Corvette’s Detroit IMSA win nearly slipped away late

Antonio Garcia had controlled GTD Pro until late cautions and a Hawksworth dive created a tense finish

The statistics might suggest it was a casual flag-to-flag Saturday drive for Antonio Garcia and Alexander Sims in the IMSA Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic, but it was far from it.

After starting from pole in the GTD Pro class on the around the nine-turn, 1.645-mile temporary street circuit, Sims set the tone early and built a gap on his rivals behind the wheel of the #3 Corvette Z06 GT3.R for Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports. Nearing the one-hour mark in the 100-minute sprint race, Sims handed off to Garcia, who carefully carved through backmarker traffic and remained out front until a caution came out with 20 minutes to go.

#3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Corvette Z06 GT3.R: Antonio Garcia, Alexander Sims

Photo by: Michael L. Levitt / Lumen via Getty Images

After the restart, the 45-year-old Spaniard’s stranglehold came under threat as Vasser Sullivan Racing’s Jack Hawksworth made a bold diving move—right as the caution came out again—into Turn 1, with the two making significant contact and leaving the latter’s #14 Lexus RC F GT3 with significant right-front damage. Race Control deemed the move came seconds before the caution and had the two swap back positions, putting Garcia back into the lead. Additionally, though, Race Control handed Hawksworth a drive-thru penalty as a result of the contact.

In the end, Garcia held steady and crossed the finish line by 1.935s over the #9 Lamborghini Temerario GT3 of Andrea Caldarelli (Pfaff Motorsports).

#3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Corvette Z06 GT3.R: Antonio Garcia, Alexander Sims

Photo by: Lumen for IMSA

“We really wanted this one,” Garcia said. “We were on pole two years ago, last year we had the pace but we couldn’t manage to go around the Ford. So I’m super happy to be on Victory Lane on Chevrolet land and underneath the RenCen tower. I think all the big bosses will be as happy as we are! Fantastic drive by Alex to put it on pole and opening up a big gap so the driver change was a little less stressful.”

Garcia, who now has 32 career victories in IMSA, shared his thoughts on the late-race battles.

“I don’t know if I would have wanted to be in the pits during those laps,” he said. “In the car it was super-stressful especially with the cars that were fighting for their lives and defending to not go a lap down. I knew I had to be a little bit risk-free after the pit stop and deal with the gap that I had. But eventually it got frustrated at times but managed to get around the #77 (Nick Tandy).

#3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Corvette Z06 GT3.R: Antonio Garcia, Alexander Sims

Photo by: Lumen for IMSA

"It was stressful on the restarts. After one of them, there was some oil on the track at Turn 3 and it was difficult to be the one leading the pack because I didn’t know what to expect after I went through it before everyone else.”

For his part, Sims, who now has 16 victories in IMSA, called his part of the race “super-easy” despite a stir of nerves before taking the green flag.

“My race was super-easy, to be honest,” said Sims, 38. “I was quite nervous before the race, knowing how easy it is to trip up around here in all sorts of situations. The opening stint for me was pretty easy going for me. The Corvette was working so well for us in that first stint. I had one restart to contend with, I think. Everything went pretty smoothly. That was really nice to be able to have some fairly clean laps, a lot of clear laps and build a reasonable lead to come into the pits.”