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Garcia’s late cost sends him, Sims to P3; AWA wins second straight Akin Award in GTD
INDIANAPOLIS (September 22, 2024) – Corvette manufacturing facility drivers Antonio Garcia and Alexander Sims climbed again on the rostrum in GTD PRO on Sunday within the six-hour Battle on the Bricks on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway highway course to steer the contingent of three Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs within the next-to-last race of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
Garcia drove the ultimate three hours within the No. 3 Corvette from Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports and went from fifth to 3rd within the closing two laps to safe third place. It was the primary podium for the Garcia/Sims duo since their victory in July at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.
Rain dominated the primary half of the race, which noticed three separate full-course yellow intervals within the first 100 minutes. Sims and the No. 3 Corvette went towards the pinnacle of the category as the primary GTD PRO automobile to take moist tires in the course of the first yellow. A gradual rain settled in not lengthy after, with Sims taking the lead following a brief pit cease throughout one other full-course yellow.
A 3rd warning interval, this one for nearly an hour, saved Sims out entrance till the rain stopped for good within the third hour. The No. 3 Corvette did lose a while having to make two stops half-hour aside to change to slick tires simply earlier than the midway mark.
Garcia drove the remainder of the best way within the No. 3 Z06 GT3.R, together with a hard-fought battle in the course of the closing hour with the No. 14 Lexus and No. 23 Aston Martin for the ultimate podium place. A restart with 55 minutes remaining set the stage for the end with Garcia falling from fourth to fifth inside the ultimate half-hour. He fought to regain the spot with 5 minutes left and gained one other to 3rd and the rostrum with two laps to go.
The GTD PRO pole-winning No. 4 Corvette of Tommy Milner and Nicky Catsburg completed eleventh at school after shedding 4 laps attributable to contact and subsequent restore with 75 minutes to go.
Catsburg led the primary 15 laps from pole earlier than making the workforce’s first cease in the course of the preliminary full-course yellow. The No. 4 Z06 GT3.R was assessed an avoidable contact penalty close to the one-hour mark earlier than Milner was hit from behind by a prototype, which necessitated a prolonged cease to restore harm to the right-rear of the Corvette.
In GTD, the No. 13 AWA Corvette moved nearer to securing an automated invitation to subsequent 12 months’s 24 Hours of Le Mans with a sixth-place class end and successful the Bob Akin Award competitors for the Indianapolis spherical. Each Orey Fidani and Lars Kern saved their Z06 GT3.R on the lead lap all through the 90-minute stints, permitting Matt Bell to drive from 14th at school and into the top-five late at school.
It was the third Akin race win for the AWA Corvette and second in a row. The award goes to the highest-finishing GTD entry that includes a Bronze-rated driver for every race in addition to the full-season championship with Le Mans as the last word prize.
Each Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports and AWA shut the IMSA season with the 10-hour Petit Le Mans on Saturday, October 12 at Michelin Raceway Street Atlanta.
CORVETTE RACING POST-RACE DRIVER QUOTES
ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:
“These final laps have been robust. We had an excellent name to pit earlier than a yellow, however the best way issues unfolded it sort of helped those that stayed out. So we misplaced slightly observe place to among the vehicles that have been forward of me once we bought to the final restart. The restarts with these guys and being so shut isn’t straightforward. I made up a number of locations however with how laborious the race was for everybody, there have been occasions the place I bought caught in visitors and misplaced some spots. I believed we have been finished when the (No. 23) Aston Martin handed me, however in some way I regrouped and put every part collectively to get again up there to them. Possibly I had slightly greater than them with the tires or made some good selections. With two or three laps left, that’s it. It’s time to go! It was both a podium, fourth or fifth. I went for it, and it labored. It might have been good to win, however I’m pleased with the place we completed.”
ALEXANDER SIMS, NO. 3 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:
“I used to be very completely satisfied that Antonio was within the automobile! He did a very, actually good job. I actually loved the moist laps firstly of the race, so it was most likely the precise method round for the each of us. Antonio did an incredible job to maintain within the combat. From the surface, I believed as soon as Antonio bought held up and handed by the Aston, I believed it could be laborious for him to get again previous with the tempo state of affairs because it was. Fortunately he stayed with them and saved preventing with them to the top… fairly actually! It was nice to observe.”
TOMMY MILNER, NO. 4 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:
“I feel components of the race we did issues very well. Nicky did an incredible job firstly to maintain us within the lead. There have been some tough situations that have been robust for each of us. The category interactions with the prototype vehicles weren’t supreme for us. He had an incident, and so did I with a P2 automobile. I don’t know what occurred there. It’s a type of days the place you’re feeling like typically issues are going your method. The cautions have been getting us again into it, however there have been simply too many ups and down for us at present. It’s unlucky. It was an excellent little combat for the three guys to get on the rostrum there on the finish. So now we’ll go to Petit Le Mans and check out once more.”
AWA POST-RACE DRIVER QUOTES
MATT BELL, NO. 13 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:
“I’ve completely no thought what occurred in my three hours! I bought updates each on occasion from the blokes on the pitbox, so I used to be attempting to get by each GT automobile I may. We had a very, actually good automobile particularly early within the stints. I used to be in a position to be fairly aggressive, assault and go ahead early within the stints. That put us in an incredible place for the workforce to have the ability to name some nice technique, they usually referred to as this race completely once more. There’s been such good teamwork all 12 months within the pitlane. There’s been a lot laborious work that’s gone into that. My two teammates did an incredible job within the first a part of the race. An insane race! I completely love IMSA racing and GTD. It’s at all times so laborious. I had some nice fights on the market and received greater than we misplaced. We made nice progress, and I’m actually pleased with the consequence.”
OREY FIDANI, NO. 13 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:
“That was the primary time I’ve pushed the Corvette in moist race situations. We did slightly little bit of wet-weather testing earlier this 12 months at Carolina Motorsports Park. It really handles fairly nicely within the rain. It was superior, and I feel we’re in a great spot. At first, there have been a few vehicles in entrance of me that because the observe got here in, they have been slightly in the best way slightly and holding me and the vehicles behind me up. I wanted to search out my method round these guys however didn’t get to do this with the rain. But it surely’s nice. I’m fairly pleased with issues.”
LARS KERN, NO. 13 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:
“On the finish of the day, we could be pleased with the consequence. The workforce did a mega job. In my stint, I used to be struggling lots when there was nonetheless plenty of water on the observe. As soon as it dried, the automobile was speedy however we couldn’t actually get better from this loss. So we may have completed higher however I couldn’t activate the tires in my center stint. I’m super-happy with what Matt did on the finish. At one level I don’t assume we actually believed we may win the Akin Award at present. Orey did nice firstly and saved it clear. This was a giant step towards our goal of attending to Le Mans subsequent 12 months.”
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