season entry in the new-for-2022 GTD PRO class.
Other than the visit to the garage late Saturday night, things ran almost like clockwork for the Garcia/Taylor/Catsburg trio.
The same couldn’t be said of the No. 4 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Corvette of Tommy Milner, Nick Tandy and Marco Sorensen.
Their C8.R appeared to be the strongest of the Corvette Racing entries in the opening hours until rear contact after a restart with Sorensen at the wheel caused significant damage near the 8.5-hour mark.
Sorensen had to brake hard to keep from hitting the wayward LMP3 car, which also just missed collecting Catsburg in the No. 3 Corvette.
The No. 4 team lost nearly 2.5 hours replacing the diffuser, exhaust pipes and starter, among other components. It eventually salvaged a top-10 class finish.
Daytona marked the only scheduled IMSA appearance for the No. 4 Corvette, which moves to the FIA World Endurance Championship’s GTE Pro class starting with the 1,000 Miles of Sebring (Fla.) on March 18. It is part of a combined weekend with IMSA, which will see Garcia, Taylor and Catsburg race in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring on March 19.
ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – SIXTH IN GTD PRO:
“This was one of those races where you wanted it to be shorter. We learned a lot and there is still more for us to learn. We had 25 or 26 stints to learn this tire. So it was a proper first real test in race conditions. We were lacking pace both days.
There still was a lot to be gained. If you add some extra testing and something else, then maybe we can be in the hunt. In the last stint, I could tell we were missing a tiny bit. If we were on the lead lap, it would have taken a tiny bit for us to be competitive. We’ll carry on to Sebring.”
JORDAN TAYLOR, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – SIXTH IN GTD PRO:
“Other than the alternator issues, we’ve had a faultless and flawless race. The strategy and pit stops have been great. It’s good to see the team executing so well. It’s unfortunate we had that issue, otherwise we’d be fighting in the top-five somewhere.
It’s good to get the extra miles, and it’s good the guys got us back out there because we have a championship to fight for at the end of the day. We’ve made up some points by attrition.”
NICKY CATSBURG, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – SIXTH IN GTD PRO:
“This was nice to continue and get more experience on this tire. I think it was the right decision to keep on going and never giving up. It was a learning experience. I enjoyed it. Hopefully we will get more pace at Sebring, and we can be competitive.”
TOMMY MILNER, NO. 4 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – 10TH IN GTD PRO:
“It’s obviously frustrating to have the problems we did. Even so, and looking at the ultimate pace, I don’t think we had the car today to race for the win potentially. You never know in this kind of races. If you’re there at the end, and you’re close, anything can happen.
That was kind of our goal today, and obviously we didn’t achieve that. It’s frustrating from that point of view.
Even though we (the No. 4 Corvette) won’t be racing in IMSA for the full season, it’s exciting for the 3 car guys and the fans to see the racing we should have this year in GTD PRO. We haven’t really had that kind of door-to-door racing in some time.”
NICK TANDY, NO. 4 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – 10TH IN GTD PRO:
“This sort of thing does happen in motor racing. We spent way too much time in the garage today than we expected.
We bring two cars to this race for a reason, and that’s to have two shots.
To have the luck that strikes both in the middle of the night is tough to take, to be sure. It’s so surprising because it doesn’t often happen with this team.
This is motorsport and there are a lot of things that go into putting a car out on track, especially in going around for 24 hours.
Sometimes we have good days like last year, and sometimes it’s not so great like today.”
MARCO SORENSEN, NO. 4 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – 10TH IN GTD PRO:
“It’s been a great few weeks with Corvette Racing. Of course, you come to these races wanting to compete and win. So it hurts a little bit that we didn’t get that. But in the end, it has been a fantastic experience with this team.
It’s a great bunch of guys and I like their way of going racing and how they do it. I’m just really happy to have had this chance.”
