I can’t even believe that axing the Corvette Racing program is even under discussion with GM’s racing brass, but according to this article at Autosport.com, it appears to be one possibility as the manufacturer plots its future sportscar racing programs for both Corvette and Cadillac.
We know that the future direction of Corvette Racing is up in the air as IMSA’s GTLM class will be retired at the end of 2021 and a new GTD Pro class with GT3-spec racers will take its place. Meanwhile, Cadillac’s Daytona Prototype International (DPi) class will be replaced with the LMDh spec cars in 2023 which allows the same car to race in both IMSA and the WEC, including Le Mans. Acura, Audi, and Porsche have all signed on to develop cars for the LMDh class.
So there are different ways Corvette and Cadillac can go, although the path seems pretty clear to us. Corvettes go GT racing while Cadillac runs with the prototypes.
But Autosport claims in their article that GM racing (and engineering!) manager Laura Wontrop Kauser is even considering reducing participation to just one class, and as no one believes we would see both Cadillac and Corvette running in the same class, one has to go?
Autosport writes the following:
Klauser, who has taken over the reins of the Corvette Racing IMSA programme from long-time custodian Doug Fehan in addition to her previous role heading up the Cadillac DPi programme, said that the manufacturer is currently assessing whether to retain IMSA programs in both Prototype and GT classes or reduce its participation to just one class. [emphasis added]
However, reading her quotes in the story, I don’t necessarily see that take. Here is what she did say:
“We’ve taken a good look at the rules, and what we’re doing now is looking through where we want to place ourselves in sportscar racing in its entirety.
“It’s a package deal in our mind, where in the past it was a little bit separated – Corvette Racing was its own thing in GTLM, Cadillac was its own thing in Prototypes.
“Now it’s a different story, and LMDh has been very much part of the evaluation. Does it make sense to be there? What brand does it make sense to run?
“The good news is that IMSA’s GTD Pro is also going to allow a bit of factory backing going forward. So all of these things we’ve looked at to try and figure out where we want to be.”
We did hear her previously mention LMDh as a potential path for Corvette, where it could then contend for the overall win against Audi, Porsche, Toyota, and other hypercar participants. However, we also have to believe there would be enough interest to launch a GT3 program featuring both factory racers and customer cars built for the class.
My mind keeps saying GM couldn’t cancel the Corvette Racing program at this time when there is so much potential with the C8 platform, as well as having the most passionate fan base in motorsports. Hopefully, we still have someone who understands that racing is the lifeblood of the Corvette, and everything the Corvette does well is because of racing.
Maybe now we know why Doug was replaced.
Source:
Autosport.com
Related:
IMSA Adjusts Race Calendar After the 24 Hours of Le Mans is Moved to August
[VIDEO] Corvette Racing Confirms WEC Entry for Portimao with Gavin and Garcia
Chevrolet Names Laura Klauser as First Sports Car Racing Program Manager
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“Maybe now we know why Doug was replaced.”
And the engineers were reassigned. And Pratt & Miller was sold.
I guess they don’t care about entertaining the customers anymore
Laura Klauser not calling the shots, Mary Barr’s is. With Doug Fehan’s termination, unfortunately the handwriting was on the wall. Barr’s wants a totally EV lineup by 2030 and fully 10 models by 2025. So why put more money into ICE Corvette Racing whe Corvette will probably be EV by 2025? She has already moved Tadge Jeuchter and Corvette engineering over to the EV side. We’ll be lucky to get an ICE ZO6 and maybe a ZR1. Bye, Corvette Racing after this season. Sadly, bye, bye ICE powered Corvettes as well. Get your C8’s while you can!
This ^^^^. GM as an EV manufacturer will focus on EV top tier prototype racing going forward against all the other “majors”. Best we can hope for is a C8 “GTD” program for private teams with GM (limited) support. Much like Porsche is doing with factory supported customer teams, the days of top tier factory teams in IMSA, WEC at the sportscar level are over.
This news originates from GM decision-makers who brought us Camero taillights on the C8
tradition be damned. And though they intend to pursue an all EV lineup like Ford, NONE of them have addressed the necessary massive improvements to the electrical grid needed to carry the load.
Wasn’t this woman quoted recently saying that Corvette Racing “isn’t going anywhere”?
As much as I hate to say it, the fact of the matter is that to the average observer, you would not know that GM is involved in any kind of motorsport outside NASCAR. They really don’t advertise or promote their significant involvement in IMSA, NHRA or IndyCar, so naturally, the suits will think there will be minimal impact to their bottom line if they terminate a program. They have pulled the plug in IndyCar, NHRA and other programs in the past, no matter if they are successful or not.
What I don’t understand is why they won’t open the door for customer C8.R variants? Callaway did the C7 GT3… so hand the C8.R over to them. They already have a presence in Europe as well, which would be a win-win IMHO. You won’t have to ask them twice to do it, either.
