BRASELTON, Ga. (October 12, 2024) – For the fourth time since 2015 – and first in GTD PRO – Chevrolet won the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup Manufacturers Championship – a collection of the five IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship races, including Petit Le Mans.
“It is very gratifying for Chevrolet to win our fourth IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup Manufacturers Championship,” said Mark Stielow, Director, Chevrolet Motorsports Competition Engineering. “We are very proud and pleased as a company to achieve this in the first year of the Corvette Z06 GT3.R in IMSA’s premier long-distance races.”
Those accomplishments offset a tough race for the two GTD PRO Corvettes from Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports. The No. 3 Z06 GT3.R of Antonio Garcia, Alexander Sims and Daniel Juncadella placed fifth in class after a frantic 10 hours that saw the trio lead three times but also suffer brake issues that required two extra pit stops in the race.
That the No. 3 team made the race was an achievement. The Corvette suffered right-rear chassis damage in a crash during Thursday’s night practice, and mechanics worked into early Friday morning to patch and weld the damaged portion back together. Garcia qualified the No. 3 Corvette fourth in class and remained in contention through to the end.
The result was good enough to clinch third place in the GTD PRO Drivers and Teams standings for Garcia and Sims, and the No. 3 Corvette team, respectively.
The Corvette Z06 GT3.R program will return to IMSA competition at January’s Rolex 24 At Daytona.
ALEXANDER SIMS, NO. 3 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “It was a typical Petit Le Mans. All sorts of things happened in the race, unfortunately probably one too many things for us. We had issues with the brakes early in the race with the caliper. We’re not entirely sure what happened when I went out toward the end. Immediately the brake pedal was really long… potentially a lack of fluid from the previous issues. We’ll diagnose and understand that better for the future. It put us one or two laps down. Although we finally got back on the lead lap, there were so many cars between myself and the leader that I couldn’t really make my way through enough. But I had fun. I had a really eventful last stint carving through a lot of GTD cars. I’d say the second half of the race was pretty clean. There were very few yellows and not too much mayhem. There was probably a lot less carnage than people expected. It was a joy to drive the Corvette as always. The whole Pratt Miller team did a great job to give us all a great, fast, consistent racecar after Thursday. I can’t thank them enough. Unfortunately we had those two issues that put us back too much.”
