The grueling Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen rarely shows mercy, and for the Corvette Racing collective, this weekend felt like a relentless war of attrition. CorvSport watched the drama unfold in real time as all five Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs battled through traffic, unpredictable weather, and mechanical adversity, ultimately missing out on a podium finish entirely. Yet, even on a weekend clouded by disappointment, a massive silver lining emerged for the Bowtie brand: Chevrolet successfully maintained its command at the top of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTD PRO Manufacturers standings. This hard-earned manufacturer lead serves as a testament to the sheer depth, consistency, and resilience of the entire Z06 GT3.R customer and factory-supported programs when the going gets tough.
A Brutal Day in the Finger Lakes: How the Grid Shook Out
The true story of the race was written across both GT classes, where the GT3.Rs roared through the hills of upstate New York but couldn’t quite find the racing luck needed to secure silverware. In the GTD PRO category, the heavy-hitting Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports squad saw the #3 entry fight tooth and nail to cross the line in 4th place, while their sister #4 car endured a chaotic afternoon to salvage an 8th-place finish. Over in the GTD class, the customer teams faced an equally steep uphill climb against the balance of performance and on-track incidents. The DXDT Racing stable pushed through the attrition, bringing the #36 car home in 11th, while the 13 Autosport machine crossed the line in 13th. Rounding out the Corvette effort was the DragonSpeed #81 entry back in 16th position
From Detroit Momentum to Upstate Adversity
The sting of the weekend was amplified by the massive wave of momentum the Pratt Miller Motorsports factory-supported team brought into New York, fresh off an emotional, hard-fought victory on the streets of Detroit—their first since 2007. Watkins Glen International is a completely different beast—a legendary, high-speed road course defined by radical elevation changes, the dizzying sweep of the Essesses, and the unforgiving, blue-armco-lined outer loop where even a microscopic error ends your day. Despite the Finger Lakes heartbreak, the third season of the Z06 GT3.R remains an undeniably formidable campaign. The new GT3 platform has already proven its championship-caliber pedigree on the grandest stages this year.
♦ IMSA 2026–The Z06 GT3.R Podium Dominance:
- Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring | 3rd Place (P3) | No. 4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports
- Monterey SportsCar Championship at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca | 2nd Place (P2) | No. 4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports
- Chevrolet Detroit SportsCar Classic | 1st Place (P1) | No. 3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports
What’s Inside CorvSport’s Corvette Racing Coverage:
- The Official Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen Press Release From Corvette Racing: Authored by Ryan Smith
- The Post-Race CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R DRIVER QUOTES From Corvette Racing
- Bonus Coverage: Engage With Pratt Miller Motorsports After a Hard-Fought Race!
1 — The Official Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen Press Release From Corvette Racing: Authored by Ryan Smith
Corvette Racing at the Glen: Fourth in Class for No. 3 Corvette
Corvettes led race in both classes; Chevrolet leads GTD PRO Manufacturers title
WATKINS GLEN, NY (June 28, 2026) – Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports’ No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Antonio Garcia and Alexander Sims placed fourth in GTD PRO on Sunday at the end of a wild Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen as Chevrolet retained the Manufacturers Championship lead in the class.
Garcia and Sims started the race eighth but a combination of solid driving and good late pit strategy by the team maximized the No. 3 Corvette’s results as the driving pair moved from fourth to second in the Drivers Championship with five races to go.
The No. 3 duo sit one spot ahead of Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports teammates Tommy Milner and Nicky Catsburg, who finished eighth in class in the No. 4 Corvette Z06 GT3.R. The two GTD PRO Corvettes ran in the top-five late – and Catsburg led inside the race’s final 90 minutes – but the No. 4 was assessed a drive-through penalty for incident responsibility in the closing minutes.
The result for the No. 3 Corvette allowed Chevrolet to remain out front in the fight for a second straight Manufacturers title in the class.
Corvettes led both the GTD PRO and GTD classes at one point. In the latter, DXDT Racing’s No. 36 Corvette of Charlie Eastwood, Mason Filippi and Salih Yoluc took a late lead on a gamble for a yellow inside the final hour but came up 10 minutes short when Eastwood had to stop for a final splash. The team finished 11th in class in the first race back following a transporter fire that destroyed one of its cars and a majority of the team’s equipment ahead of the WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca round.
13 Autosport’s No. 13 Z06 GT3.R of Matt Bell, Orey Fidani and Lars Kern also was on course for a top-five finish before a late-race puncture forced Bell to the pitlane with 45 minutes to go and the Corvette in fourth. Bell recovered from a high-speed spin after contact from another GTD car near the start of his stint following solid runs from both Fidani and Kern with the No. 13 finishing 13th.