However, make no mistake. GM pulling the C8 out of GT racing will be a disaster and a massive loss for IMSA and international motorsport. It may even result in one or two less boomers buying a Corvette…no offense intended.
Klauser is obviously sucking up to Barra in this endeavor.
Hate this. Absolutely hate this.
Barr put ole Doug out to pasture and brought in Klauser who is her puppet and over whom she has total control as a pretense of freshening up the racing program. I think the biggest change she has in mind is to eliminate all GM-related racing programs. Don’t be surprised to also see NASCAR lose all factory assistance, if there’s any left today. Mary Barr is moving GM to total EV with the use of dutiful millennials (who could care less about ‘racin’) and anyone who gets in her way will be rendered powerless. It’s a sad state of affairs in the auto industry for us old dogs who’ve loved cars ever since we could crawl across the floor pushing a small, toy car and make engine sounds as we sped along.
GM is run by fools now!
I believe that Mary Barr is moving GM to total EV and doesn’t care about racing at all. All she cares about is her bonus!!!! I know that Ford will take over the sports car slot if GM decided they have a better solution to profit, which in the end will kill their year in year out Corvette sales. They want high margin sales and no real effort to keep the sports car enthusiast in their fold!!! Bad idea, why does Porsche , Lambo, Austin …….. even Rolls Royce go racing, because it sells sports cars. If all you want is to sell boring EV’s then do it, give the world a true taste of who you are GM a dollar before pride company!!!! ICE is over not by a long shot. Synthetic fuels are coming quickly into the market lead by who??? Porsche!!!!!
Government Motors is a disgrace!
After owning mostly GM vehicles for the past twenty plus years, I have slowly started to move away from them recently. They have unfortunately lost the plot. I will no longer invest my money into a company that doesn’t respect it’s customers needs and wants.
Looks like racing is on it’s way to becoming boring real quick real soon. Gentleman charge your batteries ! Sad.
The day Doug Fehan was fired I posted the racing program is doomed. Woke jackasses are running the company now.
All I know is the next Cadillac I’ll be riding in will be the one transporting me to Forest Lawn. Sure, the Corvette DP car got rebadged as a Cadillac but who cares? The badges are the only thing DP’s have in common with the GM car. Still fun to watch though. GM is the only US manufacturer with a true performance sports car with 67 years of heritage. The Corvette is one of the family jewels. Corvette Racing will survive with a performance vehicle of whatever sort the future brings. Winning will continue to be the bottom line. Klauser and Barra will be held accountable in the long run.
Well said Shawn, they want us to die out and go away so they can instill the new vision. Zora would be furious!
Haven’t the bean counters and a the UAW screwed with the Corvette Lovers enough with out bringing cancelling the racing program up. Some bean counter took a payoff from Porsche to even say that out loud! Porsche dropped out of GTLM because they could not consistently beat the Corvette Team and had ISMA cancel the class. Wonder who got paid at ISMA and now Porsche built a band new GT3 to compete in the new GT PRO class with hopes they paid enough for ISMA to keep Corvette out of the new class and set Porsche GT3 to own the new GT PRO class of racing. The one man that Corvette Racing doesn’t mean Corvette Racing Can’t win in the future, everyone else is on the Job and they are planning to run the Number 3 C8R at the LeMans 24 hour in August. Corvette Racing was not just not One Man!
The Corvette has always been “America’s sportscar” and racing has been a major part of that. I get that Cadillac is working to build their brand as a major player in the performance sedan market, and racing in the Prototype class is their avenue for that, but people like to see a car that actually looks like what they drive winning races, and Corvette Racing provides that. Yes, the Prototypes are the fastest cars on track, but I’d venture to say if one were to poll the most watched class in Endurance racing it would be the GT classes by a wide margin. I think the GTD Pro class would be a great fit for Corvette Racing, with both factory support and the possibility of customer cars competing against Porsche, Lamborghini, Ferrari, Aston Martin, Mercedes, Acura, Lexus, Audi and any others entering the class, leaving Cadillac to go against Porsche, Toyota, Audi, Acura and others in the Prototypes. Racing DOES sell cars, and I think it would be a huge mistake for GM to withdraw Corvette Racing from the fray.
If this is all true, after getting the “Living Dream” treatment at the Corvette Museum upon delivery of my C8 Convertible in November after waiting sixty, yes sixty years waiting for a mid engine Corvette following my C1,C2 and last C3! I would like us all to throw in and make an offer to GM to buythr rights to theMarque and keep it going. And not to be poltical, but Mary Barra is just like the other “chief Executive”, a total empty suit.
