Corvette Racing Adds Drivers Nick Tandy And Alex Sims For 2021 IMSA Season
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Corvette Racing has hired drivers Nick Tandy and Alex Sims to share the No. 4 Corvette C8.R alongside Tommy Milner for the 2021 IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship season.
Tandy fills the role of longtime Corvette Racing driver Oliver Gavin, who elected to step away from the American squad at the end of the 2020 IMSA season. The Briton is a known talent in the IMSA paddock, having previously driven for the CORE Autosport-run Porsche GT Team. A sportscar racing veteran, he has 15 career IMSA victories to his name, including victories at the Rolex 24 At Daytona, the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring and Petit Le Mans. He also has overall wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, 24 Hours of Nurburgring and 24 Hours of Spa.
“Since I’ve been racing in IMSA and at Le Mans, Corvette Racing has been the team that everyone looks up to,” Tandy said in a statement. “Many operations aspire to get to the level that Corvette Racing operates at. It’s something I’ve always looked at, and it’s impressed me. The fact that the opportunity arose where I could join the team and stay racing within IMSA is a dream opportunity.”
Like Tandy, Sims also arrives at Corvette from one of its arch-rival teams: BMW. Sims frequently raced against the Corvette crew during his two seasons spent behind the wheel of a BMW GTLM in 2017 and 2018, but will now join Chevy as BMW prepares to wind its factory-backed GTE/GTLM program down. Sims also has victories at Petit Le Mans, the 24 Hours of Spa and 24 Hours of Nurburgring.
“During my two previous years in IMSA, it was clear the level that Corvette Racing is on,” Sims said. “I have such fantastic memories of battling with some of the Corvette guys, and some of those battles went against me! My appreciation and respect for Corvette Racing certainly increased. It’s a team that always seemed to be able to achieve a result, even if the track wasn’t one that suited its cars perfectly.”
With this change, the No. 3 Corvette C8.R will be piloted by Jordan Taylor and Antonio Garcia in 2021, while Nicky Catsburg will join for endurance events. The No. 4 sister car will feature Milner and Tandy with Sims joining for endurance races.
The first race of the 2021 IMSA season will be the Rolex 24 at Daytona, which will go green on January 30th, 2021. The team will be looking for strong results next season after taking both the GTLM driver’s and manufacturer’s championships in 2020.
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The C8R’s are the best, in my opinion, and will continue to dominate their class in Endurance Racing. When you consider that they are competing against the best from Porsche, Lamborghini, Ferrari, Ford GT, BMW, cars that cost two, three, and four times as much as a Corvette on the street…..this is truly amazing and speaks volumes for GM/Corvette Racing engineering….