After Sebring win, No. 3 Corvette looks for more success in 100-minute race

DETROIT (April 5, 2022) – After winning for the 12th time at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring three weeks ago, Corvette Racing moves to a completely different style of racing when it returns to the Long Beach (Calif.) street circuit for the continuation of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor will pilot the No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R in Saturday’s 100-minute Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach on the streets of southern California. It’s the third race for Corvette in the new GT Daytona (GTD) PRO class and first on a street circuit.

Garcia and Taylor sit second in GTD PRO points after two races, including their victory at Sebring with Nicky Catsburg. The goal is to continue adding to Corvette Racing’s lengthy list of successes, including those at Long Beach.
The team has won eight times at the circuit including a win last year for Tommy Milner and Nick Tandy in the now-extinct GT Le Mans (GTLM) category. Garcia and Taylor finished second and this time around face a tough field of five other manufacturers in GTD PRO.

The GTD PRO Corvette differs in several ways from the C8.R that ran at Long Beach in 2021. Chief among the differences are additional weight, restricted power and customer Michelin tires that are mandated for all GTD entries as opposed to Michelins specifically designed for the C8.R in GTLM trim.

The combination of moving to GTD PRO plus a 100-minute race places even more importance on qualifying than normal. With such a short race, there likely will be just one planned pit stop for fuel and change of tires and driver. With all 20 GTD cars having roughly the same performance levels, track position will be at a premium.

Chevrolet Motorsports Display On-Site at Long Beach

In addition to the many series and events on the racetrack at Long Beach, fans will have plenty to see and experience from Chevrolet. The Chevrolet’s Motorsports Display will be full of Chevy vehicles that spectators can learn more about throughout the weekend.

The Chevrolet Motorsports Display opens at 8 a.m. Friday through Sunday and is located in the Long Beach Convention Center. Numerous Chevrolet vehicles and other highlights include:

• The 2023 Corvette convertible 3LT
• Additional Chevrolet products such as Blazer RS, Trailblazer RS, Camaro 2SS 1LE, Silverado Trail Boss and
• A Corvette Racing C8.R showcar and LT6.R engine
• An opportunity to receive a 2022 Chevrolet t-shirt

The Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach is scheduled for 5:05 p.m. ET/2:05 p.m. PT on Saturday, April 9. The race will air live on USA and stream on Peacock starting at 5 p.m. ET/2 p.m. PT. IMSA Radio will air all on-track sessions beginning at IMSA.com along with XM 207 and SiriusXM Online 992.

ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: “Traffic won’t be such a factor because you won’t be lapping as many cars as you normally would. It’s more of a single-group deal and working your way through that. That race is always about qualifying and doing a perfect stop and driver change. I don’t see a lot of difference in GTLM and GTD PRO at Long Beach. I hope the car behaves as well as it did at Sebring because it was really good. I hope it’s as warm as possible. It feels like when we have those conditions and as we saw at Sebring, we have something of an advantage.”

JORDAN TAYLOR, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: “There’s going to be a lot to learn about this car and tire at pretty much every track we go to. We were shocked at how different things were at Sebring. It was a wake-up call to see how far the setups were from GTLM. Having seen success at Sebring gives us some promise that we know the right direction to take the Corvette. Long Beach is always a different animal but I can’t wait for it.”

CORVETTE RACING AT LONG BEACH: By the Numbers

• 1: As in one team, one manufacturer and one model of car for 14 years at Long Beach: Corvette Racing, Chevrolet and the Chevrolet Corvette.
• 3: Generations of Corvette Racing entries at Long Beach since 2007 –Corvette C6.R (2007-13) and Corvette C7.R (2014-2019) and Corvette C8.R (2021). All three generations have won at least once at Long Beach.
• 4: Number of Long Beach race victories for Corvette Racing’s duo of Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor.
• 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. Each driver has won at least once at Long Beach.
• 8: Number of Long Beach victories in 13 appearances for Corvette Racing – more than any other IMSA entrant at the circuit.
• 10: Number of Long Beach sports car victories for Chevrolet. Throw in 11 IndyCar wins, and Chevrolet has claimed 21 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.
• 25: 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, Portland, Road America, Road Atlanta, Sebring, Sonoma, St. Petersburg, Texas, Trois Rivieres, Utah, VIR, Washington DC and Watkins Glen.
• 30: Number of wins in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship for Corvette Racing since the start of 2014.
• 121: Victories worldwide for Corvette Racing – 113 in North America and eight at Le Mans.
• 253: Event starts by Corvette Racing since 1999.
• 3,945.82: Number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing in its 12 previous trips to Long Beach. That represents 2,005 laps around the 1.968-mile street circuit.
• 339,411.24: Total number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing since its inception. 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. That means Corvette Racing has raced to the moon… and then some!

Corvette Racing at Long Beach

2007
No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Jan Magnussen/Johnny O’Connell – 2nd in GT1 (Magnussen fastest race lap)
No. 4 Corvette C6.R: Olivier Beretta/Oliver Gavin – 1st in GT1 (Gavin pole)

2008
No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Johnny O’Connell/Jan Magnussen – 1st in GT1 (Magnussen pole)
No. 4 Corvette C6.R: Olivier Beretta/Oliver Gavin – 1st in GT1 (Gavin fastest race lap)

2009
No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Jan Magnussen/Johnny O’Connell – 2nd in GT1
No. 4 Corvette C6.R: Olivier Beretta/Oliver Gavin – 1st in GT1 (Beretta pole, fastest race lap)

2010
No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Jan Magnussen/Johnny O’Connell – 2nd in GT2
No. 4 Corvette C6.R: Oliver Gavin/Jan Magnussen – 9th in GT2 (Gavin fastest race lap)

2011
No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Olivier Beretta/Tommy Milner – 5th in GT
No. 4 Corvette C6.R: Oliver Gavin/Jan Magnussen – 2nd in GT (Magnussen fastest race lap)

2012
No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 4th in GT
No. 4 Corvette C6.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 1st in GT (Gavin fastest race lap)

2013
No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 5th in GT
No. 4 Corvette C6.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 4th in GT (Gavin fastest race lap)

2014
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 1st in GTLM (Magnussen pole)
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 3rd in GTLM (Milner fastest race lap)

2015
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 3rd in GTLM
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 7th in GTLM

2016
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 9th in GTLM
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 2nd in GTLM

2017
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 5th in GTLM (Magnussen pole)
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 1st in GTLM

2018
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 4th in GTLM
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 1st in GTLM

2019
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 2nd in GTLM
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 3rd in GTLM

2021
No. 3 Corvette C8.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 2nd in GTLM
No. 4 Corvette C8.R: Tommy Milner/Nick Tandy – 1st in GTLM

About Chevrolet
Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is now one of the world’s largest car brands, available in 80 countries with more than 3.2 million cars and trucks sold in 2020. Chevrolet models include electric and fuel-efficient vehicles that feature engaging performance, design that makes the heart beat, passive and active safety features and easy-to-use technology, all at a value. More information on Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.com.

Source: Corvette Racing