Corvette Racing Just Misses Podium At Laguna Seca, Retains Championship Lead
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Corvette Racing narrowly missed the podium in IMSA WeatherTech competition at Laguna Seca this weekend, a positive result given the rather significant amount of ballast the team was handed via pre-race Balance of Performance adjustments.
Jordan Taylor started from the back of the GTD Pro grid on Sunday after the team struggled for pace in Saturday’s qualifying session, with the American driver posting a time that was a full second off the pole-sitting Porsche 911 of Pfaff Motorsports. This put the team on a three-stop strategy for the race, with Taylor diving into the pits for fuel and tires just 25 minutes into the two-hour, 40-minute sprint. A full course caution then came out two laps later, with Corvette Racing calling Taylor back in for a brief fuel top off. This shuffled Taylor to the front of the GTD Pro field, as rival teams were stuck in the pits taking more fuel.
Rather unfortunately, Taylor fell through the order when the green flag came back out and then made slight contact with another GTD Pro car, but he was able to continue on. The 30-year-old drove a mistake-free stint for another 57 minutes before handing driving duties over to Antonio Garcia for the 60-minute sprint to the chequered flag. A podium spot looked within reach as Garcia methodically reeled in the No. 25 BMW M4 GT3 of Conor de Phillipi, however the abundance of lapped traffic on the rather tight 11-turn road course meant he was unable to use the superior pace of the Corvette C8.R to its full advantage, forcing the Spaniard had to settle for fourth position. The strong result ensured Corvette Racing retained its GTD Pro championship lead over Pfaff, however, with the Chevy squad now leading the Porsche team 990 points to 960 points.
It was a tough day for the Cadillacs in the DPi class, meanwhile, with the two Acura ARX-05 entries securing a 1-2 finish ahead of the No. 31 Cadillac DPi-V.R of Whelen Engineering. The Cadillacs appeared to struggle for pace all weekend long compared to the two Acuras, so GM prototype teams will certainly be hoping for a better result when the IMSA season continues at Mid Ohio in two weeks’ time.
Click here for full results from IMSA Laguna Seca.
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So HOW MUCH “ballast” was added to the Vette by the knee-jerkers at IMSA after the foreign-vehicle racing brigade whined and cried ? Apparently…far too much….again !
176lbs. and a 12% reduction in air intake area(!).(-as per Sam’s previous report, a while ago)
Folks they will see an adjustment at Mid Ohio.
The ugly truth is if they had not been given breaks already this car would not be competitive in this class.
GM is using a GTLM car with tires not designed for it and weight not placed where it was designed to go. They will need this car one more season as the new car is designed and built.
The differences in the rules and cars do not make for cars jumping classes easy here. BMW is getting the same changes.
BoP killed the race for the C8-R period. IDC what anyone says to justify 176 lbs and breathing threw a straw to breath, is not worth watching, which I didn’t. Can’t watch a losing race when you know the outcome.
I watched teams from GTD tell us they want to move to GTD PRO because they have competitive cars and can compete with the old GTLM cars moving to GTD PRO, which they can’t… oops, BoP can change that as we’ve seen.
If NoP isn’t charged, I will not watch the race again. My choice…