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CORVETTE RACING AT LAGUNA SECA: Podium for Garcia, Sims

Third place in GTD PRO for No. 3 Corvette Z06 GT3.R in caution-free race run

 
MONTEREY, Calif. (May 11, 2025) – Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports returned its No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R to the GTD PRO podium as Antonio Garcia and Alexander Sims finished third in Sunday’s Monterey SportsCar Championship at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.

The result gives the duo two podiums in three GTD PRO races this season following their runner-up finish at the Rolex 24 At Daytona to start the season. It also is the second straight podium finish in Monterey for the Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller squad after Tommy Milner and Nicky Catsburg were third a year ago.

Milner and Catsburg were sixth in class this time around in their No. 4 Corvette following an unexpected late-race pitstop. The duo ran as high as second in the opening portion of the race but suffered a refueling issue on what was to have been Milner’s final stop for service with a little more than an hour to go.

In GTD, DXDT Racing’s push for a potential victory took a hit early on. Alec Udell, who qualified second in class, attempted to bring the No. 36 Corvette in just past the 45-minute mark for its first stop and driver change to Robert Wickens. Another GTD car, though, left its pitbox just as Udell was about to pull in which resulted in contact between the two cars. Udell had to drive through the pitlane, and the offending car was called for penalty.

Wickens got in the DXDT Corvette 10 minutes later for his first double-stint in GTD competition. Despite finishing 10th in class, Wickens gained valuable data and experience behind the wheel of the No. 36 Z06 GT3.R, which was equipped for the second race with a new electronic braking system from Bosch. 

The No. 13 AWA Corvette of Matt Bell and Orey Fidani finished 13th in GTD with Bell racing his way to second place in the Bob Akin Award standings for the team. The team’s next race is its first appearance at the 24 Hours of Le Mans next month.

The next round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship for the GTD PRO Corvettes is the Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic on May 30-31.

CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R DRIVER POST-RACE QUOTES

ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “I didn’t plan to have to fight at the end! For some reason I had some issues with a lapped car and that brought me closer to fourth place. I knew they would have a fuel advantage on the last stop. They seemed to be a little stronger, but I was more concerned about tire life especially in the last stint. We stopped quite a bit early in the window so I was concerned about saving tires in thinking about maybe a yellow flag at the end. We probably were missing some pace compared to the other two cars ahead I think. We saw that last year. I’m sure things will come our way down the road.”

ALEXANDER SIMS, NO. 3 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “With it being a green race, if you gained on the first stop then you lost it on the next on in terms of pit timing. It kind of worked out as I expected. Maybe not dropping back to fifth at the start. That wasn’t part of the plan but how the racing went I was maybe a little tentative. The BMW squeezed me and clipped me slightly so I was behind him with a little bit of a gap because I had to breathe out of the throttle. I was waiting for what would happen in the brake zone but by then the Porsche was alongside me. That’s the way it goes. Other than that, the Corvette felt nice. That was probably the pace we had. I think we were about the third-fastest car this weekend and that’s about right. Well done to the team. Pratt Miller did a great job, and the Corvette was working well. It’s where we were.”

TOMMY MILNER, NO. 4 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “At the end of the day, a tough race for us. It’s tricky to pass here but my first stint wasn’t very good. We tried something different than normal that didn’t work. The car on the second stint felt much better and the pace was better. But we lost a position or two in my first stint. We had the issue in the pits there with needing fuel late. I don’t exactly know what happened there. Normally fuel shouldn’t be a concern but something obviously went wrong. A frustrating day and not what we wanted. On to the next one in Detroit.”

NICKY CATSBURG, NO. 4 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “It seems like a pretty typical IMSA race for me in that I don’t understand what’s gone wrong. Everything to me felt quite OK. I brought the car in virtually in P2 and then stuff happened. There was something wrong with the fuel, I guess, but by that time we were P5. I don’t really understand sometimes how we go backward. But taking the positives, I felt like the Corvette was in a really good window as we hoped. Last year we struggled in the race with balance and today was a lot better. I had an unfortunate situation where I lost a lot of time because my radio cable got stuck on the steering wheel in the race. So I had four laps where I lost some time reconnecting it. Other than that, I thought we did everything OK but didn’t end up with a result.”

MATT BELL, NO. 13 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “It was a tough race for us today. AWA gave us a great car, it felt great as usual. We just had a bit too much work to do. It was a difficult race for us last year as well, so this just seems to be our challenging event each season. I’m really looking forward to Le Mans and Watkins Glen. I’m really happy with the team and with our Corvette.”

OREY FIDANI, NO. 13 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: "This race was a bit of a challenging one. It was hard to get a feel for the track, but the team did a great job executing, as they always do. We'll take everything we learned from this weekend and move forward. Very excited to be heading to Le Mans soon, and getting back to another longer race at Watkins Glen after."

ALEC UDELL, NO. 36 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “We were unfortunate to be on the back side of luck today. It was a great step forward starting on the front row and so narrowly missing the pole this weekend. I didn't maximize the first lap as much as I wanted to, but I think we had a good car and solid pace to run up front that first hour until we were hit in the pitlane. Just some bad luck from our neighbors in the pitlane which sent us into a bit of a tailspin to recover. The DXDT crew did a good job getting creative and adapting the strategy to help us in the end, but we just really needed some yellows to fully recover. This team has a lot to be proud of, new to IMSA and running strong. It's been a great weekend with Rob and I'm really looking forward to running  the rest of the sprint races with him."

ROBERT WICKENS, NO. 36 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “A really tough race for us. Alec had a good first stint and we settled into a nice rhythm. On our first stop, we got hit by one of the Ferraris. They were launching from their stop as were coming in and they just drove into the side of us. It didn’t allow Alec to get into pitbox so we basically had to serve a drive-through penalty plus probably a 10-second hold. Yeah… it sucks. From there we changed strategies to try and extend to be in a better fuel position for later in the race. We really needed a yellow to try and get us back in the fold but unfortunately the race went green the whole way. So my stint was more or less trying to manage the car and try to find opportunities but none of them came. I thought on the final stint our pace was strong. Although we were a lap down, I was behind the P3 car the entire stint so that’s encouraging. It’s not what we all deserved. It’s a bummer that now Long Beach and here have ended in something where we deserved more. That’s motorsport and I’m looking forward to my next race with the team at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.”

Ryan Smith
Judy Kouba Dominick