Bradan Donaldson
Before enjoying the wide open space at Road America and Le Mans coming up, the Corvette Racing team will get a taste of short-track racing this weekend at Lime Rock
CORVETTE RACING AT LIME ROCK: C8.R Goes Short-Track Racing
· First race for mid-engine Corvette at scenic but tough 1.5-mile layout
· Garcia, Taylor enter on two-race win streak
· Milner revisits site of 100th Corvette Racing win
DETROIT (July 13, 2021) – With the wide-open spaces of Road America and Le Mans on the horizon, Corvette Racing will get a taste of short-track racing – sports car style – when it returns to Lime Rock Park this weekend.
Saturday’s Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock is a GT-only event for Corvette Racing’s pair of mid-engine Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.Rs and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s GT competitors. The seven-turn, 1.474-mile circuit in the northwestern corner of Connecticut gives Corvette Racing, a five-time winner at Lime Rock, a shot at an overall race victory during one of the busiest races on the calendar.
Race laps for GT Le Mans (GTLM) cars will be around 50 seconds during the two-hour, 40-minute race. If all goes according to plan, that means the pair of racing Corvettes will start to overtake slower GT Daytona (GTD) cars within 20 minutes of the green flag.
Like Watkins Glen within the last month, Lime Rock Park was a venue at which the Corvette C8.R didn’t compete during its debut season. That didn’t impact the team during the back-to-back weekends at Watkins Glen, however, when Corvette Racing took the race win, pole position and fastest race lap in both the six-hour enduro and two-hour, 40-minute sprint race.
Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor, co-drivers in the No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Corvette C8.R, swept the Watkins Glen weekends to extend their lead in the GTLM Drivers Championship as well as Chevrolet’s in the Manufacturers standings. They are ahead of No. 4 Corvette drivers Tommy Milner and Nick Tandy, who narrowly missing out on victories at The Glen.
Taylor (2013 GRAND-AM DP) and Milner (2016 GTLM) each have previous victories at Lime Rock. Garcia (2018 GTLM) and Taylor (2010 GRAND-AM GT) have won pole positions at the track in the past. Garcia also set the fastest race lap in 2017, followed by Tandy doing the same in 2018 and 2019.
Corvette Racing will contest the Northeast Grand Prix from Lime Rock Park on July 16-17. The race will air at 5:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, July 17 with live streaming coverage on TrackPass and NBC Sports Gold at 3:05 p.m. ET. Live audio coverage from IMSA Radio will be available on IMSA.com, Sirius 216, XM 202 and SiriusXM Online 992.
ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: “Lime Rock should be good for us. I don’t see any track where the C8.R shouldn’t be good. I’m looking forward to going back there. In a lot of ways it feels like the longest race of the year. You’re running three hours with 50-second laps so it’s very challenging. The 10 laps before you get into traffic are pretty calm. After that, it’s very tough. There is no rest there. In a good qualifying run if you run all session, could be a 20-lap attempt. That’s half-a-stint at most tracks we go to. Mentally it’s demanding because of that.”
JORDAN TAYLOR, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: “It’s been awhile since I’ve been to Lime Rock. The last time I raced there was 2013 in GRAND-AM when we won the race and the championship that weekend, so there are good memories. It’s a tough place and usually an intense race. I think every year I’ve watched the GT race, there have always been crazy battles with the different classes and how tough it is to pass. It’s one that’s been on the list that looks difficult so it will be a good experience. Pit stop execution will be huge. It’s a short lap and Lime Rock will be a track position race. Driver changes, tire changes and fueling will have to be the best of the year.”
TOMMY MILNER, NO. 4 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: “I have really great memories from Lime Rock in 2016 and getting the 100th win for Corvette Racing with Oliver Gavin. It obviously was a special day for me and the team. Lime Rock will be a good challenge to go there with the C8.R for the first time. It’s a pretty unique racetrack all things considered. In a lot of ways, it’s an oval so you set the car up to pretty much only turn right. We’ll have our work cut out to figure that out with a new car. Based on all the work we’ve done so far and all the results we’ve had, I don’t see there any real major hurdles to getting to a good spot.”
NICK TANDY, NO. 4 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: “I really like Lime Rock. The track is quick but it’s so intense. It reminds me a little bit of my short-oval background in that you’re always in the corners, you’re always in traffic. The car, the tire and the driver never get a break. You’re in traffic pretty much all the time. A stint at Le Mans is around 14 laps, and you get time to relax. A stint at Lime Rock is like 60 laps and there is constantly something going on. You feel it physically as a driver because it’s usually super-hot. It’s intense on the physical and mental sides. The GTLM cars being as fast as they are, it’s a good workout and good fun.”
Source: Corvette Racing
Chime in with your thoughts in the forums!
