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MONTEREY, Calif. (May 12, 2024) – Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports climbed the GTD PRO podium for the first time this season as Nicky Catsburg and Tommy Milner finished third Sunday at the Motul Corse de Monterey at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R led the Corvette GT3 effort in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s annual stop in Monterey. Antonio Garcia and Alexander Sims finished fifth in GTD PRO in the No. 3 Corvette, which had its race compromised by an early full-course caution.
In GTD, the AWA duo of Matt Bell and Orey Fidani placed 11th in class with the No. 13 Corvette Z06 GT3.R but won the Bob Akin Award, which goes to the highest-finishing GTD entry with a Bronze driver.
Catsburg led early in GTD PRO from pole position and a strong pace early with Garcia right behind. The two Corvettes consistently ran within one second of each other while building a gap of upwards of three seconds to the third-place car in class.
Catsburg was the first of the Z06 GT3.Rs to make its first stop with four tires, fuel and a driver change to Milner at the 45-minute mark. But an issue on the pit stop and then a full-course yellow near the 50-minute mark turned the race on its head.
Garcia was set to pit the No. 3 Corvette when the yellow came out but had to wait until the GT pits opened with the field behind the safety car. He handed over to Sims, who left the pits in seventh place and mired in out-of-class GTD traffic. Meanwhile, Milner restarted second in class but was shuffled back to third by the eventual class-winner not long after the green flag dropped.
The No. 3 Corvette was the first of the GTD PRO contenders to make its final stop, opting for right-side tires and fuel with less than 70 minutes left. The strategy pushed Sims from sixth when he entered the pitlane to fourth after the class pit cycle ended. Milner came back in for four tires and fuel about 10 minutes later after inheriting the lead and re-emerged third. The rest of the race went green with the Corvettes unable to make up ground in traffic.
The AWA Corvette had a noteworthy day, as well. Fidani drove the first 46 minutes from the seventh row of the GTD grid, and Bell moved the car into the top-10 just past the midpoint of the race. The team had to serve a drive-through penalty after its final pit stop due to a pitlane infraction, but Bell raced his way up three spots to secure the Akin award for AWA. Winning the season championship is the main objective for the team, which would earn an automatic entry into the 2025 24 Hours of Le Mans. The next IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship event for the Corvette Z06 GT3.R program is the Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic on the streets of downtown Detroit on Saturday, June 1.
Content and image provided by Ryan Smith
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