Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports

Inter Europol, Corvette celebrate day of IMSA firsts at CTMP

Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports took its first win of the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship season, holding on through a 9m sprint finish to win the Chevrolet Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. Nick Boulle started the race …

Nick Boulle started the race and gained the early advantage once polesitter PJ Hyett was given an early drive-through penalty for moving out of line at the start of the race. From there, Tom Dillmann took over and maintained the green and yellow No. 52 ORECA LMP2 07’s advantage, keeping the No. 11 TDS Racing ORECA of Steven Thomas and Scott Huffaker behind.

With less than 20m left, Ryan Dalziel crashed in the Esses to bring out a full course yellow — just after Felipe Fraga in the No. 74 Riley ORECA had overtaken Huffaker for second place.

Fraga closed to within a second of Dillmann with two laps left, but Dillmann’s masterful maneuvering through traffic allowed him to hold Fraga at bay for the victory — the first win for Inter Europol Competition in IMSA, and the first IMSA win for both drivers.

Fraga and Gar Robinson finished second, just 0.658s away from their first win of the year, while the No. 11 TDS ORECA of Thomas and Huffaker completed the overall podium in third.

Behind them were the two United Autosports USA ORECAs, the No. 2 (Ben Keating/Ben Hanley) and the No. 22 (Daniel Goldburg/Filipe Albuquerque) in fourth and fifth; the No. 8 Tower Motorsport Oreca (John Farano/Renger van der Zande) came home sixth.

The No. 99 AO Racing ORECA of Hyett and Louis Deletraz dropped to eighth after Deletraz spun following contact with the No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR ORECA (George Kurtz/Colin Braun), which finished just ahead of them in seventh.

Robinson and Fraga now lead the LMP2 championship with three races remaining in their season, but only by 12 points over Boulle and Dillmann. Robinson also took the lead in the Jim Trueman Award standings, with Boulle just 20 points behind him in the race for the golden ticket to next year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.

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The new Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R took its long-awaited maiden victory in IMSA competition — via a 1-2 finish for Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports in GTD Pro.

The No. 3 Corvette of Antonio Garcia and Alexander Sims scored the victory, just ahead of the No. 4 of Nicky Catsburg, and Tommy Milner, who previously gave the Z06 GT3.R its first win in GT World Challenge America earlier this year.

Sims and Garcia led almost the entire 2h40m race, only surrendering the lead during the first round of routine pit stops. This came just after Dennis Andersen crashed his No. 20 MDK by High Class Racing Oreca at Turn 9, which led to the first full course yellow of the race.

While the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R of Laurin Heinrich and Seb Priaulx just held on for third place, the two were the winners in terms of the GTD Pro championship battle — after the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 (Jack Hawksworth/Ben Barnicoat) retired with 30m left due to a suspected engine failure.

The No. 64 Ford Multimatic Motorsports Mustang GT3 (Harry Tincknell/Mike Rockenfeller) and the No. 23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 (Ross Gunn/Mario Farnbacher) rounded out the top five in GTD Pro, with the red plaid No. 9 Pfaff Motorsport McLaren GT3 Evo (Oliver Jarvis/Marvin Kirchhofer) sixth in the team’s home race.

For the second time in three years, Ontario native Roman de Angelis won his home race in the GTD class. This time, veteran driver Spencer Pumpelly was his co-pilot as the No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin finally got its first win in 2024, in what has been a tough season for them.

Pumpelly took the lead just after half-distance, taking advantage of a spin from Turner Motorsport’s Patrick Gallagher, and he and de Angelis never relinquished the advantage.

The No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Russell Ward and Philip Ellis extended their massive GTD championship points lead with a second-place finish in class, while the No. 70 Inception Racing McLaren of Brendan Iribe and Frederik Schandorff put on a late charge to take third place from the No. 96 Turner BMW of Gallagher and Robby Foley.

Rounding out the top five in GTD was the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus (Frankie Montecalvo/Parker Thompson).

The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship returns with all four classes in action at Road America on August 4.

RESULTS

Commanding the start: Looking for advantages with front-row lockout

“We’re racing here at Detroit, it’s a short sprint race for us, just 100 minutes, and we’re on a narrow street circuit,” begins Nick Tandy, who scored the pole for today’s Chevrolet Sports Car Classic in the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsports 963 …

“So it makes the emphasis on qualifying even greater, of course. To have control of the pole position is mega for the start … but to have the front row to be able to control what’s happening into the first corner is a huge benefit for the team.”

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Tandy’s teammate Dane Cameron will start alongside in the No. 7 963 he’ll hand over to Felipe Nasr. Teammates starting side-by side on the front row can be a huge advantage if executed correctly. Of course, Tandy hopes they execute so well that the race, frankly, isn’t very exciting.

“We’re obviously very much now looking forward to the race and hoping that it’s going to be a very boring affair for everyone outside. But that’s the way that it will make it the best race for us, of course.”

