CORVETTE RACING AT INDIANAPOLIS: Getting Closer

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Press Release

CORVETTE RACING AT INDIANAPOLIS: Getting Closer

INDIANAPOLIS (Sept. 16, 2023) – Corvette Racing’s Jordan Taylor qualified fifth in the GT Daytona (GTD) PRO class Saturday ahead of the team’s return to Indianapolis Motor Speedway for Sunday’s TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.


It’s a key weekend for Taylor and teammate Antonio Garcia in the GTD PRO title race. The No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R won in its last race at Virginia International Raceway to solidify the Corvette program’s second-place standing in the Drivers, Manufacturers and Teams points battle with two races left in the season.


The weekend marks the first time in nearly a decade that Corvette Racing has turned laps around the famous Yard of Bricks but first trip with the mid-engine C8.R. The engineering and crew teams spent practice sessions Friday and Saturday tuning and tweaking the Corvette to the track surface and the 2.439-mile, 14-turn circuit.


The goal was to validate the pre-event virtual work, much of which was focused on efforts in the Chevrolet Driver in the Loop simulator. That – plus feedback from the manufacturer’s IndyCar program, which raced twice this year on the IMS Road Course – aided the team in establishing its baseline setup along and looking at the effects of predicted changes to help bridge the gap to the rest of the GTD PRO field.


Corvette Racing finished fourth and fifth in the GT Le Mans (GTLM) class in 2014 in the team’s only previous IMS appearance.


The TireRack.com Battle of the Bricks is scheduled for 1:10 p.m. ET on Sunday, Sept.17. The race will air live on NBC beginning at 1 p.m. ET and stream live on Peacock inside the United States and IMSA.com outside


JORDAN TAYLOR, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: "Not what we wanted but what we kind of expected. Practices were tough and that carried over to qualifying. The car feels good and pretty solid. We've gone quicker each session and we're getting closer to the front. But the gap in performance between us and the rest of the class is evident, though. We will see. It will take a perfect race, which we are capable of doing. After that, things are out of our control."


2023 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship – GTD PRO (After nine of 11 events)

Driver Standings

1. Ben Barnicoat/Jack Hawksworth – 3,165

2. Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor – 3,021

3. Klaus Bachler/Patrick Pilet – 2,915

4. Daniel Juncadella/Jules Gounon – 2,886

5. Alex Riberas/Ross Gunn – 2,774


Team Standings

1. No. 14 Vasser Sullivan – 3,165

2. No. 3 Corvette Racing – 3,021

3. No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports – 2,915

4. No. 79 WeatherTech Racing – 2,886

5. No. 23 Heart of Racing Team – 2,774


Manufacturer Standings

1. Lexus – 3,165

2. Chevrolet – 3,021

3. Porsche – 2,915

4. Mercedes-AMG – 2,886

5. Aston Martin – 2,785


CORVETTE RACING AT INDIANAPOLIS: By the Numbers

• 1: As in one team, one manufacturer and one model of car for 25 years of racing: Corvette Racing, Chevrolet and the Chevrolet Corvette

• 5: Combined starts for Corvette Racing’s Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor at Indianapolis in IMSA competition. Both placed fourth in their class in the 2014 event

• 9: Years since Corvette Racing’s only other appearance at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2014 with the C7.R

• 14: Manufacturer Championships for Chevrolet and Corvette Racing since 2001

• 27: Tracks at which Corvette Racing has won races – Baltimore, Charlotte Motor Speedway, COTA, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park/Mosport, Daytona, Detroit, Houston, Laguna Seca, Le Mans, Lime Rock, Long Beach, Miami, Mid-Ohio, Monza, Portimão, Portland, Road America, Road Atlanta, Sebring, Sonoma, St. Petersburg, Texas, Trois Rivieres, Utah, VIR, Washington DC and Watkins Glen

• 34: Number of drivers for Corvette Racing since 1999. Ben Keating and Nico Varrone joined that list with their participation – and victory – in the 1,000 Miles of Sebring for the World Endurance Championship

• 47: Combined victories for Chevrolet at Indianapolis in stock car (23), open-wheel (21) and sports car racing (three)

• 127: Victories worldwide for Corvette Racing – 115 in North America, nine at Le Mans and three in the FIA WEC

• 281: Event starts by Corvette Racing since 1999

• 360,480.64: Total number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing since its inception. To put that in perspective, Corvette Racing is more than halfway to the distance traveled by Apollo 13 – the longest manned spaceflight in history: 622,268 miles. That means Corvette Racing has raced to the moon and more than halfway back!


Corvette Racing at Indianapolis

2014

No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Antonio Garcia/Jan Magnussen – 4th in GTLM

No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 5th in GTLM

Ryan Smith
Judy Kouba Dominick