Corvette program looking for seventh IMSA victory in GT-only contest
ALTON, Virginia (August 23, 2025)
Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports will start fourth and fifth Sunday for the Michelin GT Challenge at VIR, looking for additional speed to contend for a long-awaited first victory this season.
Antonio Garcia led the team’s qualifying efforts Saturday at Virginia International Raceway in the No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R that shares with Alexander Sims.
A four-time winner at VIR, Garcia’s best lap was a 1:44.886 (112.235 mph) effort to take the outside of the front row.
It also was just 0.005 seconds clear of teammate Nicky Catsburg in the No. 4 Corvette that he will pilot with Tommy Milner.
Catsburg’s result was especially satisfying given a precautionary engine change following Saturday morning’s final practice.
The team suspected a faulty thermostat but elected to remove all guesswork and make the swap with enough time between sessions.
While both qualifying drivers were pleased with their respective Corvettes, both sides of the Pratt Miller garage were looking for ways to close a nearly half-second gap to the GTD PRO front row.
In GTD, DXDT Racing’s No. 36 Corvette will start eighth in class after Alec Udell’s 1:45.453 (111.632 mph) best lap in qualifying. He and Robert Wickens will share the DXDT Corvette for the final time this year, with two endurance races left in the season.
AWA’s No. 13 Corvette of Orey Fidani and Matt Bell will start 13th in GTD in their push for another Akin Award victory in the team’s push for a second straight appearance at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
The Michelin GT Challenge at VIR is scheduled for 2:10 p.m. ET on Sunday and will air live on the USA Network starting at 2 p.m.
Live-streaming on Peacock in the United States and IMSA.com outside the U.S. from 2 to 5 p.m. ET IMSA Radio will provide the audio call at IMSA.com, XM 206 and SiriusXM Online 996.
CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R POST-QUALIFYING DRIVER QUOTES
ANTONIO GARICA, NO. 3 CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:
"The results are OK but the car was excellent.
There really wasn't much more we could do than that. Maybe a tenth-and-a-half, if that. When you see you're fourth-tenths off, you know you don't have that. But the Corvette was good in this session, and it felt good in practice. Let's pray for that to be enough for tomorrow."
NICKY CATSBURG, NO. 4 CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:
"The crew did an awesome job getting things ready in time. It's never easy, but the Corvette was excellent in qualifying, to be honest. We had super-nice balance. I don't know what I would have changed on it. I felt like I nailed the lap, but couldn't really do much more than that. Four-tenths is too much to ask. But our car is perfect, so hats off to the guys. Let's see what we can do tomorrow."
OREY FIDANI, NO. 13 CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:
"The car feels good. I'm happy with my pace overall, as that was the quickest lap time I've put in across all the sessions so far this weekend. I've been doing better and better as I turn more laps. VIR is a challenging track, but the team has done a great job getting us ready for race day and I think we'll be competitive to come tomorrow."
ALEC UDELL, NO. 36 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:
"Balance-wise, the car is good.
I think we're just fighting for a bit of grip; it's probably the same for everyone. So it was just digging into a few options (Friday in practice). We made a bunch of setup changes so there was a lot of in-and-out in that session.
I think we've got a good handle on where the car should be and just adapting to the conditions this weekend.
That's kind of where we are. It's not where we thought we would be, I would say, unloading so we have got to dig into that a little bit more."
