BRASELTON, Ga. (Sept. 4, 2020) – Corvette Racing will start second and third in class for the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship’s TireRack.com Grand Prix following a stunning GT Le Mans (GTLM) qualifying session Friday at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. Antonio Garcia and Tommy Milner just missed pole position in their Chevrolet Corvette C8.Rs by a whisker ahead of Saturday’s six-hour race. Garcia’s best lap in the No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R was a 1:16.181 (120.029 mph) effort that ended 0.014 seconds off Nick Tandy’s pole-winning time. Milner was basically Garcia’s equal with a 1:16.212 (119.980 mph) lap in his No. 4 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Corvette – just 0.045 seconds off the fastest GTLM lap. The entire GTLM field was within 0.192 seconds at the end of the 15-minute session. It sets up what should be a tantalizing race – the first long-distance event for Corvette Racing since a February round of the World Endurance Championship and the first in IMSA since the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona in January, which also was the debut of the mid-engine Chevrolet Corvette C8.R. Garcia and teammate Jordan Taylor enter as the GTLM Drivers’ Championship co-leaders, as does Chevrolet in the Manufacturers’ standings. The Garcia/Taylor pairing has won three times in the last four races including two in a row. Milner and Oliver Gavin sit third in points with a victory at Sebring in July to their credit. Corvette Racing’s four-race winning streak is its longest since the 2014 season. The Corvette Racing program has won 10 times at Road Atlanta, eight of those in long-distance endurance rounds. Gavin is IMSA’s winningest active driver at the circuit with five wins, and Taylor is a past IMSA winner at the track, having won twice in a prototype. Road Atlanta is one of the tracks at which Corvette Racing tested the mid-engine C8.R during its development phase, albeit more than a year ago. It has been a good omen so far with victories at Daytona, Sebring, Road America and VIR – all places where the Corvette C8.R was tested in the past. The TireRack.com Grand Prix is scheduled for 11:35 a.m. ET on Saturday with live coverage on NBC Sports Network starting at 11:30 a.m. ET before continuing on Trackpass at 12:30 p.m. and returning to NBCSN at 2:30 p.m. IMSA Radio will have the race on IMSA.com, which also will host live timing and scoring. |