DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — What does competing at an iconic venue mean to racers? Everything, including three takeaways from Canada:
Just the right time
Its very title – the Chevrolet Grand Prix – hints at the significance of Corvette Racing’s annual visit to Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. The Corvette Corral alone is worth the price of admission, as collectors are drawn from across North America to show off their versions of the fabled sports car.
That explains, in part, why the effort Sunday by Jordan Taylor and Antonio Garcia to send the No. 3 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C8.R GTD to victory in GT Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) landed at the proper time and the proper place.
The win ended a 13-race streak in which Corvette didn’t win an IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race. That’s a rare slowdown for Corvette Racing, which has won five of the previous seven championships in its class and last month won at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Before Sunday’s victory, Corvette had 11 wins at CTMP, but it hadn’t won there since 2014. Timing, as they say, is everything.
“I think we’re due for another win there,” Taylor said before the race. “It’s been a while. … It’s a big weekend for Corvette and Chevrolet every year. There are true sports car fans when we go north of the border.”
The wonder of the venue
It is fast, difficult, unexpected and unrelenting. CTMP doesn’t forgive, and drivers can’t forget its challenges.
The 10-turn, 2.459-mile circuit tucked into the woods northeast of Toronto is both loved and feared by competitors. With blind turns and deceptively fast stretches, CTMP can send you to Victory Lane – or send you off course.
Just ask Renger van der Zande, who was sent into the tire barrier late in Sunday’s race in the No. 01 Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-Series.R, albeit with some help from another Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) car. Beforehand, he addressed the track’s inherent challenges.
“At home, I tell people how bizarre it is – how fast you go, how much risk you take, how blind the corners are, yet at the same time it’s very fast,” the Dutch driver said. “It’s one of those tracks that is more interesting from an engineering perspective than you think.”
Straight, no chaser
This time, Paul Miller Racing didn’t need a superhuman feat to get attention. Just an old-fashioned, straight-forward win achieved acclaim.
Madison Snow took the lead in GT Daytona (GTD) early in the race, then watched as co-driver Bryan Sellers brought the PMR No. 1 BMW M4 GT3 to the finish line ahead of the field for the team’s third win of the season.
Two weeks ago, the attention came from a different source. Snow, Sellers and Corey Lewis rallied from two laps down to score an improbable runner-up finish. This form of gaining attention was far better than the other.
“The podium (at CTMP) has been a little bit elusive for us,” Snow said. “So being able to finish here on the top step is awesome.”