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CORVETTE RACING AT WATKINS GLEN: Antonio Garcia Transcript Corvette Racing’s Antonio Garcia, who drives the No. 3 Mobil 1

SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R with Jordan Taylor, met with members of the media during a Zoom conference call Tuesday to discuss this weekend’s Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen, the team’s performance heading Watkins Glen and other topics. FULL GARCIA TRANSCRIPT:
ON RETURNING TO IMSA GTD PRO COMPETITION AT WATKINS GLEN: “Going back to The Glen will be great. I’ve always loved the race there. It has been quite a long time since we’ve raced the GTD PRO Corvette. I’m happy to go back there and go for two races in two weeks. I feel we are prepared for it. Let’s see how we are and hopefully we can fight for a good result and a win. That’s the goal.”MINDSET OF THE TEAM AFTER THE RETIREMENT AT LE MANS: “It obviously was a shock. It’s been awhile since we’ve retired from such a big race like this. Le Mans is always tough for everyone, but I didn’t expect to retire going into the race. It’s disappointing in one hand, but in the other hand I was happy with the performance we were having. Unluckily the sister car had to retire as well. It’s time to bounce back. We’ll be back to the GTD spec so we need to get used to this car configuration. The Glen has always been a really good racetrack for us. It’s another new place for this car in this configuration, and we don’t know where are against the rest (of the GTD PRO field). Looking back at other races, we’ve been competitive so I hope everything stays the same and we’re able to fight for it.”
REVIEWING THE SEASON SO FAR: “We’ve had good races so far. Even though we aren’t leading the championship, we’ve been near the top. We’re all looking forward to the next part of the season which is more important. Let’s see where the Corvette stands against the rest of the field.”
ON THREE RACES IN 20 DAYS AND IMPORTANCE OF PREPARATION FOR AN INTENSE STRETCH: “The team has been flat-out since they got back from Le Mans. Luckily, the car we use in the States is a completely different one (than the Le Mans chassis) so they already had prepared the car for this part of the season right after Laguna. So on that part we are set. Now we need to get back in our mindset of IMSA racing, knowing the rules, pitlane sequence and how everything works in America. It’s been good to have both teams running either WEC or IMSA. As we showed, we were very prepared to run Le Mans. Now it’s time to get back to our normal season. Corvette Racing has always been prepared. We’re all looking forward to these two races and racing at two of my favorite tracks back-to-back – The Glen and Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. Let’s see if the Corvette is fast enough to be up front and if we can go for the win.”
HAVE YOU TESTED AT THE GLEN WITH THE GTD PRO CAR, OR DO YOU KNOW THE CAR WELL ENOUGH TO BE ABLE TO RELATE AT A NEW CIRCUIT? “No, we didn’t test (at The Glen). I think there was some testing going on but we were fully focused on Le Mans. As we have at every other race track, we will correlate all the data we have from the GTLM car and translate everything we know up to now to what we think a baseline would be for this car. We don’t know how it will go yet, but I think we have a narrow path to know where the car should be. So far we’ve been pretty good off the bat in the first practices. I hope we are the same here at this new track for this car. It’s always a challenge learn on the new tire. Every racetrack is different, and The Glen was pretty tough on the GTLM tires. We don’t know yet what to expect, but the tire will be the main thing.”
DESCRIBING WATKINS GLEN AND WHAT MAKES IT DIFFERENT THAN OTHER TRACKS: “First of all, it’s very fast. There are only a couple of slowish corners but everything else is mid- to high-speed cornering. That’s what makes it a little different. There also is the actual flow on the track with traffic. We are expecting quite a big field out there. Not only will it be a fight in our class, but it will also be tough with the interaction of the other classes. That’s the main thing. Now we are actually slower so in a way that makes it easier compared to GTLM where we were having to pass a lot of cars but also were kind of in the way of the prototypes. Now it’s more about fighting in our class and just getting passed instead of trying to get past some other classes. That may make it little easier but it’s still a question mark for Jordan and me to know how this car will feel. The track is definitely high-demand. Yes there are some straight lines but there also is a lot of action come the race.”
FIGHT AMONG ALL THE MANUFACTURERS IN THE GTD PRO CLASS: “It will be a big challenge. Knowing there are seven cars out there (from seven manufacturers) and it being a longer race, we’ll have a few more really good drivers coming over to join the teams. That will make things more interesting. Even being in the mix of the GTD class, they will be running three drivers in those cars, and some pretty good guys will probably be in at the end (of the race). So not only will it be a GTD PRO fight but it will be a mix of GTD and GTD PRO all the way. It should be interesting. We need to be smart on strategy, don’t make any mistakes and be up front so not to get caught up in anything. It will be challenging.”