C8.R Corvette Racing will start fourth in class & fifth among all production-based GT cars Saturday for the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, following Friday’s qualifying session for the Acura Grand Prix.
Antonio Garcia set a best lap of 1:18.329 (90.449 mph) in a tough-luck, 15-minute qualifying for GT Daytona (GTD) PRO cars in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Driving the No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R with teammate Jordan Taylor, Garcia finished the session a half-second off the GTD PRO pole time.
He lost two of his best laps in the qualifying due to cars spinning ahead of him, which meant the Corvette had to bail out on those flying laps. Still, Garcia will look to make up spots early and often at the tight and twisty 1.968-mile, 11-turn circuit.
The race likely will feature one planned pit stop, so the potential is there for the stellar Corvette Racing crew to gain spots in the pit lane.
Long Beach is an intense 100-minute dash for the Corvette program and the rest of the WeatherTech Championship teams. It’s an event that Corvette Racing has won more than another team in series history four times since 2014 to go along with four more victories in the American Le Mans Series era from 2007-2013.
The event is, of course, miles different from the team’s first two races of the season, the Rolex 24 and Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring. Due to the 100-minute race time and no margin for error with concrete walls lining the circuit, qualifying and track position are everything.
That meant a dual-focused approach in Friday’s two practice sessions to establish the best qualifying and race setups in order to not just earn track position in Friday’s time trials, but to also keep and improve it Saturday in the race.
The Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach is scheduled for 5:05 p.m. ET / 2:05 p.m. PT on Saturday.
The race will air live on the USA Network from 5-7 p.m. ET with full streaming coverage on Peacock.
IMSA Radio will carry the race at IMSA.com along with Sirius 217, XM 207 and SiriusXM Online 992.
ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – QUALIFIED FOURTH IN GTD PRO:
It was a difficult session in a way. It was difficult to gauge the traffic and when people were going to spin. So far, we have been struggling to put temperature in the tires. We definitely needed more laps. It’s a shame I only got one goodish lap.
Maybe it should have been better than that, but it’s a shame that a 15-minute qualifying went down to five or six laps total around here.
“The McLaren spun in front of me in Turn Five, and I had to bail on that lap. Then we there was another crash at Turn Eight. Those may have been good laps there. I’m not sure if they had been good for pole, but the car and the rhythm were still coming in. But that’s Long Beach.”
2023 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship – GTD PRO
(After two of 11 events)
Driver Standings
1. Daniel Juncadella/Jules Gounon/Maro Engel – 708
2. Ben Barnicoat/Jack Hawksworth – 682
3. Klaus Bachler/Laurens Vanthoor/Patrick Pilet – 659
4. Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor/Tommy Milner – 643
5. Jordan Pepper/Romain Grosjean – 612
Team Standings
1. No. 79 WeatherTech Racing – 708
2. No. 14 Vasser Sullivan – 682
3. No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports – 659
4. No. 3 Corvette Racing – 643
5. No. 63 Iron Lynx – 612
