MONTEREY, Calif. – The newly paved racetrack at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca was a perfect match for the new Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller, which earned its first pole position with their Z06 GT3.R model, a brand new factory-built Corvette race car that debuted this season at the Rolex24 in Daytona, Florida.
Nicky Catsburg, one of the drivers of the No. 4 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, won the Motul Pole Award in Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) with his record-setting lap of 1 minute, 19.727 seconds (101.054 mph). Catsburg was followed by Antonio Garcia in the team’s sister car, the No. 3 Corvette, at 1:20.038, giving Corvette the 1-2 in-class starting positions at this past weekend’s race.
Based both on their desire to showcase the capabilities of the new Corvette racer, and because of the new racing surfaces at Laguna Seca, pole position was an important target for Catsburg and co-driver Tommy Milner, as well as for Garcia and his co-driver, Alexander Sims.
“We really put our emphasis on qualifying,” Catsburg said. “We know track position is going to be important here. It’s a low-degradation track now. We put a lot of effort into it, and it worked. The car felt amazing, so it was pretty much just doing some laps and letting the time get toward me. It worked out.”
But where qualifying strong was an important start to the race weekend, Corvette Racing proved they had the mettle to “go the distance” this weekend as they dominated throughout much of the race.
The No. 4 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Pratt Miller Motorsports Corvette Racing climbed the GTD PRO podium for the first time this season as Nicky Catsburg and Tommy Milner finished third Sunday at the Motul Corse de Monterey at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. The No. 4 race team led the Corvette GT3 effort in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s annual stop in Monterey. Antonio Garcia and Alexander Sims finished fifth in GTD PRO in the No. 3 Corvette, which had its race compromised by an early full-course caution.
Catsburg led the race early in GTD PRO after starting in the pole position with Garcia right behind him. The two Corvettes consistently ran within one second of each other while building a gap of nearly three seconds to the third-place car in class.
Catsburg was the first of the Z06 GT3.Rs to make a stop in the pits for four tires, fuel and a driver change to Milner at the 45-minute mark. But then an issue during the pit stop followed by a full-course caution near the 50-minute mark changed the entire cadence of the race.
Garcia was preparing to pit the No. 3 Corvette when the yellow came out, but had to remain on the field until the GT pits opened behind the safety car. Garcia pitted and turned the car over to Sims, who left the pits in seventh place and struggled to gain ground while contending with GTD traffic. Meanwhile, Milner restarted second in class but was shuffled back to third by the eventual class-winner not long after the green flag dropped.
The No. 3 Corvette was the first of the GTD PRO contenders to make its final stop, opting only for right-side tires and fuel with less than 70 minutes left on the race clock. The strategy pushed Sims from sixth when he entered the pitlane to fourth after the class pit cycle ended. Milner, who was the class leader at this point, came back in for four tires and fuel about 10 minutes later. Upon exiting the pits, he had been shuffled back to third position, where he remained for the duration of the race.
TOMMY MILNER, NO. 4 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:
“It’s always tricky trying to plan out your pit strategy. It’s typically not preferred to pit early. You make it hard on yourself at the end of the race, but you’re also exposed if you don’t pit if there’s a yellow. We saw that today with the 3 car. They did the preferred strategy if there’s no yellow that comes out, but unfortunately for them there was in that window. So it did work out for us there. We had a little bit of a slow stop on our first stop. I think we probably had the car for second, but it looked like the Porsche was a little bit too quick for us today. I’m happy for these Corvette Racing guys to get this Corvette Z06 GT3.R on the podium for the first time. The pole was great and we were looking strong at the start of the race. We just have a little bit more to go in order to get that first win.”
NICKY CATSBURG, NO. 4 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:
“I think the Corvette did everything fine today. We had good balance. I think we lost the chance to finish P2 at our first stop when we had an issue with our refueling and lost about four seconds. I think P1 was destined for the Porsche. They were way faster than we were. Second was possible but we will see what we need to do in order to make sure those things don’t happen again. I think from our side we did everything we could. I’m pleased with our first podium.”
ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:
“We were covering the 9 car because we split strategies between our cars. The McLaren pitted a lap before us – I don’t think they anticipated the yellow – and the team told me to push because we were pitting on that lap. I came out of Turn Nine and saw the yellow coming. And that was our race. It looked really good before that. It wouldn’t have been a nice battle with the 77, the 9 and the 4. I’m sure we would have cycled to the front after that. It’s a shame they didn’t allow everyone to pit before it went yellow for a little piece on the track. It really dictated our race.”
ALEXANDER SIMS, NO. 3 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:
“The yellow dictated everything for us. We were all quite happy with the situation beforehand. I was up on the pit wall with the team ready for Antonio to come in that lap but saw the pit closed light come on. I was hoping Antonio was just immediately around the corner and had made it in. So unfortunately that compromised us significantly and put us at the back of the group. Then we went to a more aggressive fuel strategy and pitted early. That did cycle us back forward a bit, but we were up against it fuel-wise and had to save every lap as no yellows came out. There were some nice battles but it was unfortunate that we got caught out early.”
The next IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship event for the Corvette Z06 GT3.R program is the Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic on the streets of downtown Detroit on Saturday, June 1, 2024.
