Corvette Racing Takes GTD Street Fight to Long Beach

CORVETTE RACING AT LONG BEACH: GTD Street Fight

Fidani, Bell set for season’s first street race in No. 13 AWA Corvette

DETROIT (April 17, 2024) – The next chapter in the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R program gets under way this weekend with the first street race for the first-year racecar in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

Orey Fidani, Matt Bell and AWA are set for their first appearance at the Grand Prix of Long Beach, the third round of this year’s GT Daytona (GTD) championship. The 100-minute race features a 27-car grid including 17 production-based GT entries – including the No. 13 Corvette Z06 GT3.R.

The AWA duo is coming off ninth-place class finish in last month’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Cadillac. This time around it’s an all-out sprint race for the No. 13 Corvette with close-quarters racing the norm between the concrete barriers along the 1.968-mile, 11-turn Long Beach street circuit.

Chevrolet and the Corvette brand have been a fixture at Long Beach since the Corvette Racing program first visited Long Beach in 2007. In 15 visits, Corvette GT cars have captured eight victories with two additional in the Corvette Daytona Prototype era. Combined with results from the NTT INDYCAR SERIES, Chevrolet boasts a total of 22 victories in the Grand Prix’s two premier events.

Orey Fidani, Matt Bell and AWA are set for their first appearance at the Grand Prix of Long Beach, the third round of this year’s GT Daytona (GTD) championship. The 100-minute race features a 27-car grid including 17 production-based GT entries – including the No. 13 Corvette Z06 GT3.R.

The Grand Prix of Long Beach for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship is scheduled for 4:35 p.m. ET on Saturday, April 20. The race will air live on USA Network starting at 4:30 p.m. ET with full streaming coverage also on Peacock. IMSA Radio will air Friday’s 5 p.m. ET qualifying and the race at IMSA.com with Sirius 211, XM 206, SiriusXM Online 996 also providing radio coverage of the race.

OREY FIDANI, NO. 13 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “It’s a privilege to be able to be a part of such a historic event. This is a very challenging circuit that requires a lot of focus since the margin of error is so small, but we made some solid progress at Sebring. We’re taking steps in the right direction and doing everything we can to be more and more competitive as the season goes on. The team is working hard as always to give us a great car, and I believe we have some good opportunities to do well in this round.”

MATT BELL, NO. 13 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “Long Beach will be an exciting new challenge for Orey and myself, as we have never been there before. I’VE watched the race many times over the years and always wanted to race there, I’m glad the wait is finally over!

“Our pace and performance across the week at Sebring gave us a good boost of confidence, and I’ve been told that Long Beach has many similar characteristics, so despite the fact that this is a new circuit for us and we have some gaps in knowledge to fill, I have no doubt that AWA and Corvette will give us a car capable of getting a strong result.”

2024 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Points

GTD Drivers Standings

1. Indy Dontje/Philip Ellis/Russell Ward – 725
2. Antonio Fuoco/Giorgio Sernagiotto/Roberto Lacorte – 589
3. Adam Adelson/Elliott Skeer/Jan Heylen – 570
4. Albert Costa Balboa/Cedric Sbirrazzuoli/Manny Franco – 545
5. Francois Heriau/Miguel Molina/Simon Mann – 485
6. Lars Kern/Matthew Bell/Orey Fidani – 347

GTD Teams Standings

1. No. 57 Windward Racing – 725
2. No. 47 Cetilar Racing – 589
3. No. 120 Wright Motorsports – 570
4. No. 34 Conquest Racing – 545
5. No. 21 AF Corse – 485
6. No. 13 AWA – 347

GTD Manufacturers Standings

1. Mercedes-AMG – 751
2. Porsche – 634
3. Lamborghini – 616
4. McLaren – 550
5. Lexus – 527
6. Chevrolet – 505

CORVETTE RACING BY THE NUMBERS: Long Beach

• 3: Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs in competition this weekend – No. 13 of AWA at Long Beach, No. 81 and No. 82 of TF Sport at Imola
• 4: Generations of Corvette ZR1 (C3, C4, C6 and C7). The eighth-generation Corvette ZR1 will be revealed this summer
• 6: Iterations of Corvette GT entries at Long Beach since 2007 – Corvette C6.R GT1 (2007-09, Corvette C6.R GT2/GT (2010-13), Corvette C7.R (2014-2019), Corvette C8.R GTE (2021), Corvette C8.R GTD (2022-2023) and now the Corvette Z06 GT3.R
• 8: Number of drivers who have competed at Long Beach for Corvette Racing – Olivier Beretta, Antonio Garcia, Oliver Gavin, Jan Magnussen, Tommy Milner, Johnny O’Connell, Nick Tandy and Jordan Taylor. That list grows this year with addition of Orey Fidani and Matt Bell in the No. 13 AWA Corvette Z06 GT3.R
• 8: Number of Long Beach victories in 15 appearances for the Corvette Racing program
• 10: Number of Long Beach sports car victories for Chevrolet. Throw in 12 IndyCar wins, and Chevrolet has claimed 22 victories in the event’s two premier races.
• 14: Manufacturer Championships for Chevrolet and Corvette Racing since 2001
• 19: Number of street circuit victories for Corvette Racing – more than any other IMSA entrant at the circuit.
• 27: Tracks at which Corvette Racing has won races – Baltimore, Charlotte Motor Speedway, COTA, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park/Mosport, Daytona, Detroit, Houston, Laguna Seca, Le Mans, Lime Rock, Long Beach, Miami, Mid-Ohio, Monza, Portimão, Portland, Road America, Road Atlanta, Sebring, Sonoma, St. Petersburg, Texas, Trois Rivieres, Utah, VIR, Washington DC and Watkins Glen
• 45: Number of drivers in Corvette Racing entries since 1999. Rui Andrade, Sebastien Baud, Hiroshi Koizumi and Tom Van Rompuy joined the list at Qatar to open the WEC season
• 71: Years since Corvette was introduced to the world on Jan. 17, 1953 in New York City. A total of 300 cars were produced that year
• 127: Victories worldwide for Corvette Racing – 115 in North America, nine at Le Mans and three in the FIA WEC
• 287: Event starts by Corvette Racing since 1999
• 4,225.27: Number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing in its 15 previous trips to Long Beach. That represents 2,147 laps around the 1.968-mile street circuit.
• 371,612.71: Total number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing entries since 1999. To put that in perspective, Corvette Racing is more than halfway to the distance traveled by Apollo 13 – the longest manned spaceflight in history: 622,268 miles