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CORVETTE RACING AT VIR: Second-, Third-Row Starts for Corvette C8.R

ALTON, Va. (Aug. 21, 2020) – Corvette Racing will line up from the second and third rows at Virginia International Raceway for the Michelin GT Challenge following Friday’s 15-minute qualifying session in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s GT Le Mans (GTLM) class.
Jordan Taylor qualified fourth and teammate Oliver Gavin fifth in the pair of Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.Rs around the 17-turn, 3.27-mile road course on the Virginia/North Carolina border. Saturday’s race will see Corvette Racing and Chevrolet go for their fourth straight victory on the season and an extension of their championship points leads.
Taylor set a lap of 1:41.228 (116.291 mph) in the No. 3 Corvette that he shares with Driver’s Championship co-leader Antonio Garcia. Right behind was Gavin with a 1:41.662 (115.795 mph) lap in the No. 4 C8.R that he will drive with Tommy Milner. The quartet will try to give Corvette Racing its fourth victory at VIR since 2012 and third overall win in the GT-only race since 2016.
Weather could potentially play a factor in Saturday’s 2 p.m. ET race (live on NBC Sports Gold and Trackpass). Qualifying and Friday’s opening practice each took place on a dry track while Friday afternoon’s final practice was in the wet with Gavin setting the fastest time of the session. 
Corvette Racing is coming off a soggy, come-from-behind win from Garcia and Taylor at Road America earlier this month, and the pairing also won at Daytona in July in a rain-affected race. Gavin and Milner, third in GTLM points, were winners at Sebring in mid-July and finished second to their teammates at Road America.
The Michelin GT Challenge at VIR is scheduled for 2 p.m. ET on Saturday with live coverage on NBC Sports Gold and Trackpass. NBCSN television coverage is set for 7:30 p.m. ET on Saturday. IMSA Radio will broadcast the race on IMSA.com, which also will host live timing and scoring.
JORDAN TAYLOR, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – QUALIFIED FOURTH: “Starting on the second row isn’t what we wanted, but I think it’s close to what we expected. It was a tough day to get a read on the track with a number of different series and going from dry to wet to dry again. Qualifying was the first time I’ve run dry laps here since 2017, which was interesting but a good learning experience. It looks like the race will likely be dry so we’ll take a close look at the data from this morning and qualifying to get a read for our race setup. I feel like we have a better handle on tire wear than we did at Road America, and we’re in good shape with our allotment. If this race comes down to strategy then I like our chances.”
OLIVER GAVIN, NO. 4 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – QUALIFIED FIFTH: “Certainly today was very challenging in a number of ways. The track and weather conditions were all over the place, which made nailing the qualifying setup difficult. We gave it our best shot, and I think we will race better than where we qualified. A lot goes into winning a race here at VIR with the track layout and unpredictable weather, which we could have more of tomorrow. So we will see. I’m confident that we have a good sample of data from this track with this new mid-engine Corvette now to come up with a good setup and strategy for the race.”