Runner up finish for Milner & Catsburg in “throwback” look for IMSA at Laguna Seca

Tommy Milner, starting 8th handed off to Nickey Catsburg to finish 2nd in GTD PRO class Pratt & Miller # 4 Z06 GT3.R Corvette.

Antonio Garcia starting 5th handed off to Alexander Sims to finish 4th in the GTD PRO class Pratt & Miller # 3 Z06 GT3.R Corvette, losing out the # 77 Porsche 911 GT3.R (992) “Rexy” by a whisker.

The C8 Corvettes, sponsored by Oshkosh Corp, sported a retro look of the 2000 Corvette Racing Team C5.R Corvettes, sponsored by GM Goodwrench, as they appeared in yellow and white.

The happy outcome resulted from separate pit stop strategies that came down to fuel stops for five different contenders at the very end of the 2 hour and 40-minute race.

Christopher Mies had just enough fuel on board to win the GTD PRO in the Ford Racing Mustang GT3 EVO.

Luck goes both ways. The GTD class 13 Autosport Team # 13 Z06 GT3.R Corvette of Matt Bell and Orey Fidani broke down minutes after a full-course yellow about an hour into the race. 

Elsewhere in GTD, the DragonSpeed # 81 Z06 GT3.R Corvette driven by Henrik Hedman and Giacomo Altoé is climbing up the learning curve with an incident-free 11th-place finish.

An inspiring talk by Robert Wickens went on as scheduled but the DXDT # 36 Z06 GT3.R Corvette never made it to Monterey from Long Beach.  The car was set ablaze in the trailer by a fire from a suspected rear axle failure of the rig, en route on I-5 just north of Bakersfield.

The Pratt & Miller # 4 team leads the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar GTD RO Championship standings heading into the street race in Detroit on May 29-30.

A 1/25 scale model built by your compulsive tracker of Corvette race cars, autographed by Ron Fellows.

Photo credits: Richard Prince, Jake Galstad, JML