The team did, however, regain the lead in the season-long Bob Akin Award standings with an invitation to next year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans going to the 2026 champion at the end of the year. Fidani has won it the last two seasons.
DragonSpeed’s No. 81 Corvette suffered significant contact and damage for the third time this season but recovered for a 16th-place GTD finish to gain additional laps and mileage in its first year with the Corvette Z06 GT3.R. Henrik Hedman was hit from behind during an early-race safety car period, but the team was able to repair the Corvette and get it back on track for Casper Stevenson and Giacomo Altoé to finish the race.
The next event for Corvette Racing in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship is the Chevrolet Grand Prix from Canadian Tire Motorsport Park on Sunday, July 12.
2 — The Post-Race CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R DRIVER QUOTES From Corvette Racing
ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:
“Fourth at the start of the weekend would have been great. It seemed like we couldn’t really pass anyone so it was down to strategy and track position. I’m glad we made the right decisions and had a chance to fight for a podium so we have to be happy with fourth. It was looking good to be third for a bit, and it’s a shame we lost it at pit out when one of the Fords came out ahead of us. They did a slightly better job than us on that fuel strategy. It’s a shame we couldn’t really change or reverse our track position, so I’m satisfied with fourth.”
ALEXANDER SIMS, NO. 3 CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:
“I’m pretty confident we would have taken that before the start of the race. We obviously want to win every race, and that’s the aim, but sometimes you have to be honest with the situation. It just seemed like others had a bit more pace than us at times today and that made it quite difficult to race. So we had to try and get something done on strategy. Full credit to the team for making it happen toward the end. I don’t honestly know exactly how everything played out in terms of what other people did, but we went aggressive in putting on two new tires to coincide with the fueling time. I don’t think it held us up too much at all. So it was a really nice decision to make so that I had some advantage and to put in some fast laps. Honestly the Corvette felt nice, really well balanced and we optimized it really well. We know how powerful fourth places and better are in the championship runs. So that’s why I’m fairly pleased with today.”
NICKY CATSBURG, NO. 4 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:
“There were a lot of different strategies in the second part of the race. I think we actually made a lot of right calls today. You do need to get a little bit lucky with the way the yellows fall in this championship. Unfortunately I had an incident in the end with the Ford, which gave us a drive-through and put us back at the finish, which is unfortunate. I just need to take that, learn from that and try to prevent that from happening in the future.”
MATT BELL, NO. 13 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:
“A wild day for us. We had a big incident at the start of my stint. I took a hit at the rear and was very lucky not to get further contact through the Esses. I think it might be the luckiest spin of my entire life! It damaged the car so we drove the rest of the way with a little bit of a wounded Chevy today. It was still looking like a half-decent result coming to the end; P5 or P6 given the circumstances would have been great, and second in the Akin Award was looking likely as well before a puncture with 40 minutes to go ruined that as well. Some good luck but some hard luck again today. There are positives to take. We still finished ahead of all of our full-season Bob Akin competitors so we jumped back into the lead of that, which is our primary goal. But I think a much better result was on the table today. The Corvette was on form. We had a fast car but the race didn’t go our way.”
MASON FILIPPI, NO. 36 CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:
“The effort by DXDT Racing has been incredible. These guys have worked so hard. Every single night they were here super late, and there have been super-late hours in the shop to get here. It’s a bummer we couldn’t get the result today because it’s definitely not for a lack of effort. They work so hard and I know every single time I get in the Corvette that they’re giving me the best possible car I could have. So I just appreciate them so much, and we’ll look forward to the next one in Canada.”
CASPER STEVENSON, NO. 81 CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R:
“There’s no doubt about this crew and how quick they can turn around the car. I’ve seen it before and you see it again. But yeah, it’s another race in which we felt we got super unlucky. You saw later in the race how many incidents there were and I feel we would have been there to capitalize on it. I just feel bad for Henrik because he does a good job, he stays out of people’s way and just focuses on his own laps, and twice in a row now has just been taken out. But the Corvette was great to drive and I’m happy to be back with the team and already looking forward to the next race with them at Road America.”
3 — Engage With Pratt Miller Motorsports After a Hard-Fought Race!
As always, our bonus coverage includes an opportunity to engage directly with the Corvette Racing teams, and today Pratt Miller has an active Facebook post where enthusiasts just like you are discussing the ups and downs of this grueling 6-hour race. Click anywhere on the post to join in!
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