Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports driver Antonio Garcia said he & co-driver Alexander Sims need to be “prepared” to counter-attack in the event their closest championship rivals “roll the dice” in the final two races of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season.
Garcia and Sims hold a narrow 53-point lead over DragonSpeed driver Albert Costa and a 191-point gap over AO Racing’s Laurin Heinrich and Klaus Bachler in GTD Pro heading into this weekend’s six-hour Battle on the Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The drivers of the No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R are coming off a long-awaited first class win in more than a year in last month’s Michelin GT Challenge at Virginia International Raceway, which slightly extended the gap on second-place finisher Costa.
“It felt really nice to really break through with how the last year or year-and-a-half has been going,” said Garcia.
“We were very close to victory many times, but at some points we were kind of lacking that last part of the race we needed to.
“So to win that race, I was so happy that we managed to do that and came up with a win at the last race.
“From now on, definitely the championship is the new target. And also winning at Indianapolis, which is one of the few races that I haven’t won either.
“I’m looking forward to next weekend and let’s see how we compare to every other manufacturer and how competitive we are.”
When asked by Sportscar365 on how he and the team are approaching the final two races of the season, knowing what’s at stake with the championship, Garcia admitted it’s a “difficult” compromise between winning and scoring points.
“Obviously, the last few races we’ve been always trying to cover different strategies coming from especially the 77 (Porsche) or the 81 (Ferrari).
“So you cannot really afford to lose a race because you did what seemed to be the right strategy, and then the other two guys you’re fighting against in the championship end up winning.
“That’s the difficult part of the championship now.
“Indy probably won’t be as critical. I don’t think people will roll the dice as much as they would at Petit Le Mans, but that’s the classic end of the season here.
“When people are probably not feeling very competitive or not in contention and at some point they roll the dice and they kind of put everybody under pressure, I think we really need to be very prepared to counter that.
“Or if it’s something we can do like we did at VIR and be the first one to really make the move. It paid out there and I’m sure we can always do that and still go for the win.”
As Garcia mentioned, the 45-year-old Spaniard also has one eye on becoming a winner at the Brickyard this weekend, a race that has alluded him from his resume.
“Ever since my first time I raced there in Grand-Am, I really loved it and loved to be there, even if we were going the other way around!” he said.
“But I really, really liked it. So it’s a shame I’ve never been able to win there, but I had a lot of fun.
“Even last year was a fun race between all of us with all the changing weather conditions we had.
“It’s a six-hour race, so there’s also a ton of strategy playing out. In order to be in a superb place at the end of the race instead of a regular two-and-a-half hour race, you need to work it out a little bit differently.
“Last year at some point we looked really well and then the strategy didn’t go our way where we had to do an extra stop compared to the rest.
“At the end of the day we came up third so let’s see how this race unfolds.
“Obviously, we have to be smart and not just go for the win and maybe make mistakes on strategy or on track.
Again, it’s a very long race, but it’s going to be difficult. Traffic is very tricky there, and you just need to play it smart and be up there in the last hour or half-an-hour.
“It would mean a lot to us if we come up with a win, as it would mean that we are even in a better position for the championship.”
