2020 has been a hard year for a lot of folks, but it’s been pretty smooth sailing for No.3 Corvette C8.R drivers Jordan Taylor and Antonio Garcia. The pairing gave Corvette Racing its first victory with its new Corvette C8.R earlier this year at Daytona and promptly backed it up with another win at Road America shortly after.
Now the No. 3 Corvette C8.R has taken its third win of 2020 after Taylor and Garcia took victory in Sunday’s Michelin GT Challenge at Virginia International Raceway. The victory was unexpected, with Garcia only moving into the lead in the closing laps of the two-hour, 40-minute race. The No. 911 Porsche of Nick Tandy looked like a shoe-in for the win and was leading with just 18 minutes remaining when the Core Autosport-run entry cut a left rear tire, forcing Tandy to come into the pits.
Garcia then held off the No. 25 BMW M8 GTLM of Bruno Spengler and the hard-charging Porsche of Tandy, who was now on fresh rubber, to take the victory. If the race was any longer, Garcia may not have made it, with the No. 3 Corvette C8.R suffering heavy high-speed vibrations in the latter stage of the event. The Corvette Racing crew later sourced the cause of the vibrations to a broken rear diffuser, but without knowing what the cause of the issue was, the Spaniard was understandably concerned while behind the wheel.
“It took me a little bit (to know what was wrong), but the whole car was shaking a lot,” he said. “About 200 kph, the whole car was shaking a lot. It was coming from the rear.”
“I thought it was terminal because it was vibrating really bad,” he added. “But once I got used to it and knew it wasn’t interfering with the performance, I knew I could handle it. With the gap I could manage to the BMW. It was stressful not knowing what would happen if the rear diffuser would have fallen off, but the C8.R held on.”
Garcia also praised the Corvette C8.R for retaining a good degree of downforce and drivability even without a rear diffuser.
“So, the C8.R is also good with almost no rear diffuser or rear splitter. I’m very proud of that,” he said. “Very proud that everything stayed in one piece even though it was very challenging to drive there at the end.”
Spengler crossed the finish line second in the No. 25 BMW, while Tandy completed the podium after setting the fastest lap of the race on his charge back to the front. The No. 4 Corvette C8.R of Tommy Milner and Oliver Gavin finished fourth after Gavin went off-track following a restart earlier in the race.
Click here for full results from the 2020 Michelin GT Challenge from VIR.
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Comments
There is so little actual competition in GTLM, Porsche is a lame duck in its last year with no development dollars being spent! BMW bouncing guard rail to guard rail. Even worse in 2021 just BMW. Chevy can win even more with only BMW to race, just like years ago in GT 1 when they had no run to race! Oh well GM has a lot of dollars to piss away.
Porsche is not spending development dollars even though they are in a brand new car? Really? Do you even follow IMSA or know what Porsche does?
CONGRATULATIONS, GO TEAM CORVETTE
WIN ON SATURDAY, SELL ON MONDAY
I don’t know what IMSA GTLM races you’ve been watching, but the title of your article, C8.R Continues To Dominate IMSA,
couldn’t be further from what is truly going on.
If it were not for the crashes at Road America by BMW/Porsche in the rain, and the tire issues of Porsche at VIR,
we would not have 4 wins, but 2. We’ve been very, very lucky! Corvette C8.R has not dominated anything, and you can
thank BoP for that.
Matter of fact #3 C8.R / Jordan Taylor qualified with a 1:41.228 ….. as a reference, the #3 C7.R Jan Magnussen
qualified last year with a 1:40.708 at VIR.
The #3 started 4th on the starting grid, 0.839 seconds behind the pole winning Porsche #911.
#4 C8.R/ Olly Gavin qualified with a 1:41.662 ….. as a reference, the #4 C7.R Olly Gavin qualified last year with
a 1:41.578 at VIR.
Our 4 wins this season, 3 wins in a row for the #3 have not been dominating, we’ve been lucky.
Mike Waal
Life Long Corvette Racing Fan
8TY4SPD & MNL13GS
Member: NCM, First State Corvette Club, ‘No’ Club Corvette Enthusiasts
Corvette racing activities for both clubs
Don’t know what IMSA GTLM races you are watching, Sam, but the wins are anything but dominant.
If it were not for the crashes of BMW/Porsche during the rain at the end of Road America and the unlucky tire
issue for Porsche at VIR, Pratt&Miller would only have 2 wins, not 4, so racer luck, not domination,
has been the key for Corvette success.
Example, for VIR qualifying, #3 C8.R / Jordan Taylor qualified with a 1:41.228.
As a reference, the #3 C7.R / Jan Magnussen qualified last year with a 1:40.708.
The #3 C8.R started 4th on the starting grid, 0.839 seconds behind the pole winning Porsche #911.
#4 C8.R / Olly Gavin qualified with a 1:41.662.
As a reference, the #4 C7.R / Olly Gavin qualified last year with a 1:41.578.
The #4 started 5th on the starting grid, 1.273 seconds behind the pole winning Porsche #911.
That is not dominant. The Porsches started out fast and continued being fast, ever improving their lap times.
Mike Waal
Life Long corvette Racing Fan
Corvette racing activities reporter for the First State Corvette Club and the ‘No’ Club Corvette Enthusiasts
Member of the NCM
Actually the Corvette has not been the dominate car at each race. The C8,R is still early in development. But the Pratt and Miller team is the real difference.
They have had the cars bullet proof even this early in their life and while not always dominate they are lurking close enough to capitalize in problems with the other teams.
The real concern is the class is dying. My hope is IMSA will do some rule changes where Chevy can continue to develop this car. If not I hope they can get some rule changes in GTD that will help a class for production based cars to race economically in greater numbers.
I know it will take some work and time but GTD could be a great home for Corvette.
I spent time with a GTD Audi from Potter Racing. These cars are much closer to production than the GTLM class. Also more private teams participating help fill the fields,
Racing is going to face major challenges till this Virus deal is sorted out. As of now the world is still struggling for an answer so it may be a while till this is resolved. Time now for racing series to make needed plans to deal with these challenges.
Isais that Porsche is not spending any more dollars for GTLM! They laid off their track support engineers and announced that Porsche will not compete in GTLM in 2021. Where have you been? It has been in the press!