Corvette Racing clinched victory in the GTD class at the 2025 Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona, overcoming fierce competition in the iconic endurance race for the honors. The winning machine was the No. 13 Corvette Z06 GT3.R of AWA Racing, shared between Matt Bell, Orey Fidani, Lars Kern and Marvin Kirchhöfer, but it’s been pulled from the track and preserved as a memento to its defining victory – leaving the team without the use of its proven victor as they prepare for the 12 Hours of Sebring this weekend.
With the No. 13 Corvette Racing machine retired from competition, AWA Racing had to scramble to build a new race car for Sebring and beyond, a challenge for the customer team. But driver Matt Bell says that while it was an unforeseen obstacle, the team isn’t too far off its mark and thinks that the new No. 13 Vette will be just as successful as its predecessor.
“We had already planned to be running a new car to Le Mans, fortunately,” Bell said in a press release. “So the team having a second car available to us was already in the works, and we managed to speed up the delivery of that and the prep of that in order to get it turned around for the IMSA test.”
He added, “It’s not run in competition yet so this will be the car’s first race. When we jumped into the car it felt exactly the same as the previous one that we had. There’s always that little worry in the back of your mind – especially when you have a good result in a car – and the superstitious part of you doesn’t want to change the set of gloves that you’ve got. But we jumped in it, and it was like being in the original car.”
Bell praised Pratt Miller Motorsports and General Motors for their help in building the new No. 13 Corvette, but acknowledged that Sebring will be the ultimate test of the race car’s abilities. It’s a tough race, but one that will prove whether or not the race car is competition worthy.
“It was nice to retire the Season One car with such a big win,” he said. “Hopefully we can start another bit of the team’s history with this new car.”
The forthcoming 12 Hours of Sebring is scheduled for 10:10 a.m. EST on March 15th, 2025.
No Comments yet