Sims: Corvette Continuity “Huge Bonus” for GTD Pro Title Defense

Photo: Alexander Sims FB

Alexander Sims said that continuity within the Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports camp will be a “huge bonus” going into his and Antonio Garcia’s GTD Pro title defense in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship this year.

Sims and Garcia beat DragonSpeed’s Albert Costa to the championship last year, despite only taking a single win in their No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R.

With a largely unchanged program for the factory-supported squad, other than McLaren driver on-loan Marvin Kirchhoefer replacing the Genesis-bound Dani Juncadella as the third driver in the No. 3 entry, Sims is confident of continued success.

“It’s nice to have continuity again going into a third season with the same main team, and it’s a great addition having Marvin with us,” said Sims, who won the 2023 IMSA GTP championship prior to becoming a Corvette factory driver the following year.

“The core group of people on our car are mostly staying the same… Andy Ramsey our race engineer and obviously myself and Antonio, plus Tommy, Nicky and Nico in the other Corvette.

“That’s a huge bonus and should give us strength. I think that’s probably the first time in my career that I’ve had three years in a row with the same co-driver and engineer, so that’s very nice.

“We were second last year at Daytona, and I’m quite keen to try and go one better.

“As with all of the races, the championship is the No. 1 focus and then race wins and other things would be fantastic along the way.

“That generally tends to happen if you win the championship so we obviously need to try and maximize every race. Daytona being the big one straight off the bat is an immediate opportunity and a great challenge.”

While AWA claimed GTD class honors in the race last year, marking the first 24-hour victory for the Z06 GT3.R, the Pratt & Miller-run squad hasn’t taken top class honors in the Rolex 24 since its 2021 GTLM win with Garcia, Nicky Catsburg and Jordan Taylor.

The factory/works-supported squad has a total of four class wins in the race, dating back to its overall triumph in 2001 with the Corvette C5-R.

Garcia, who earned a record-extending fifth WeatherTech Championship class title last year, said he’s hopeful of another solid points result to get their title defense off on a strong footing.

“In a lot of ways, the Rolex 24 each year at Daytona feels like the championship,” he said. “I think not many people who are there think about the championship very much during the week. That’s something you think about Monday.

“Last year when we finished second, it wasn’t that great until Monday and we realized we had second-place points!

“It seems like there everyone is fighting all-out for the win, which is classic Daytona. It will be good to be back there with Alex and bring in Marvin. If he brings to us something of what he had last year in the race, we’ll be very happy.

“He and the AWA guys did a great job to end up winning the race, which was great for all of Corvette. He’s been around the paddock and in a lot of the big races here and in Europe.

“The experience is there and the speed is there as he showed last year. We’re happy to have him and looking forward to working with him this year.”

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John