Sims, Corvette Racing Look To Repeat At Chevrolet Grand Prix
Anontio Garcia (L) and Alexander Sims (M) celebrate their GTD PRO win in the 2024 Chevrolet Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park.
Photo courtesy of IMSA/Michael L. Levitt/LAT Images
By Dennis Krause
For Alexander Sims, co-driver of the GTD PRO championship-leading No. 3 Corvette Z06 GT3.R for Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports, it’s been a year since he last stood on the top step of the podium in IMSA’s WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
Sims, along with co-driver Antonio Garcia, is looking to get back to their winning ways, Sunday, in the Chevrolet Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park where the duo won a year ago.
Asked whether he was surprised about going winless for a calendar year considering the strength of the Corvette program, Sims put a positive spin on the last twelve months.
“I don't know about surprised. We obviously go into every race – as everybody else does – basically trying to win, but there's only ever one winner. I wouldn't say that the results have been shabby at all. We came third in the championship last year and are leading now, so it's not like the lack of a win has been because we've been uncompetitive the whole time. However, Pratt Miller and Corvette are a pretty good force together, and so we hope that we can get back to winning ways this weekend.
“But as we've seen so far this year, I would probably take another second or third place, as well. Consistent podiums is a great way to put together a championship, which is the absolute focus above race wins. But, equally, race wins are a great way to get a championship, as well. We'll just do our best, try to optimize the car as best we can, and try and make no mistakes to get another win.”
Photo courtesy of IMSA/Jake Galahad/LAT Images
Sunday’s race, featuring the LMP2 class along with GTD PRO and GTD, will mark a milestone for Sims, with the 37-year-old British driver making his 50th start in IMSA.
“I wasn't actually aware of it being my 50th start, but it’s quite a milestone. That's cool. I'm just looking forward to getting back to CTMP, to be honest. It's one of my favorite tracks on the calendar. Although it's a reasonably short track, there's a lot of high-speed commitment needed with some good undulation and a couple of really technical corners whilst having some ballsy ones, as well. It's a really nice track to drive. The Corvette works pretty well around there as we found last year, but the results are never a given. We do our absolute best each time to beat some very, very tough competition, and they'll be doing their best to beat us. We’ll go there and hope for another good weekend. But we can't take anything for granted and have got to be on our absolute A-game to hopefully be able to repeat something similar to last year. But it's going to be tough.”
Photo courtesy of IMSA/Jake Galstad/LAT Images
Formerly known as Mosport Park, Canadian Tire Motorsports Park was designed and built in the late 1950’s. Unlike many historic road racing circuits, CTMP has remained mostly unchanged in its layout. For Sims, racing a modern GT3 car at an old school circuit like CTMP makes it a bit easier to attack every corner.
“I remember last year our car was pretty on the nose in qualifying, which is always a nice feeling. Through the fifth- and sixth-gear corners like through Turn One, Two and Turn Eight after the backstraight, it's great fun to have a car that's moving as you want it to move even in the high-speed corners. You can really, really lean on it and ask a lot from the car. The downforce is pretty decent from a GT3 car nowadays to be able to corner fast in those scenarios but then to have the ABS for 5a and b as you have the elevation rise... it’s a lovely safety net to be honest and it allows you to race pretty hard against people.
“I remember back in GTLM days we didn't have ABS, and the race win that I had came by driving slicks in the wet on the safety car restart and having a drying track. That was seriously hair-raising at a track like CTMP to be on slicks in the wet. So GT3 cars nowadays, honestly, are pretty nice to drive. You can attack every corner really hard, it generates good tire temperature and everything. This a lovely place to drive, particularly on a qualy lap. In the race there aren't so many clear overtaking opportunities, so you have to rely on traffic creating opportunities, which sometimes are a little bit more hard to come by.
“It's a great track to have on the calendar, honestly. I really like the fact that it's fairly old-school. It's not been repaved very much, it's still got character. And it's largely the same as it was before, with a little bit more runoff at Turn Two which I'm very appreciative of. I can't quite imagine driving there in the olden days with just grass in those old cars… yeah, pretty scary!”
Photo courtesy of IMSA/Michael L. Levitt/LAT Images
As far as co-existing with other GT3 cars and the LMP2 class at CTMP, that’s always going to a challenge, according to Sims.
“It's a real challenge to coexist in a way where we all get along perfectly. That's just not going to happen, unfortunately.
“Different cars whether they're front-engine, rear-engine in GT are going to behave differently and in those corners where you've got a crest into a high-speed corner, it really exaggerates whatever those cars' characteristics are. So you see some people firing a bit more speed in but then going deeper into the corner, going wider or braking a little bit earlier, getting it rotating and hugging the inside a little bit more through the corner, which I would say we tend to do a little bit more because the rear remains on the limit quite a long way through the corner in Turn Two.
“It's really tough because the LMP2s go through there and then at some point they're fairly well within their limits so they can turn more aggressively if they want if they've gone around on the outside. But we're still completely on the limit all the way to the exit curb and quite often they'll go around the outside and then cut back across to get the ideal line. We lose downforce and it really creates a big moment for us. I fully appreciate that they're going about their race as well so it's a challenging track to all get along.
“Incidents do unfortunately happen and that's why it's same with many IMSA races… trying to stay out of trouble, have a clean race, have a race car without any damage or any knocks so that you're fast at the end of the race when there's probably going be a safety car restart so that you can be at the top of your performance right at the end when it counts.”
Sims and Garcia hope to make it count this weekend.
Dennis Krause has spent decades covering all forms of motorsports, including over 40 Indianapolis 500s, with stints at WIBA Radio, PIT PASS - Radio’s Premier Motorsports Magazine and Motorsports Minute. Follow him on X @DennisKrause500 or motorsportsminute.bluesky.social or motorsportsminute on Threads or MotorsportsMinute+ on Facebook.