Sims, Catsburg joining IMSA Corvette program
Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports confirmed today its full-season lineup for the 2024 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, which will see a pair of Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs compete in the GTD PRO class.
Alexander Sims returns as a Chevrolet Corvette factory driver, this time for a full season, along with returning veterans Antonio Garcia, Tommy Milner and Nicky Catsburg. The quartet of drivers will contest the 10-round GTD PRO championship for Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports in the debut year of the Corvette Z06 GT3.R.
Driver pairings will be confirmed at a later date, but the four drivers are well-known in the world of GT racing and specifically with Corvette. They have a combined 34 years of service with Corvette Racing and Chevrolet, and their records in IMSA competition are among the strongest of any lineup in the championship:
Nicky Catsburg: Two wins – the 2021 Rolex 24 and 2022 Sebring 12 Hours – plus three wins and the GTE Am Drivers Championship in this year’s FIA World Endurance Championship
Antonio Garcia: 27 wins – two in the Rolex 24 and four in the Sebring 12 Hours – with five championships in 15 years with Corvette Racing
Tommy Milner: 20 wins – the 2016 Rolex 24 and Sebring 12 Hours in 2013 and 2016 – and two championships in 13 years with Corvette Racing
Alexander Sims: Six wins – including at Sebring this year plus 2017 Six Hours of the Glen and Petit Le Mans – and is second in the GTP Drivers Championship for Cadillac Racing
Sims replaces Jordan Taylor, who is electing to return to prototype racing after this season.
In more than 10 years as a factory driver for Corvette Racing and General Motors, Taylor compiled an outstanding record of 33 victories and four Drivers championships in both prototype and GT competition – including in 2020 and 2021 with Corvette Racing. He also was part of the team’s winning lineup for the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2015 and is a three-time Rolex 24 winner in GM-powered entries. The vast majority of his sports car career has come in GM racecars.
“We’re very pleased with the full-season IMSA lineup in the Corvette Z06 GT3.R for 2024,” said Mark Stielow, Director, Chevrolet Motorsports Competition Engineering. “The four drivers have exceptional records and history with Corvette.
📷 © Luc Warnotte at Sebring. #10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-06 crashed and abandoned.
“At the same time, we thank Jordan Taylor for his years of service and success with General Motors,” Stielow added. He has been an important part of Corvette Racing and a great ambassador for Chevrolet. We wish him well.”
The 2024 Corvette Z06 GT3.R race car, constructed by Pratt Miller Motorsports in New Hudson, Michigan, is based on the production Corvette Z06 with the two sharing common elements. The Z06 GT3.R’s aluminum chassis frame and the 5.5-liter, flat-plane crankshaft V8 engine both come from Chevrolet’s Bowling Green Assembly factory in Kentucky.
The current Corvette Racing program is in the midst of its 25th season with 126 race victories to date – 114 in IMSA with the most recent coming at the Chevrolet Grand Prix in July at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. Also for the second year in a row, Corvette Racing has programs in both IMSA and the FIA World Endurance Championship with the Corvette C8.R, now in its final season of competition.
The 2024 IMSA season begins with the Rolex 24 At Daytona on Jan. 27-28. Source: Corvette Racing
📷 © Luc Warnotte at Daytona. At the ROLEX 24, Alexander Sims and Pipo Derani in the #31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-Series.R ended 5th overall .
NICKY CATSBURG: “This will be my first full season in America, and it’s something I’ve been looking forward to for a long time. Some of the most notorious tracks like VIR, Road America, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park… I’ve never been to these. I’ve always wanted to do this because those are the events I enjoy watching always, and now I get to race there. When I joined Corvette Racing, the goal was to become a full-time driver. To have a chance to do full-season WEC this year and a full IMSA season next year is something I’m really looking forward to. This is something new and something that is a challenge. This will not be easy because some of these tracks are ones I don’t know. But I am ready for that challenge.”
ANTONIO GARCIA: “It’s hard to believe this will be my 16th year racing with Corvette Racing and Pratt Miller. We have grown a lot in our time together with many different versions of the Corvette. I think this Z06 GT3.R is a very good car. You can see that from the months of testing and development we’ve done on this car for 2024. I think it will be a very good racecar for us in what is going to be a tough GTD PRO category with some new teams and maybe some new manufacturers. More importantly it will be a very good car for the new customer Corvette race teams. I’m very happy to be part of the first group to race this car in this new era for Corvette Racing.”
TOMMY MILNER: “I’m very excited about being back full-time again, especially in this new era of Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports, with the new Corvette Z06 GT3.R and all that it brings – customer race cars and more Corvettes racing on the track. It’s an exciting time for us as drivers and an exciting time for Corvette fans. As this team has shown for 25 years, the Corvette Racing name means a lot to sports car racing. So to see more examples of Corvettes racing around the world is really exciting and something we are looking forward to.”
ALEXANDER SIMS: “It’s been fantastic to drive the Cadillac GTP car, but It’s great to be able to work with all the team at Pratt Miller again after two years as third driver. I know not only a lot of the engineers and team personnel but also the other full-time drivers and people I’ve worked with before within Corvette Racing. I’ve shared a Corvette with Tommy and shared a garage with Antonio and Nicky. It’s great to be going into a driver group where I know everyone and know that we get on well together. We will push each other hard, so from a performance point of view, it’s really good to know that we will all be on a similar level and eeking more performance out of one another all the time.” Source: Corvette Racing
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📷 © Luc Warnotte at The Glen. First IMSA win for BMW
📷 © Luc Warnotte at Sebring. 12 Hours of Sebring GTP race
📷 © Luc Warnotte at Daytona. Rolex 24 Acura triumph
