Why Is Corvette Returning to IMSA GTD Pro with Two Cars in 2027?

Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports is returning to the 2027 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season in the GTD Pro class, in accordance with the official decision announced on October 7, 2026, with two Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs, and is continuing with all four factory drivers and unchanged car assignments. The team is keeping the full-season pairings established in 2024 intact for a fourth year: Antonio Garcia and Alexander Sims will share the No. 3 car, while Tommy Milner and Nicky Catsburg will share the No. 4. This continuity is a deliberate step aimed at reclaiming the teams' championship following the manufacturers' title, which the brand won for the second consecutive time last season.

Why Is Corvette Racing with Two Cars in GTD Pro?

First, let's take a grounded look at the matter. GTD Pro is IMSA's GT class reserved entirely for professional, factory-backed teams; GTD, its sibling class featuring amateur drivers, has a completely different racing profile. Corvette races the Z06 GT3.R, a dedicated GT3 version based on the C8 platform, here. Rather than running an LMDh prototype program in the top categories, the brand's preference to sit at the same table with its customers and rivals in a machine closely mirroring its production car is a commercially understandable choice. For a manufacturer wanting to preserve the link between its road car and its race car, GT3-based classes have long been the most balanced showcase.

Running two cars is not merely a matter of prestige. The 2026 season clearly showed that a single race, or a single incident of contact, can change the championship math. Operating two cars, two separate strategies, and two separate point banks is becoming a necessity on an endurance-heavy calendar. Factory teams used to be able to close out a season with a single car; now, if we are talking about a 67-point spread among the class's four manufacturers, everyone agrees that the second car is the difference between being insured and being left uncovered.

Unchanged Driver Lineup: Garcia, Sims, Milner, Catsburg

The most striking aspect of the 2027 lineup is that not a single seat has changed. The Garcia-Sims and Milner-Catsburg pairings were first formed in 2024; 2027 marks the fourth year following this quartet's third full season. In today's motorsport, this kind of continuity is almost considered a luxury. When the driver knows the car, and the team knows the driver, inside out, you can start calculating for the championship outright instead of wrestling with two new setups.

And these are no ordinary four names. 2027 marks Garcia's 19th year with the team and Milner's 17th will race; both have been in the factory seat since 2009 and 2011, respectively. Alexander Sims started his second Corvette stint in 2024 after winning the GTP championship in 2023; he had previously raced occasionally with the C8.R between 2021-2022. Nicky Catsburg held the endurance racing role from 2020 to 2022, and in 2023 won the final class championship of Le Mans and LM GTE Am with the C8.R in the WEC program; his reduction of his customer program workload in 2026 to prioritize IMSA is another sign of how much the team values its roster.

Lessons from the 2026 Season

Both team management and the journalistic language described 2026 with the same word: a racing roller coaster. The No. 4 car becoming a championship contender for the first time in a decade - Milner's last championship came in the 2016 ALMS with Oliver Gavin - was the positive side of the season. The No. 3's victory on the Detroit street circuit and the Michelin Endurance Cup championship also went into the record books. But throughout the season, poor results from contact with rivals were taken at Detroit and Watkins Glen, and in the finale at Petit Le Mans, the No. 4 was knocked out of championship contention by contact from another competitor and dropped to third.

Winning the GTD Pro championship every year is always at the top of our goals. With the team returning next year and the strength of the Corvette, there is no reason we cannot achieve it again.

Milner's post-season assessment points in the same direction: he emphasizes that both cars were competitive all year long, that the championship was the holistic work of the season, and that a single race could determine everything. This is not criticism, but an observation stamped with experience. The goal of closing the small gaps in 2027 while the rest already stands in place is validated.

Corvette Z06 GT3.R: A Machine Maturing in Its Fourth Season

The Z06 GT3.R enters its fourth season in 2027. This GT3 machine, based on a mid-engine road car, is a joint design of GM Motorsports Competition Engineering and Pratt Miller Engineering. The first three years of any GT3 program are always years of battling regulations, tires, and the package; if the machine enters its fourth year with a stable podium record, the hard part has been overcome.

The records confirm this. The first IMSA victory came in 2024 at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park from the Garcia-Sims duo; in 2025, a win at VIR marked an important step on the road to the championship; in 2026, the No. 3 reached victory in Detroit. The customer side also shows a bright picture: AWA - today known as 13 Autosport - managed to win in the GTD class at the 2025 Rolex 24. The factory team gaining continuity means this customer ecosystem is also being technically nourished.

The Competitive Balance in GTD Pro: The Porsche, BMW, and Ford Equation

Corvette continuing with two cars is not a decision made in an empty field. With Chevrolet arriving in Detroit in 2026, in the manufacturers' classification Porsche, BMW, and Ford were only with 67 points stood apart; that single number sums up how tight and unpredictable the class was. At the end of the season, the teams' championship BMW M4 GT3 EVO went to Paul Miller Racing; BMW M Team WRT closed out its debut season with a podium. Chevrolet, meanwhile, claimed victory on the manufacturers' front.

The scale of that championship is also noteworthy: it is the brand's 16th GT-class manufacturers' championship since 1999; and since 2014, its sixth GTD Pro/GTLM manufacturers' victory - more than all other manufacturers combined. In other words, Corvette is a name that comes to the table with nearly thirty years of accumulated experience in GT racing and knows it well. Given that Porsche, BMW, and Ford's investments are expected to continue into 2027, keeping two cars and an unchanged roster is Corvette's cheapest and most reliable weapon in this fight.

Outlook for 2027

Looking at this picture, the 2027 expectation writes itself: the same four drivers, the same two cars, a machine entering its fourth season, and the motivation of a fresh manufacturers' championship. Losing the teams' championship in the final meters is being read not as a reason to change the roster, but as a reason for the existing structure to climb one last rung. The No. 4's runner-up finish at Laguna Seca and the No. 3's endurance cup showed that the package can score points on both fronts. The missing piece, as painfully seen at Petit Le Mans, is the margin that would neutralize bad luck. The very reason a two-car program exists is to create exactly this margin. Let me say as someone who has followed this team for many years: a season in which Corvette is once again doing championship math in GTD Pro is a candidate to be one of IMSA's most enjoyable spectacles.

Sources

• Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Confirmed with Two GTD PRO Cars | IMSA
• Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller locks in two-car GTD Pro lineup for 2027 IMSA campaign | Motorsport.com
• Corvette Racing keeps current drivers' line-up intact for 2027 | RACER
• IMSA's GTD PRO Championship Chase Is Tight and Unpredictable | IMSA
• BMW M Team WRT concludes debut season with podium – Paul Miller Racing wins GTD PRO title | BMW Group PressClub
• Chevrolet, Corvette Sweep GTD PRO Championships | Chevrolet Newsroom
• Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports No. 3 | IMSA
• Corvette Racing: Home