FIRST WIN FOR CORVETTE IN NEW GT ERA

Chevrolet claimed a first victory of the new era of GT racing in IMSA. Antonio Garcia, Jordan Taylor and Nicky Catsburg prevailed in GT Daytona Pro by four seconds with the reworked version of the Gte-spec Corvette C8.R.

The Corvette Racing entry led 247 of the 323 laps completed by GTD Pro frontrunners. And if you listened to the drivers of the Lamborghini that finished second, Garcia and co had it easy after a mid-meeting change in the Balance of Performance that gave the

American car an extra 20bhp courtesy of a larger-diameter engine air-restrictor.

Mirko Bortolotti, who shared the second-place TR3

Racing Huracan GT3 Evo with fellow Lamborghini factory drivers Andrea Caldarelli and

Marco Mapelli, reckoned the

’Vette was in a “different class”. “They were too fast for us,” he said. “Second was as good as it was going to get.”

The Chevrolet drivers weren’t convinced that they had it easy last weekend. Catsburg pointed out that the Lambo had been able to close down on Garcia at the end. “Bortolotti went from 16 seconds down to four seconds down,” said Catsburg. “Suddenly they were flying at the end of the race.”

Corvette Racing had a clean race at its home from home; this was its 12th win at Sebring. But the Lambo had to fight back when Mapelli missed his pit and was penalised.

The Proton-run Weathertech Racing Mercedes-amg GT3 shared by Maro Engel, Jules Gounon and Cooper Macneil ended up a lap down on the top two. It inherited the final podium spot when the Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 shared by Ben Barnicoat, Jack Hawksworth and Aaron Telitz ran out of fuel with two laps to go. BMW would almost certainly have made it onto the podium rather than fourth with its new M4 GT3 shared by Philipp Eng, Marco Wittmann and Nick Yelloly but for the need for a couple of top-ups of gearbox oil.

Antonio Fuoco, Giorgio Sernagiotto and Roberto Lacorte took honours in the regular GTD class for pro-am line-ups aboard the AF Corse-run Cetilar Ferrari. It was the fastest car in class in the hands of Fuoco, who came back from a penalty in the eighth hour to seal the victory. He had been penalised for hitting the Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 as he battled with Bill Auberlen, and less than four hours later he overhauled the American to take the win. The Turner BMW, co-driven by Robby Foley and Michael Dinan, ended up fourth after the team had to replace Auberlen near the end to avoid a drive-time infraction. That handed the Gilbert Korthoff Mercedes and the AF Corse Ferrari second and third positions respectively.

“Bortolotti went from 16s down to four seconds down. Suddenly they were flying at the end of the race”