Corvette Nation, rejoice! Your time has come again.
In last Saturday night’s IMSA WeatherTech 240 At Daytona – run on the Fourth of July – co-drivers Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor delivered the 100th IMSA victory for the storied Corvette Racing team. It was the first for the revolutionary, mid-engined C8.R race car and broke a victory drought of more than two years.
The milestone victory got us thinking about other great victories for the program. Here’s our list of five great ones, presented in chronological order.
Texas Motor Speedway – Sept. 2, 2000
Andy Pilgrim/Ron Fellows
No. 3 Corvette C5-R
Milestone victories on holiday weekends are obviously a thing for Corvette Racing. The team’s first IMSA victory came on Labor Day weekend in a scorcher at Texas Motor Speedway where track temperatures reached 120 degrees. Co-drivers Andy Pilgrim and Ron Fellows delivered the goods in their No. 3 Corvette C5-R, besting their rivals from Viper Team Oreca to win the GTS class.
Rolex 24 At Daytona – Feb. 3-4, 2001
Johnny O’Connell/Ron Fellows/Chris Kneifel/Franck Freon
No. 2 Corvette C5-R
All eyes were on Corvette Racing in the 2001 Rolex 24 At Daytona with Dale Earnhardt and Dale Earnhardt Jr. making their race debut together in the No. 3 Corvette C5-R with co-drivers Pilgrim and Kelly Collins. The acquitted themselves well, but it was the sister car, the No. 2 shared by Johnny O’Connell, Chris Kneifel, Franck Freon and Fellows that took not just the GTS class win, but the overall victory.
Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts – March 16, 2013
Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner/Richard Westbrook
No. 4 Corvette C6.R
The Corvette C6.R won more IMSA races than any Corvette Racing car, scoring 51 victories between 2005 and 2013. The car’s fifth Sebring victory came in its final year of competition, 2013, in the hands of Oliver Gavin, Tommy Milner and Richard Westbrook, who battled back from a two-lap deficit to win the GT class in the final American Le Mans Series season-opener. The year ended with their teammates, Garcia and Jan Magnussen, winning the GT class championship.
Rolex 24 At Daytona – Jan. 29-30, 2016
Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner/Marcel Fassler
No. 4 Corvette C7.R
0.034 seconds. After 24 hours of racing covering more than 2500 miles, that’s all that separated the No. 4 C7.R driven to the checkered flag by Gavin from Garcia in the No. 3 Corvette. It was the team’s second straight Rolex 24 win – Garcia combined with Magnussen and Ryan Briscoe to win the year prior – and buoyed Gavin and Milner to an IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GT Le Mans (GTLM) title at year’s end. And if you haven’t seen it, do yourself a favor and watch the scintillating, intrasquad battle between Gavin and Garcia over the last 15 minutes of the race in the above video. Amazing stuff.
Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts – March 18, 2017
Antonio Garcia/Jan Magnussen/Mike Rockenfeller
No. 3 Corvette C7.R
Corvette Racing has celebrated atop the victory podium 11 times in its history, most recently in 2017. That victory will be remembered for a monster final stint behind the wheel by Garcia in which he passed three GTLM cars in nine laps and was flying somewhat blind with an excessively dirty windscreen for the final few hours.