Corvette takes GTP Pro chequered flag at Chevrolet Grand Prix in Bowmanville
Published July 11, 2023 at 10:39 am
It was a good day for Corvette Racing on Sunday, a day capped by Jordan Taylor and Antonio Garcia Corvette Racing winning the Chevrolet Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in Clarington, the team’s first GTD Pro win since Sebring last year.
Garcia took the lead with just over an hour to go in the race when No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R of Patrick Pilet and the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 of Ben Barnicoat made contact and went off-course.
The move came just after the race’s first full-course caution when Ross Gunn in the No. 23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin and Jules Gounon in the No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes AMG collided in Turn 8, sending Gunn’s Aston hard into the tire wall.
Overheating problems then took Barnicoat out of contention, with Garcia hanging on for the win, with Pilet finishing second and the No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Jules Gounon and Dani Juncadella getting on the GTD Pro podium in third.
A bit of strategy helped as well, with Taylor pitting early after just 33 laps before handing the keys to Garcia, who took it home.
“A very good day. I don’t think it could have gone much better,” said Taylor. “It’s nice to get a Corvette back into victory lane.”
The class win for Garcia and Taylor came on the same day Corvette Racing clinched the FIA World Endurance GTE-Am Championship in Monza, Italy.
Meanwhile Meyer Shank Racing became the first repeat winner in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTP class, with Colin Braun holding on to take top honors in Sunday’s race at the track formerly known as Mosport.
Braun took the No. 60 Acura ARX-06 to the win after a heavy crash resulted in the two-hour and 40-minute contest ending under yellow in the final five minutes.
Braun shared top honors with pole-sitter Tom Blomqvist, marking their first win since the controversial Rolex 24 at Daytona that saw the Ohio-based team docked 200 points and issued other penalties due to tire infractions.
Top honors in GTD at CTMP went to the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 of Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow, who extended their points lead as a result of their third class win of the season.
Sellers held off the No. 70 Inception Racing McLaren 720S GT3 Evo of Frederik Schandorff, who made a late charge, with the No. 32 Team Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes of Mike Skeen and Mikael Grenier third.
Riley’s Felipe Fraga and Gar Robinson, meanwhile, picked up the LMP3 class win despite late-race contact by Fraga and the then class-leading No. 30 Jr III Racing Ligier of Garett Grist.
The GTD PRO and GTD cars get their own race next, with a GT-only contest at Lime Rock Park in two weeks.
