{"id":276073,"date":"2026-04-19T22:50:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T22:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/276073\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T22:50:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T22:50:10","slug":"corvette-racing-team-settles-for-season-best-finish-at-long-beach-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/276073\/","title":{"rendered":"Corvette Racing Team Settles For Season-Best Finish At Long Beach 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The No. 36 <a href=\"https:\/\/gmauthority.com\/blog\/gm\/chevrolet\/corvette\/corvette-racing\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Corvette Racing<\/a> GT3.R came out swinging at Long Beach before contact knocked it to the back of the field. It didn\u2019t stay there long, though, as the team rallied it back to a season-best finish.<\/p>\n<p>That <a href=\"https:\/\/gmauthority.com\/blog\/gm\/chevrolet\/corvette\/corvette-racing\/corvette-racing-cars\/corvette-z06-gt3-r\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">No. 36 Vette GT3.R<\/a> was tag-teamed by drivers Robert Wickens and Mason Filippi. Wickens, who is paraplegic, utilizes adaptive driving tech in his Corvette Racing machine, including a Bosch electronic braking system and hand controls. Wickens nabbed the GTD pole position in Friday\u2019s qualifying session, and kept that race car out front for his entire 25-lap stint.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/gmauthority.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Corvette-Racing-Z06-GT3.R-Long-Beach-April-2026-001.jpg\" data-original-width=\"2048\" data-original-height=\"1366\" data-index=\"0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-915662 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Corvette-Racing-Z06-GT3.R-Long-Beach-April-2026-001-720x480.jpg\" alt=\"A photo of the Corvette Racing team out on track at Long Beach in April 2026. After suffering contact, the team finished just outside the top five. \" width=\"720\" height=\"480\"  \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo be honest, that was a fairy-tale stint,\u201d Wickens said of his drive. \u201cThe Corvette Z06 GT3.R was just so nice to drive around this track. Every lap is a dream.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When Wickens swapped the controls to Filippi, things went south for the Corvette Racing team. A series of full-course cautions and subsequent restarts spelled trouble for the No. 36 Vette, which took damage from contact with competitors. However, Filippi was able to weave his way back toward the front and even battled for a top five finish before ultimately coming home sixth.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a bummer, you know, for the team,\u201d lamented Filippi. \u201cThey did a fantastic job this weekend. We\u2019ll get it. It is what it is, but go to the next one and aim for the front again.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The No. 81 Corvette of Giacomo Alto\u00e9 and Henrik Hedman came home in 12th, just ahead of the No. 13 Corvette Racing duo of Matt Bell and Orey Fidani. Currently, Fidani retains his lead in the season-long Bob Akin award, which is awarded to the highest points-scoring Bronze rated driver at the end of the season.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/gmauthority.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Corvette-Racing-Z06-GT3.R-Long-Beach-April-2026-003.jpg\" data-original-width=\"2048\" data-original-height=\"1366\" data-index=\"1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-915663\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Corvette-Racing-Z06-GT3.R-Long-Beach-April-2026-003-720x480.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\"  \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe want more, but there are positives to take from this race,\u201d said Altoe. \u201cThe pace was very strong during my stint; I was able to get back onto the lead lap and make some overtakes. I had a really good feeling behind the wheel.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>SUBSCRIBE TO GM AUTHORITY<br \/>\nGet our GM news straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mt-auto\">We&#8217;ll send you one or two emails a day with the latest GM news coverage. It&#8217;s totally free.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The No. 36 Corvette Racing GT3.R came out swinging at Long Beach before contact knocked it to the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276074,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-276073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}