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CORVETTE RACING AT CTMP: In Their Own Words

Media conference comments from Sims, Wickens ahead of Chevrolet Grand Prix Corvette Z06 GT3.R drivers Alexander Sims and Robert Wickens met with members of the media Monday afternoon to discuss this weekend’s Chevrolet Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. Sims will pilot the GTD PRO championship-leading No. 3 Corvette for Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports with Antonio Garcia after the duo won last year’s race. Wickens, in his home race, will make his first CTMP start as part of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in the No. 36 Corvette for DXDT Racing alongside Alec Udell.
ALEXANDER SIMS, NO. 3 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.RWHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO MOST ABOUT GOING TO CTMP FOR YOUR 50TH IMSA START?“I wasn’t actually aware of it being my 50th start, but as you say it’s quite a milestone. That’s cool. I’m just looking forward to getting back to CTMP, to be honest. It’s one of my favorite tracks on the calendar. Although it’s a reasonably short track, there’s a lot of high-speed commitment needed with some good undulation and a couple of really technical corners whilst having some ballsy ones, as well. It’s a really nice track to drive. The Corvette works pretty well around there as we found last year, but the results are never a given. We do our absolute best each time to beat some very, very tough competition, and they’ll be doing their best to beat us. We’ll go there and hope for another good weekend. But we can’t take anything for granted and have got to be on our absolute A-game to hopefully be able to repeat something similar to last year. But it’s going to be tough.” SURPRISED NOT WINNING A RACE SINCE CTMP LAST YEAR OR IF IT SAYS MORE ABOUT THE COMPETITION IN GTD PRO.“I don’t know about surprised. We obviously go into every race – as everybody else does – basically trying to win, but there’s only ever one winner. I wouldn’t say that the results have been shabby at all. We came third in the championship last year and are leading now, so it’s not like the lack of a win has been because we’ve been uncompetitive the whole time. However, Pratt Miller and Corvette are a pretty good force together, and so we hope that we can get back to winning ways this weekend.“But as we’ve seen so far this year, I would probably take another second or third place, as well. Consistent podiums is a great way to put together a championship, which is the absolute focus above race wins. But equally race wins are a great way to get a championship, as well. We’ll just do our best, try to optimize the car as best we can, and try and make no mistakes to get another win.” ON MODERN GT3 CARS BEING SUITED TO RACING AN OLD-SCHOOL TRACK LIKE CTMP.“I remember last year our car was pretty on the nose in qualifying, which is always a nice feeling. Through the fifth- and sixth-gear corners like through Turn One, Two and Turn Eight after the backstraight, it’s great fun to have a car that’s moving as you want it to move even in the high-speed corners. You can really, really lean on it and ask a lot from the car. The downforce is pretty decent from a GT3 car nowadays to be able to corner fast in those scenarios but then to have the ABS for 5a and b as you have the elevation rise… it’s a lovely safety net to be honest and it allows you to race pretty hard against people.“I remember back in GTLM days we didn’t have ABS, and the race win that I had came by driving slicks in the wet on the safety car restart and having a drying track. That was seriously hair-raising at a track like CTMP to be on slicks in the wet. So GT3 cars nowadays, honestly, are pretty nice to drive. You can attack every corner really hard, it generates good tire temperature and everything. This a lovely place to drive, particularly on a qualy lap. In the race there aren’t so many clear overtaking opportunities, so you have to rely on traffic creating opportunities, which sometimes are a little bit more hard to come by.“It’s a great track to have on the calendar, honestly. I really like the fact that it’s fairly old-school. It’s not been repaved very much, it’s still got character. And it’s largely the same as it was before, with a little bit more runoff at Turn Two which I’m very appreciative of. I can’t quite imagine driving there in the olden days with just grass in those old cars… yeah, pretty scary!” ON MULTI-CLASS RACING AT CTMP WITH LMP2 CARS AND GT3 CARS.“It’s a real challenge to coexist in a way where we all get along perfectly. That’s just not going to happen, unfortunately. Different cars whether they’re front-engine, rear-engine in GT are going to behave differently and in those corners where you’ve got a crest into a high-speed corner, it really exaggerates whatever those cars’ characteristics are. So you see some people firing a bit more speed in but then going deeper into the corner, going wider or braking a little bit earlier, getting it rotating and hugging the inside a little bit more through the corner, which I would say we tend to do a little bit more because the rear remains on the limit quite a long way through the corner in Turn Two. It’s really tough because the LMP2s go through there and then at some point they’re fairly well within their limits so they can turn more aggressively if they want if they’ve gone around on the outside. But we’re still completely on the limit all the way to the exit curb and quite often they’ll go around the outside and then cut back across to get the ideal line. We lose downforce and it really creates a big moment for us. I fully appreciate that they’re going about their race as well so it’s a challenging track to all get along. Incidents do unfortunately happen and that’s why it’s same with many IMSA races… trying to stay out of trouble, have a clean race, have a race car without any damage or any knocks so that you’re fast at the end of the race when there’s probably going be a safety car restart so that you can be at the top of your performance right at the end when it counts.”
