Corvette Winning Streak Continues
The #3 Corvette C8.R took the fourth consecutive IMSA win for the new GLM machine, and the third for the #3 at VIR yesterday.
It was though a far from straightforward run to the flag as Antonio Garcia battled against major vibrations from a broken rear diffuser to just hold off a charging challenge from BMW and Porsche to take the win with Jordan Taylor.
“It took me a little bit (to know what was wrong), but the whole car was shaking a lot,” he said. “About 200 kph, the whole car was shaking a lot. It was coming from the rear.”
Garcia took the lead unexpectedly when Nick Tandy was forced to pit with a cut left rear tire with 18 minutes left in the two-hour, 40-minute race, then held off a charge from Bruno Spengler and Tandy to score Corvette Racing’s fourth consecutive victory – the #3 teammates won on July 4 at Daytona and earlier this month at Road America, while teammates Tommy Milner and Oliver Gavin won last month’s race at Sebring in the #4 C8.R – in the GT Le Mans (GTLM) class.
But Garcia didn’t think he’d be able to maintain that lead.
“I thought it was terminal because it was vibrating really bad,” Garcia said. “But once I got used to it and knew it wasn’t interfering with the performance, I knew I could handle it. With the gap I could manage to the BMW. It was stressful not knowing what would happen if the rear diffuser would have fallen off, but the C8.R held on.”
Tandy had a sizeable lead late in the race when the #911 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR-19 before his late, unscheduled pit stop. That gave the lead to Garcia’s #3 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C8.R he shared with Jordan Taylor. With the vibration causing him to back off, his lead over Spengler’s #25 BMW Team RLL BMW M8 GTE and Tandy’s #911 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR-19 began to evaporate.
As soon as Tandy drove to the pits, Garcia noticed the vibration.
“I saw him pull in the pits and I went by the front straight the whole thing started to shake a lot,” Garcia said. “So, the C8.R is also good with almost no rear diffuser or rear splitter. I’m very proud of that. Very proud that everything stayed in one piece even though it was very challenging to drive there at the end.”
From start to finish, the race threw unexpected challenges at drivers and teams. The #911 Porsche twice had flat tires. Just 22 minutes into the race, Fred Makowiecki experienced the first puncture, but pitted and regained the lead under caution just 13 minutes later.
Then, just when it looked as if Tandy would bring the #911 home to victory, he limped to the pits, then roared back to challenge Spengler for second place with a late charge that included the fastest lap of the race. In the end, Spengler, who teamed with Connor De Phillippi in the #25 BMW, held on for second, 3.521 seconds behind Garcia.
“For sure, it felt like an endurance race with all the issues people were having,” Taylor said. “Mistakes, going off the track, damage issues, tire issues. It was about minimizing mistakes. It’s not like an IMSA race to have that many issues. For us, we had the least amount of mistakes and that’s why we won.”
The victory allowed Taylor and Garcia to extend their WeatherTech Championship GTLM points lead to 19 – 165-146 – over the defending GTLM champions Earl Bamber and Laurens Vanthoor, who finished fifth in class today in the #912 Porsche.
Antonio Garcia: “Things are definitely going our way. We can’t complain about that! To do this, you need a fast car and a team to perform the whole time. We have that. We had our issues like the other teams did, but the main thing is that the ones we had were early so we could recover right away. Jordan did a really good job in his middle stint to drive back and maintain the gap behind the leaders. When I jumped in, the race was pretty much done. All I could do was keep some pressure on the 911 and not let him get away and have an easy race to the end. But we had our issues at the same time. They lost another tire and we had an issue with our diffuser. At first I thought it was terminal because it felt really bad. Once I got used to it, I could tell it wasn’t really interfering with the performance. I had enough of a gap to the 25 by about 12 or 13 seconds. With that, I could manage that in a way. It was very stressful to keep going but not knowing what would happen if the diffuser came off. Thankfully the C8.R is very strong all around! I’m very grateful for everyone at Team Chevy and Corvette Racing again. We just need to keep this momentum.”
DID YOU HAVE ANY CONTACT WITH ANYONE OR DID THE DIFFUSER COME LOOSE BY ITSELF?
“It just went. It was literally when I was watching the 911 go into the pitlane. At the same time, I had a massive vibration and I thought I had a tire blowing up. It was scary because it would have been a full lap back to the pits. Then I realized it was speed-related and wasn’t bad all the time. It took me three or four laps to be kind of cautious. Once I realized it was hanging on, I stepped up my pace a little bit more to make it difficult for the cars behind me to catch up. I was happy that traffic wasn’t too bad at that time and I could manage to stay ahead. ”
WHAT WERE YOU FEELING SPECIFICALLY BEHIND THE WHEEL, AND DID YOU KNOW WHAT IT WAS?
“It took me a little bit, but the whole car was shaking a lot. At about 200 kph, the entire car was shaking. I knew it was coming from the back, but even the front end and front grip were moving around. The rear grip definitely was the same so maybe we were a little bit faster down the straights after that! Who knows. It was challenging to drive. Once I figured out what lines to use and not hit the curbs to keep both tires on the ground, it went my way a little bit.”
