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Press Release CORVETTE RACING AT CTMP: SPOILER ALERT

cor123

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PRESS RELEASE:
Garcia, Taylor take runner-up GTD PRO finish in return to Canada


CORVETTE RACING AT CTMP: No. 3 Corvette Back on Podium
Garcia, Taylor take runner-up GTD PRO finish in return to Canada

BOWMANVILLE, Ontario (July 3, 2022) – Corvette Racing’s Antonio Garcia and
Jordan Taylor made their way back onto the GT Daytona (GTD) PRO podium
Sunday as the No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R placed second
at the Chevrolet Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.


It’s the first podium for the Corvette duo since April’s race at Long Beach
for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. The result boosted Garcia
and Taylor back into second place in the GTD PRO Drivers Championship, with
Chevrolet moving to second in the Manufacturers Championship with four races
left in the season.


The No. 3 Corvette finished 1.115 seconds behind the winning No. 9 Porsche,
which led all but nine of 111 laps.


A couple of early-race caution periods Sunday forced Corvette Racing
engineers to alter the team’s pre-race plan. Starting fourth, Taylor drove a
double-stint and moved up a spot at the start when one of the front-row GTD
cars went around at the first corner. The No. 3 Corvette was on the inside
line and got through the incident unscathed.


For the next hour and 40 minutes, Taylor was part of a three-car train of
GTD PRO leaders that rarely were separated by more than one second. Taylor
expertly saved fuel and his Michelin tires while at the same time maximizing
the performance of the C8.R to remain with the leaders.


His persistence paid off when he made a lunge on the far end of the circuit
to take second with 75 minutes to go. The No. 3 Corvette stopped for the
second time with 64 minutes left as Garcia took over with full fuel and four
fresh Michelin tires.


Two more yellows interrupted Garcia’s charge, which hampered what Corvette
Racing hoped was an advantage on long runs. But every time Garcia got close
to the Porsche, it would pull away again to about a lead of one second to
the end of the race.


Corvette Racing’s next event in IMSA is the Northeast Grand Prix on July
15-16 from Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, Conn.


ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – FINISHED
SECOND IN GTD PRO: "We gave it our all. It was a perfect race for us. We
finished second, and that's all we had. We pushed the winning car, but it
wasn't enough. Next race, we'll try to go a little faster and do something
different. This is what it also takes to win championships. So we need to
stay in contact, and I'm sure the wins will come."
Dealing with traffic: "It wasn't easy. With the prototype traffic being so
much faster than us, it was difficult to really get a chance to get close to
the Porsche. Whenever the prototypes would pass, they would go and there
would be another one pretty soon. Maybe with more LMP3s there would have
been more of a chance to do something different. With the DPis being so much
faster than us - especially with their cornering - it wasn't ideal to try to
work traffic in your favor. Now that we are in the slowest category instead
of GTLM, you don't have those opportunities to use traffic. All the traffic
you're in is going by. It's difficult to use that in your favor."
The last 20 minutes: "I think it felt like the Porsche was showing what they
had to show. Whenever we would stop saving fuel or tires, it felt like they
had some in reserve. We thought that without those two yellows and a more
consistent stint, maybe we would have had a chance. Up until the last yellow
I was saving the tires, but on the last yellow we knew it would be a race to
the end. We both went 100 percent. They just had more. Every second I lost
in traffic, it took five or six laps to get that back. It was difficult but
in general we did a perfect race. We started fifth and finished second, so
we gained a lot today."


JORDAN TAYLOR, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – FINISHED
SECOND IN GTD PRO:"It was action-packed! The start was hectic. I got a bad
start, actually, but there were some cars in front of me that saved my
start. I thankfully was on the right line to cycle through up to third. Once
we went to green and settled in, we were saving fuel. I could see the Aston
Martin was struggling but it was going to be so hard to pass him without
traffic. So I was saving as much as I could, and every time we go traffic I
would try to stay close and make something happen. Once I got in clean air
our car seemed to come alive a little bit. It had surprising pace, and I was
quite happy with it. The Porsche was struggling a little bit toward the end
of their stint. Hopefully it stays green. Tire degradation seems to be to
our advantage so a long stint is what we are hoping for."
Dealing with the traffic: "You just kind of hope and pray that they get the
same bad luck every now and then. I think every P3 car that passed me was
into Turn Eight; I had only one pass me into Turn One. I would see the other
guys get held up every now and then. It comes and goes. We had a bunch of
bad ones but we got some good ones, too."
Overall thoughts: "It was a great day back at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park
and at the Chevrolet Grand Prix. We maximized what we could today. It's not
great for the overall points, but considering where we started the day we
can be pretty happy with where we ended up. We'll move on to Lime Rock and
hopefully be a little more competitive there and move up in the championship
as well."
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