C8.R Wins at Long Beach IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship

Long Beach

The Long Beach Grand Prix weekend has been a significant mainstay of motor racing culture in the United States. In addition to the Indy Car Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship was part of the proceedings. The 100-minute sprint race proved to be another successful outing for the Corvette Racing team in the GT Le Mans class of racers.

Photos: Motortrend

Successful Trip to California

The IMSA race around the 1.9-mile temporary street track is among the shortest races of the season. The competition is known for longer endurance races like the 6 Hours at the Glen or the 12 Hours of Sebring. Nevertheless, the California road trip has been fruitful for the C8.R racers, as they took a second 1-2 finish in a row, having taken the win two weeks prior at Laguna Seca.

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Playing Into the Hands of the Corvette Team

The shorter race means the cars won't need to rely on long-run durability as much, which allows teams to extract maximum performance from their cars. On the flip side, it also equates to a lot of activity during the course of the competition, which can lead to a chaotic race. The Corvette team managed it all beautifully, though, as they crossed the finish line one immediately following the other.

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Dominant Qualifying

With Jordan Taylor behind the wheel, the number 3 Corvette took pole position during Friday's qualifying session, ahead of Tommy Milner in the Number 4 car. The optimal qualifying results put both cars in a great position for Saturday's sprint race. Both cars got off the starting line well and looked to be in the clear approaching the first and only pit stop.

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Managing the Race

As is often the case with the Long Beach race, though, traffic became a factor as the Corvettes approached slower cars in the GTD class. It was at this point that Milner was able to pass Taylor and take the lead of the race. Taylor brought the number 3 car into the pits for a change of tires and to swap seats with Antonio Garcia. Subsequently, Nick Tandy took Tommy Milner's seat in car number 4.

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Another 1-2 Finish

Tandy and Garcia took the cars to the finish line without much trouble. Garcia in car number 3 was never more than a car length behind Tandy's number 3 C8.R. It goes in the books as another dominant victory for Corvette. They head into the 16--minute Michelin GT Challenge at VIR in a couple of weeks with momentum on their side.

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