Jordan Taylor: “My time in the car was good. The Corvette C8.R has a pretty good cooling system, so it was nicer in there than it was watching! Heading into the race, our main objective was points. Seeing how strong the Porsches were on pace, we knew they were going to be hard to beat. We focused on our own race, and it came to us in the end with attrition and not making mistakes. We made one little hiccup in the pits but we were able to recover from that pretty quickly. At the end, Antonio was able to maintain a gap to second when he needed to, even with the vibration at the end. He did a great job of overcoming that. It’s an amazing day for Corvette Racing – the fourth win for the C8.R and third win for us. I’m definitely happy with this part of the season.”
Frédéric Makowiecki: “I’m absolutely gutted. To be honest, this third place is the saddest podium of my career. We were so strong this weekend. In fact, our team dominated the weekend. It’s just terrible that third was the best we could do. This result is so unjust for the team, the car and us drivers. And it also makes me sad that we’re falling further and further down the rankings in the championship. We really don’t deserve that.”
Turner BMW Takes GTD Win – Auberlen Takes Record-Breaking 61st IMSA Win
Sometimes, just sometimes a storyline within a storyline becomes the bigger story – and the GTD class result at VIR was just such an occasion.
Bill Auberlen sealed the deal bringing home the #96 Turner Motorsport BMW M6 GT3 home to the win, the car started by team-mate Robbie Foley.
In doing so he took his 61st IMSA career victory, and now holds the overall record after tying at 60 with Scott Pruett since Petit Le Mans last year.
“It’s amazing,” Auberlen said. “I said my best career win was Petit Le Mans last year (win No. 60); I think this one has to top it. … It is probably the best win of my career. To do it with Robby, Turner, BMW, everybody, I’m super happy.”
Foley put the #96 in position to win as the opening driver in the two-hour, 40-minute race. Starting second in class, he gunned past GTD Motul Pole Award winner Corey Fergus in the #76 Compass Racing McLaren 720S GT3 on the first lap and led the first hour. Foley remained near the front through varying pit strategies and was leading again when he turned over the No. 96 BMW to Auberlen with just under an hour remaining.
Once final pit stops cycled through, Auberlen led the final 53 minutes. He faced a strong challenge from the charging #86 Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian Acura NSX GT3, until driver Mario Farnbacher made an ambitious dive for the lead heading into Turn 1 with 43 minutes remaining. Farnbacher locked his brakes and slid into the grass, as Auberlen scooted away unscathed.
“He had a very fast car; that Acura was super quick,” Auberlen observed of Farnbacher. “I knew he was going to make an attempt on that lap because he was the closest he had been. Luckily, he really shoved it in and overshot it. And I was prepared for it; that’s why I didn’t turn in as he was sailing by. It gave me a gap to second place and then second, third and fourth had to battle together, and then I could just put my head down and run my laps as hard as I could all the way to the end.”
Win No. 61 came 27 years after Auberlen’s first, earned at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin in July 1993. And while the closing minutes in Saturday’s record-setter weren’t pressure-packed from the outside, he admitted to big-time jitters as the laps wound down.
“This was the most nerve-racking hour of my life,” Auberlen said. “When I got to about 35 minutes, every little calculated mistake or whatever I was making, I would talk to myself: ‘Don’t blow this!’ This time it was all in my head, trying not to screw up, get this monkey off my back. Now we can put our head down for the season and try to win this championship.”
“I am humbled to own this record and dedicate it to my mom and dad. My thanks to BMW for having the faith in me to sign me back in 1996. I have been lucky to have many great co-drivers and Robby (Foley) was the man today, driving two great stints and making it look easy. To everyone at Turner Motorsport, my second home, I’m delighted to have shared this with you all. Now, let’s go see about win number 62.”
For his part, Foley was thrilled to be part of the historic day when he scored his third career IMSA win.
“It’s amazing to be a part of, just to have the opportunity to race with Bill and the guys at Turner,” Foley said. “(Team owner) Will (Turner) and his entire team have given me a great chance to kind of start my career at this level. It’s now my second full year in this.
“To have a guy like Bill as my teammate to lean on a little bit and just watch how he does things and performs and learn off him is just an amazing opportunity,” Foley added. “To be a very small part of his historic career is a humbling experience but also fun to be a part of.”
After his ill-fated attempt to take the lead, Farnbacher dropped to fourth place before making a frantic comeback to finish second with co-driver Matt McMurry. Farnbacher overtook Lawson Aschenbach in the #74 Riley Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 for third place with 11 minutes left on the clock.
Then, on the last lap while tangling with a pair of GT Le Mans (GTLM) class cars, Farnbacher was able to slip past Bryan Sellers in the #48 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 to salvage second place.
The #48, meanwhile, crossed the finish line third but was later moved to the rear of the field when post-race technical inspection revealed a fuel-capacity infraction. That elevated the #74 Mercedes to the final spot on the GTD podium.