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CORVETTE RACING AT DAYTONA: Toward the Front in GTD PRO

Three Corvettes in top-eight after qualifying; AWA, DXDT eager to go forward in GTD DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (January 23, 2025) – The three Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs in the GTD PRO class of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship sped toward the front of the class Thursday in qualifying ahead of this weekend’s Rolex 24 At Daytona.
Alexander Sims in the No. 3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports entry led the way for the Corvette camp by qualifying fourth in the 15-minute session for the 15-car GTD PRO field with a lap of 1:46.012 (120.892 mph) – less than a half-second off the class pole-winning time.
Sims had another half-second in hand over Tommy Milner in the No. 4 Corvette Z06 GT3.R from the Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports squad that will see both of its cars on the second and third rows for Saturday’s start.
The No. 91 Trackhouse by TF Sport Corvette Z06 GT3.R will start on the next row after Connor Zilisch’s effort that saw him qualify eighth in class and barely a tenth-of-a-second off Milner’s time.
In the GTD ranks, the DXDT Racing and AWA Corvettes qualified 16th and 17th respectively in the massive 22-car field in class. Charlie Eastwood did the honors in the No. 36 Corvette Z06 GT3.R for DXDT’s maiden qualifying run as a full-season WeatherTech Championship team. His lap of 1:47.592 (119.116 mph) was about eight-tenths clear of Orey Fidani in the No. 13 AWA Corvette.
GTD PRO Corvette Z06 GT3.R Qualifying Times· No. 3 Corvette – Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports – Antonio Garcia, Alexander Sims, Dani Juncadella – 1:46.012 (120.892 mph) – fourth in class· No. 4 Corvette – Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports – Tommy Milner, Nicky Catsburg, Nico Varrone – 1:46.445 (120.400 mph) – sixth in class· No. 91 Corvette – Trackhouse by TF Sport – Ben Keating, Scott McLaughlin, Shane van Gisbergen, Connor Zilisch – 1:46.579 (120.249 mph) – eighth in class
GTD Corvette Z06 GT3.R Weekend Fast Times· No. 36 Corvette – DXDT Racing – Charlie Eastwood, Pipo Derani, Alec Udell, Salih Yoluc – 1:47.592 (119.116 mph) – 15th in class· No. 13 Corvette – AWA – Matt Bell, Orey Fidani, Lars Kern, Marvin Kirchhöfer – 1:48.334 (118.301 mph) – 16th in class
The Rolex 24 marks the start of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and the second season of the Corvette Z06 GT3.R program.
This year’s group marks the largest number of production-based racing Corvettes in the race since 2007. The Corvette Racing brand has a deep history at the Rolex 24 and includes four GT class victories – one of those an overall win in 2001. In addition, Corvette’s successes at Daytona have bolstered Chevrolet’s impressive record of 122 wins at the circuit across IMSA and NASCAR’s national series.
The Rolex 24 At Daytona goes green at 1:40 p.m. ET on Saturday, January 25 with live television segments on NBC and USA plus flag-to-flag coverage on Peacock in the U.S., and IMSA.com for international viewers.
CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R QUALIFYING DRIVER QUOTESALEXANDER SIMS, NO. 3 OSHKOSH / MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “First of all, low fuel run here. You’re getting a load of laptime on the straights, and the car is pretty alive. Qualifying at any point is quite exciting when it comes down to two or three laps of the tire peak where you’ve got to try and nail a lap, which is always tough in itself. Simply the fact I was doing qualifying, it was exciting. These conditions, it was really hard to switch the tire on and I didn’t get it. It was just challenging to switch the tire on compared to normal. The car was feeling nice. This Corvette is lovely. It’s great in loads of phases but it’s really exciting when you’re driving it on low fuel. The team gave me a really nice car. We did the best with what we could in terms of the balance of the Corvette out there. It was really nice to drive. Quite a big delta to the Fords. I can imagine where the laptime is gained on that, but well done to those guys, and we’re looking forward to the race. We’ll know more, honestly 12, 14, 16 hours into the race. It seems like the car is working well, and that’s all you can ask for now.”
TOMMY MILNER, NO. 4 OSHKOSH / MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “Glad to be at the pointier end of the class. Obviously, P1 is a little bit out of touch there, but otherwise, we’re generally pretty close. We’ve worked very hard in the offseason. The engineers have – based on last year’s data and the car we’ve had – to try and improve our Corvette and I think we’ve done a great job in improving the car. Hopefully, that will translate to a good race for us. So far, reliability-wise, we’ve been very good which is I think is another important part to make this race successful for this team. From that side, all good. It’s been a great week so far with my teammates Nicky and Nico. We’ve got a couple more practice sessions here to work on it a bit more. I think we’re in the hunt. I don’t think we quite have the fastest car, but like I said, we still have two more practice sessions to work on it. I think more than anything, we’ve gone down a good path with the car so far all through the Roar, practice and qualifying as well. Good car balance, so we’ll just continue to tweak on it.”
CONNOR ZILISCH, NO. 91 WEATHERTECH CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “It definitely feels good to get qualifying out of the way. It doesn’t mean too much in a 24-hour race. There are a few cars out there that are going to be tough to beat. We’re going to need some help, but overall the car is driving well, and I think we’ll have a good car for race runs and longer stints. I feel like that’s one thing we were really good at in practice. Just hoping we can keep that up in the race and keep our car driving well, and I think that will pay off for us.”
CHARLIE EASTWOOD, NO. 36 MOBIL 1 / SuCo CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “Not what we expected. Just didn’t seem to be able to generate a lot of grip. It’s a very different condition than what we had in the Roar, and we seemed a bit more comfortable. Both in FP1 and there in qualifying, we just didn’t seem to be able to gain enough grip. We need to look at the data to see where we’re missing it. Ultimately, if it heats up again for the weekend, we might be in a better window but we still need to understand why we’re not there at the minute. Bit of work to do, for sure.“Ultimately, we still had the same opportunities as everyone else to be up front and we’re not. For sure it’s not a be all to end all with 24 hours to go to the front, which is very straightforward if we have the pace. But we definitely seem to be missing a bit at the minute. It’s going to be a case of working out where we’re missing that, and go from there.”
OREY FIDANI, NO. 13 AWA CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “Qualifying went well. The car felt amazing out there, and it just kept getting better and better with every lap. Huge credit to the team for their hard work dialing it in. I’m feeling confident and excited heading into the race!”