IMSA Rolex 24: Corvettes appear slow, were they sandbagging?
In six test sessions at the IMSA Roar Before the Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway, the Corvette teams were essentially nowhere. However, the Roar Before the 24 is all about who can sandbag best to avoid a BoP penalty that IMSA is famous for.
The group of five Chevrolet Z06 GT3.Rs set for the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona completed their three days of testing at Daytona International Speedway on Sunday with the four teams focused ahead to next weekend’s twice-around-the-clock classic.
The Rolex 24 marks the start of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and the second season of the Corvette Z06 GT3.R program. After claiming 11 race wins and the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup Manufacturers Championship in GTD PRO during 2024, optimism is high heading into Daytona.
The five Corvettes combined to complete 980 laps for nearly 3,500 miles – valuable track time considering there are only three practice sessions and qualifying across Thursday and Friday of the coming week before the green flag falls Saturday.
The gaps in both GTD PRO and GTD were razor-thin with all five of the Z06 GT3.Rs well entrenched in the top-10 of their respective classes.
Antonio Garcia set the pace among the GTD PRO Vettes with the fourth-fastest time across the weekend – 1:48.242 (118.401 mph) during Saturday afternoon’s running.
In GTD, AWA’s Matt Bell put the No. 13 Corvette fifth class with a 1:48.169 (118.481 mph) in Friday’s opening test for the quickest Corvette lap of the weekend.
GTD PRO Vette Z06 GT3.R Weekend Fast Times
- No. 3 Corvette – Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports – Antonio Garcia, Alexander Sims, Dani Juncadella – 1:48.242 (118.401 mph) – fourth-fastest in class
- No. 4 Corvette – Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports – Tommy Milner, Nicky Catsburg, Nico Varrone – 1:48.515 (118.103 mph) – 10th-fastest in class
- No. 91 Corvette – Trackhouse by TF Sport – Ben Keating, Scott McLaughlin, Shane van Gisbergen, Connor Zilisch– 1:48.435 (118.190 mph) – ninth-fastest in class
GTD Vette Z06 GT3.R Weekend Fast Times
- No. 13 Corvette – AWA – Matt Bell, Orey Fidani, Lars Kern, Marvin Kirchhöfer – 1:48.169 (118.481 mph) – fifth-fastest in class
- No. 36 Corvette – DXDT Racing – Charlie Eastwood, Pipo Derani, Alec Udell, Salih Yoluc – 1:48.389 (118.240 mph) – 10th fastest in class
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.
Corvette Racing performance and powertrain engineers made significant improvements to the Z06 GT3.R throughout its first season of competition. Much of the work focused on optimizing performance and enhancing the Corvette’s reliability. The outright pace of the Corvette GT3 is evident with 12 pole positions across three series in 2024, and the reliability took huge steps forward in the second half of the year.
The Rolex 24 goes green at 1:40 p.m. ET on Saturday, January 25 with qualifying on Thursday, January 23. The race will feature live television segments on NBC and USA and flag-to-flag coverage on Peacock in the U.S., and IMSA.com for international viewers.
JESSICA DANE, CORVETTE RACING PROGRAM MANAGER: “From our side, things throughout the Roar were as positive as we could have hoped. All five Corvettes ran without any significant issue during the three days in a variety of conditions. The feedback from the teams has been good and valuable for our collective group. Our goal now is to take that input and what we saw in the data to help the group be in the best possible spot for Thursday’s practice and qualifying, and then ultimately the race.”