ROBERT WICKENS, NO. 36 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.RWHAT’S THE OUTLOOK FOR YOUR HOME RACE IN THE CORVETTE?“Similar to what Alex was saying, nothing comes easy in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, but Corvette has had so much success at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in the past. Finishing 1-2 last year sets the bar pretty high. Obviously it’s a home race for me, one that I’ve had circled on the calendar all season. So yeah, looking forward to just getting behind the wheel of a Corvette around such an awesome track. I’ve had success in TCR in the past, winning there twice and finishing second in the other. Nothing comes easy. I think we just have to keep our head down. The first two races that I’ve done this year in the WeatherTech Championship haven’t been amazing, to say the least. We’ve shown potential but just at the wrong time. So hopefully we can just put together a good, strong weekend from the first practice right through to the checkered flag Sunday.” ON BALANCING MULTIPLE RACE COMMITMENTS PLUS COMPETING THIS WEEKEND AT YOUR HOME EVENT IN THE HEADLINE RACE.“It’s kind of take it one week at a time, you know. To add to that my wife and I found out that we’re pregnant with twins, as well, so there’s been no shortage of excitement on race weekends or on the home front. So it’s been frankly just a crazy year… lots of travel. I was in Mid-Ohio on the weekend with IndyCar and went last night up to Canada. So now I’m up north getting ready for the weekend ahead. It’s just exciting. Since coming back from my injuries and racing in support series with IMSA, I’ve always been trying to get back to racing on Sundays and in that headline event. To do it at home in front of a hometown crowd, it’s going to be a really great feeling.” ON CONTINUAL WORK ON THE UNIQUE DRIVER CHANGE PROCESS AND WORKING WITH DRIVER CHANGE ASSISTANT JOSH GIBBS.“I think we’re still needing to find time on getting me into the car. We can do it relatively quickly but not that consistent. There’s a lot of obviously moving parts getting me in whereas getting me out is pretty simple… you just rip me out of the car and I’m gone. In Long Beach – obviously given the shortened race – there was a lot of focus on the driver change and we were actually pretty quick when Tommy (Milner) was my teammate. I think we did it in 16 seconds in the race but it still wasn’t quick enough as we lost a few seconds to our competitors. At Laguna Seca frankly the whole pitstop was just a disaster from (teammate Alec Udell) getting driven into by a car leaving its pit box in front of us and then the driver change… the whole thing was just kind of a mess. Definitely we lost more time than we needed to. “The starting driver / finishing driver for CTMP is a little unclear right now, but I think we’re going to keep practicing it like we always have to in order to make sure that we’re competitive. At the end of the day we want the best result for the team and if that means taking a fast pit stop or driver change to have me start and qualify and to do all that stuff, I’ll be happy to do it. We’ll have to wait and see. But with Josh, you know, it’s crazy how effortlessly he can toss me around and put me in and out of the car. We definitely have a good team at DXDT Racing and are just taking that one step at a time.” ANTICIPATION OF RACING IN THE CHEVROLET GRAND PRIX ON SUNDAY VERSUS MICHELIN PILOT CHALLENGE ON SATURDAYS IN THE PAST.