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The PPM 963s weren’t the only front-row lockout in qualifying. The two Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Z06 GT3.Rs will lead the GTD PRO field to the green, courtesy of Antonio Garcia’s pole lap in the No. 3, and Tommy Milner putting the No. 4 on the outside of the front row. The team achieved the same feat in the last outing at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, Nicky Catsburg taking pole in the No.4 over Garcia. That one didn’t work out as intended, but Laguna Seca isn’t a narrow street circuit.

“It was definitely the first goal of the weekend,” declared Garcia. “We knew this track was going to be really tough to pass. So obviously to be up front and actually have Tommy beside me into Turn 1, actually, it’s kind of nice – not only to be all around (General Motors’ headquarters Renaissance Center) and have the both Corvettes on the front row.

“It’s definitely the best possible start we can have, and let’s see if we can finish what we didn’t at Laguna with the same one-two. We just have to run a cleaner run than the one we had there.”

Front-row sweeps are nice, but its hard to maintain the advantage throughout the race as traffic and pit stops come into play. And if the teams decide to split strategies between two cars, then it’s nearly impossible to keep them together and maintain the veneer of invincibility that two teammates leading a race provides.

If nothing else, a one-two qualifying is a great morale booster for the entire team. Both teams have major Detroit ties, too. The race is Roger Penske’s baby, conducted in the hometown of Penske Corporation. The race runs around GM’s headquarters, and Pratt Miller is not far away in New Hudson, Mich. As for building and maintaining momentum, Corvette Racing by PMM is looking to get the ball rolling with the first win for the Z06 GT3.R. PPM is a two-time winner so far in 2024, and the IndyCar Series side of the operation is coming off of massive success at the Indy 500.

“Detroit being one of Roger’s home events, let’s say the Penske Corporation, along with what’s going on with IndyCar … it’s a great thing,” said Tandy. “It’s following on from momentum that we’ve built as a team since the back end of last year across two championships with Porsche Penske Motorsport.

“Personally, it’s great to be the building on the momentum that we’ve got on the [No.] 6 side since since the win at Laguna Seca.”

Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports to campaign two GTD PRO Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs in 2024

A partnership that has lasted a quarter century continues into 2024 and the competition introduction of the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, as Chevrolet and Pratt Miller Motorsports have announced the creation of Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller …

Starting with the 2024 Rolex 24 At Daytona, Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports will campaign a pair of the new-for-2024, GT3-spec Corvettes for a full season in the GT Daytona (GTD) PRO category of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. The factory-supported effort is the first of two 2024 WeatherTech Championship programs that feature the Corvette Z06 GT3.R to be confirmed, with additional customer programs set to announce in the coming weeks.

The link-up between Chevrolet and Pratt Miller Motorsports (PMM), which has been developing the new GT3 car with Chevrolet and will build the cars, was expected as it’s a natural fit. The current full-factory Corvette Racing program is in the midst of its 25th season with 125 race victories to date, the most recent coming at the 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans for the team’s ninth class win and its first in GTE-Am.

“Chevrolet and Pratt Miller have collaborated for more than 25 years on the Corvette Racing program, and we are thrilled that we are able to continue together into the GT3 era,” said Christie Bagne, Corvette Z06 GT3.R Program Manager.

General Motors had previously confirmed the cessation of a factory team with the advent of its first in-house customer GT3 car. Corvette Z06 GT3.R customer teams will compete under the umbrella of Corvette Racing, which also will include customer and technical support.

“It makes sense to have Corvette Racing with Pratt Miller Motorsports lead the competition element of the Z06 GT3.R program in the GTD PRO championship starting in 2024,” Bagne said.

“We couldn’t have a better representative than the same group that has been part of the development, build and testing processes for our new Corvette racecar. The learnings we will take from testing and competition will flow to our other Z06 GT3.R customer teams to ensure that the Corvette brand is a championship contender around the world.”

The Corvette Z06 GT3.R is currently undergoing final homologation testing in Europe after nearly 5500 miles of testing since September of last year. Additional testing is planned through the summer and fall to fine-tune the car for the multiple brands of tires used in various GT3-based championships around the world such as WEC (beginning in 2024), GT World Challenge and the 24 Hour Series.

“This is an exciting time for everyone at Pratt Miller,” said Brandon Widmer, Pratt Miller Vice President, Motorsports. “We’ve experienced a lot of successes, race wins and championships with Chevrolet through the Corvette Racing program. Now we move into the GT3 era. Everyone is pleased with the progress of our testing and development programs, and new car builds are under way.

“We’re appreciative of the decades-long relationship with Chevrolet. Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports is looking forward to continue showing our expertise in race operations and management to our fans, our commercial partners and new prospects as we go forward.”

In addition to the GTD PRO team and a customer team in GTD, customer teams are expected to race in WEC and Fanatec GT World Challenge America Presented by AWS in 2024. Those teams will be named at a later date, as will the driver lineup for Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports.