Corvette Summer
A WEC title and a return to the top podium spot in IMSA made for a fine July afternoon at Corvette Racing.
As Corvette Racing's IMSA squad prepared to race the July 3 Chevrolet Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park (CTMP), its sister team over in Europe was putting an early end to the World Endurance Championship GTE-AM title race. The No. 33 Corvette's fourth-place finish at Monza was enough to give drivers Ben Keating, Nicky Catsburg and Nico Varrone the season championship after just five races.
Winning three of the first four events, including a triumph at Le Mans, creates such opportunities.
Back in North America, things were different. Corvette hadn't won since the second race of 2022, at Sebring. Meanwhile, the Vasser-Sullivan Lexus No. 14 team had established itself as the one to beat in IMSA's GTD Pro class.
The No. 14 squad headed into Canada having won two of the last three races and four of eight. Qualifying offered little reason to think things were about to change as the No. 14 took pole while the No. 3 ended up fourth.
If Corvette was going to win at CTMP--or at least out-run the Lexus No. 14--it would have to rely on strategy or good fortune. Speed was out.
It didn't take long for Corvette to show its hand. Running fourth some five seconds behind the race-leading No. 14, Jordan Taylor brought the Corvette down pit road just 33 minutes into the 2-hour, 40-minute race. The idea: get within the fuel window to minimize the number of required pit road visits--extra pit stops are never good--and put new tires on as soon as possible and try to run a few fast laps while others stay out on steadily degrading rubber.
The plan worked--to a point. After the round of pit stops, the Corvette, with Taylor's teammate Antonio Garcia now behind the wheel, was second, having hopped over the No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 and No. 23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3. But the No. 3 was still second, just behind the No. 14.
"At the end of the out lap, you're ready to push," Taylor told NBC moments after handing the No. 3 over to Garcia. "So that's kind of what's important on that [strategy], to be able to attack when someone is coming into the pits. The guys called it perfectly to jump both the 79 and the 23.
"The 14 has a bit of pace on everyone," Taylor added. "But it's an IMSA race, so you never know what's going to happen."
The Lexus and the Corvette stayed within two seconds of each other for about 30 minutes, until Jules Gounon in the No. 79 slid up into Ross Gunn in the No. 23 as the two were side by side battling for third place in GTD Pro. The contact sent the Aston Martin hard into the fence and out of the race, bringing out a full-course yellow.
After about 10 minutes of track clean-up and a round of pit stops, it was race time again. In GTD Pro, Patrick Pilet had the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R--the hometown team--out front, followed by Ben Barnicoat in the Lexus and Garcia in the Corvette.
The No. 3 team, executing its strategy flawlessly, was about to get a massive dose of good fortune.
As the trio raced across the start-finish line, Barnicoat jumped to Pilet's left side. As both cars drifted toward the outside wall, the Porsche touched the Lexus. Barnicoat backed off, but not before rolling through a paved but debris-laden run-off area and bouncing over the grass on his way back to the racing groove.
The off-track excursion, while brief, was costly. Debris picked up in the run-off area and from following the Porsche through the grass was enough to send the Lexus behind the wall with front-end damage. It would return to finish the race--a testament to the team's crew--but any chance of a win and a 12th straight top-three IMSA finish was gone.
While Pilet and Barnicoat fought each other right off the track, Garcia moved into a suddenly open racing grove and roared into the lead.
Garcia and Pilet would stay locked together the rest of the way, spending much of the final hour within two seconds of each other. Full-course cautions with 50 minutes and 36 minutes to go bunched the field up, giving Pilet renewed hope. But while the Porsche got to the Corvette's bumper a few times, Pilet could not get by.
A dust-up between two top-class GTP cars brought out another full-course yellow with five minutes to go, leaving the field to parade around in position to the checked flag.
Corvette rolled across the line for the race win--and its second victory of the day.