“You only know what you know. Ironically at Long Beach we raced on a Saturday, and Laguna Seca was my only taste of what a true sprint race in the WeatherTech Championship is like. I think it’s kind of business as usual. It’s just racing on a different day with a little more spotlight on you. Even when you’re running in a support category in the IMSA paddock, the fans are so great, the gridwalks are everything. You kind of feel like you’re the headline race even though you’re not. The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship is just awesome. I think it’s a highlight of the whole Canadian Tire Motorsport Park calendar. A lot of fans come out and we’re doing a little fan experience this year, which is something I’ve never done before, testing the waters on how that goes with giving them a package that they might not get necessarily, give them a tour of the hand controls that are made by Bosch as well as a photo with me on the grid and hopefully on the podium afterwards. “There’s lots to be excited about and I’m just trying to embrace a home race. It’s been a long time since I’ve been in the headline event at a hometown race. The last was IndyCar in 2018. The Canadian fans are always passionate and always super loyal, and it’s going to be awesome to see everybody out there.” ON THE CANADIAN FOLLOWING FOR CORVETTE AND IN IMSA.“The Canadian fans, like I said, we’re a small country but we’re pretty passionate and loyal about the sports that we love. And you see a lot of familiar faces from Canadian karting that I grew up racing against to parents of people I raced against. Then obviously there’s a lot of Canadians involved in motorsport altogether. So we’re all proud to be from where we’re from. I think we’re all just ready to start getting on with the weekend. Everyone here on this call is happiest when our helmets are on and we’ll be able to go to work.” ON MODERN GT3 CARS BEING SUITED TO RACING AN OLD-SCHOOL TRACK LIKE CTMP.“I obviously haven’t experienced it yet, so hopefully I can give you some comments later. Judging by the success that Corvette has had around Canadian Time Motorsport Park over the years – I think something like 13 wins since 2001 – is cool. For me, I think what’s special is that I grew up with Ron Fellows kind of being like a mentor of mine, and obviously his history is in the No. 3 Corvette that Alex drives. Seeing all the success he had and obviously the role that Ron has at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park now and on the whole Canadian motorsport community… there’s going to be a lot of pride for me driving a Corvette around that track this weekend. In terms of what it feels like in car characteristics, GT3 cars seem to be happier in high-speed corners than they are in low-speed corners. That’s more or less what Canadian Tire Motorsport Park is. It’s a fast flowing track. It takes a lot of commitment and a lot of focus on car balance and the handling of the car, and I think that’s where the Corvette Z06 GT3 R really comes into its own.” ON MULTI-CLASS RACING AT CTMP WITH LMP2 CARS AND GT3 CARS.“I think the interesting thing about the Michelin Pilot Challenge at CTMP is the TCR cars are actually quicker than the GS class through Turn Two and all those corners. It’ll be the opposite kind of for us this weekend. As long as they (GS cars) didn’t pass us on the straight ahead of Turn Two, we knew we were more or less protected to nearly the exit of Three or almost the exit of Five because we were so quick in Two, Three and even down through Four. In the TCR car, it’s just an easy flat corner. In GS, you can see the rears moving around. So for us, it was one of the easier races to coexist in Pilot Challenge because, really, if the GS car didn’t pass you into Turn One, you could almost keep them behind you until the entire backstraight, and then they could pass you easily with their power. So it’s going to be a new experience for me. “Actually I believe it’s my first weekend racing with the LMP2 cars on track. I’m well aware of how much more downforce they have than us. Like what Alex has talked about, they can go through Turn Two for example with so much more ease than us that they can kind of pick wherever they want to go and we’re kind of just hanging on trying to find the limit the whole way through the corner. It’s going to be an interesting challenge, but I think you learn through practice. You never know who’s really driving each time but you try to keep an eye on which car is trying to do what things, and hopefully those trends continue throughout the weekend and into the race.”