Ford Mustang GT3 ahead of Corvette Z06 at Detroit

IMSA

Jun 3

Ford Performance Motorsports was victorious in its homecoming race on Saturday, securing the top-step of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTD PRO class podium in Detroit. The #64 Ford Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang GT3 won the one-hour, 40-minute race from pole position, delivering valuable points toward the class championship in its fourth round.

The pair of Ford Multimatic Motorsports Mustang GT3 race cars gained early momentum, sharing the GTD PRO front row for the second time this season (Daytona, 1/25). Priaulx was awarded pole position after recording a lap time of 1:10:922 around the 1.654 mile, 9-turn temporary street course. The #65, driven by Christopher Mies and Frédéric Vervisch, qualified second with a lap time of 1:11.251.

Both For Mustang GT3 started from front row — 📷© Courtesy of IMSA. Both Ford Mustang GT3 started from front row.

“What a great effort by the whole Ford Multimatic Motorsports team,” Priaulx said. “It was such an amazing effort, and it was such an incredible win on home soil for Ford Motor Company. What a way to execute – leading from start to finish.”

The #64, driven by Mike Rockenfeller and Sebastian Priaulx, scored the team’s second class victory of the season – the last achieved during the Rolex 24 At Daytona in January.

📷© Courtesy of IMSA. Winning #64 Ford Mustang GT3

“To win in Detroit is a dream come true,” said Rockenfeller, who captured his first victory in Mustang GT3. “It was a perfect weekend, where we started strong and didn’t make any mistakes to the finish. Finally, we got this top spot. It was not an easy race, because the competition is high here in IMSA. We had to be perfect in our driving, which makes this win especially rewarding. Thank you to Ford Performance, the Ford family and to Multimatic Motorsports for such a great day.” Source: Ford
Today’s victory awards Ford a lead in the class manufacturer’s championship, while the No. 64 ascends to third in the team title hunt.

A Drive Back to Second for Corvette Racing

Antonio Garcia and Alexander Sims led the way home for Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports on Saturday with an inspired drive to second place from eighth on the GTD PRO grid of the Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic.

Garcia took the start in the #3 Corvette and moved up to fourth for the majority of his 30-minute stint. He stopped from the class lead, and the team lost only two spots after taking fuel and a mighty outlap for Sims. He moved up into second when the then-class leader had to make its second stop of the race and set out for the win.

Sims set the fastest lap of the race a couple of laps into his stint and got to within a half-second of the class-winning car before taking the checkered flag in second.

It marked the second consecutive podium finish and third of the season for the Sims and Garcia – they also finished second in the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona. More importantly, the two gained 40 points in the fight for the GTD PRO Drivers championship races heading into the summer stretch for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

ANTONIO GARCIA, #3 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: "I think we played it very well. It is difficult to stay calm and make the moves and so on. But yeah, I just tried to be smart. Probably at times I lost positions, but then I got them back and from that point on, I think I knew how to play it, so saving fuel, and relying on all the practice we did in the pits. So I think that's where we really jumped everyone also on the stop. It's a shame that we were behind the 64 for over an hour. We couldn't really pass that car so that's a long time following that one. But after all that happened yesterday, I think we can be happy with this. Alex did great, the team was great and the Corvette was great. Thanks to everybody."

ALEXANDER SIMS, #3 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: "If I'm perfectly honest, no, I didn't think this sort of result would be possible with a relatively normal strategy. But people fell off all around us. We gained a few positions on the pit stop, we had good pace in clear air, anyway. And it worked out for us this time. It's impossible to overtake the Ford, but we had the car underneath us. Our Corvette was really working well around the streets here in Detroit. And yeah, after the pit stop I took some big risks to try to get the laptime on the outlap in case we needed to jump people on the stop, which we ended up doing so it paid off. for sure. It all worked out well. I couldn't ask for much more. The team did a great job. The Corvette felt nice. Thanks to Pratt Miller and everyone on the team." Source: Corvette Racing

#10 Cadillac as runner-up finish

Pfaff Motorsports secured their first podium of 2025 in third with the #9 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2, shared by Andrea Caldarelli and Marco Mapelli. Starting from fourth row after qualifying seventh, the plaid Lamborghini showed strong pace all weekend and emerged ahead of the rest of the runners, who all went through some degree of incident at some point.