It was a great weekend to be behind the wheel of a Corvette Racing machine in the World Endurance Championship and IMSA, as both divisions proved to be extremely successful for The Bow Tie on July 9th, 2023.
Things kicked off at Monza, where Nicky Catsburg, Ben Keating and Nico Varrone tackled a six-hour endurance race to finish fourth in the WEC event. While that in itself may not be overly impressive, considering the consistent run that Corvette Racing has had this year, it was enough to secure the WEC championship, two races before the season concludes. As it stands right now, Corvette Racing has a 78-point lead, with only 67 more points up for grabs this season.
“This year has really been a lot about doing it as a team,” Catsburg said. “And my team-mates also Nico and Ben deserve a big credit. I feel that, okay, I am doing a good job, I am comparing to all the other platinums, but they are outstanding in their class.”
Just a few hours later, Corvette Racing went out and won in the GTD Pro class at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park (formerly Mosport), with the No. 3 Corvette C8.R of Jordan Taylor and Antonio Garcia finding Victory Lane in IMSA for the first time in 2023. The No. 3 ‘Vette leaped into the lead after the No. 9 Porsche 911 of Klaus Bachler and Patrick Pilet and the No. 14 Lexus RF of Jack Hawksworth and Ben Barnicoat made contact, opening the door for the ‘Vette team.
“A very good day. I don’t think it could have gone much better,” said Taylor “We have our remote ops here as well, so during our pre-race meeting and warmup we were listening to their intercom and what was going on there. [Chief Engineer] Kyle Millay is usually on the WEC side, but he came here this weekend and they were still talking to him here during our pre-race meeting about strategy for there.”
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Comment
I missed the race. My dvr didn’t record it. I didn’t know they were racing last Sunday.