MDC8
For more than 40 years I have seen these scenarios play out, GM always comes on top, being an EXPERIENCED GM (VETTE) and dozens of GM cars and truck repair CERTIFICATIONS ……..KEEP THE FAITH!!!! LET THE CEO and “TOP BRASS” do their job as they have for years!!
GM is WOKE!
Autosport’s opinion is just that, an opinion. No where else, neither via Racer, Sportscar365, GM Authority, Autoweek, nor Don Sherman, who seems to always know a lot of what is going on within GM, have we seen a similar opinion narrated and shared.
Albeit, everyone who reads Corvette Blogger and is a member of Corvette Nation can come to a similar conclusion that with the sale of P&M, the unceremonious ouster of Doug, the demise of GTLM, and maybe some other markers, that Corvette Racing is on the chopping block.
I counter Autosport’s and all the above opinions with this; Mark Stielow, a race car guy if there ever was one, who was recently named Director GM Motorsports Competition Engineering. Some may know him as the owner of Sled Alley, a builder of hot rod Camaros for Pro Touring. Now that move, to me anyway, doesn’t sound like GM is getting out of racing, especially Corvette Racing, any time soon.
I think the Klauser move was more of a two part strategy on the part of GM/Barr; Klauser is a gear head engineer, with a couple of Masters Degrees in engineering, more of an engineer than Doug, and I am a huge Doug supporter, don’t like what GM did to him nor how they did it, he DID NOT deserve that kind of ouster. However, this Klauser move brings forward a qualified female in a male dominated arena. Some of you guys may not like that, but in today’s world you need to build a bridge and get over it. B-t-w, who is the chief tire engineer for Indy Car’s tire supplier? Look it up.
I think Autosport’s opinion is a reach. Every body throttle back a little bit, as we wait and see how this all plays out.
Mike 8TY4SPD & MNL13GS
Wow, this is a bad friggen idea, who the hell thought this bs up??? One of the events I look forward to every year is watching Corvette Racing kick ass and now they want to screw that up?? Damn.
I’m 74 years old my first Corvette was 1969 blue convertible with 4 on the floor 400Hp and tri-power Carburetion! My second corvette a ZO6 2016C8.R. My standing order is for a 2021 convertible ZO6. GM is going to quite corvette racing. You got to be kidding me! They can’t make them fast enough. The have the first mid-engined that is competes effectively with Porsche Ferrari, Lamborghini etc. And thanks to American Union Workers, ect it’s affordable. At least barely.
And the race car looks like the street car. Watch it race on Sunday; buy one on Monday. Japan sold out their entire allocation in just days. Don’t know anything about right hand drive sales. Put the C8.R’s in lemans. And I suspect do European demand will be very hot.
I’m sorry but Cadillac Racing vehicles don’t look like anything you can put on the street. Let alone buy!
Miss/Mrs Mary Barret, with all do respect, and with my MBA degree and Forty plus years in sales: CEO of my own company. When you have a winner ( sales), you back it and support what makes it a winner. You back and support the team that makes it a winner. You don’t put out to pasture.
Miss/Mrs. Mary Barret there’s an old joke about a company wide sales dinner. The CEO leans over to the sales manager and asks. Who the hell is the fat guy at the end of the table. With the plaid jacket and the gravy stained tie. I want him fired!
The sales mangers says. ‘We can’t fire him, he’s our number one sales person for the last 10 years!’
Sound familiar? Do you really think people from all over the world are going to fly to France to watch the ‘The 24 minutes at la mons.?’
Respectively submitted,
Warren Knorr
Retired
Number,of mistakes spelling ect in my post. When the spell checker has mind of its own there is little I can do.,Especially when some that I am dearly invested in is headed to the bone yard. I can peck faster than think. Besides my secretary ( the god of the office) always fixed things that missed. And let me drive on doing my thing, Making money.
Think Callaway will have a “drop in 5.5 R engine for our C8 convertible?
Mike Donahoe
Given GM is a truck/suv company and moving to EV’s why invest in auto racing? It used to be race, win on Sunday, sell on Monday. Cadillac’s balance of sale trends toward SUV’s, sedans are dying. Trying to win over the BMW/Audi/Porsche crowd to Cadillac is wishful thinking, although their demographic is trending to a younger cohort, so maybe some life is left but not worth the investment in racing. Corvette is another story, win on Sunday and sell a truck on Monday? A Camaro, maybe? A Corvette sale? the General can’t fill the orders they have and continue to stimulate the market with Z06, Zora, EVette , flat plane crankshaft motor, rumors. And now market to Japan, etc at the expense of U.S dealers and customers who wait for many months for a car. Given the Corvette Racing changes it appears a more practical business model will be to support Corvette privateers with financial and engineering support and continue the hype machine, and of course raise the base price and popular options which has happened.
Keith, your reporting on Autosport’s opinion, which is not fact based, albeit just their interpretation of an interview, has certainly created a firestorm.
Hey, gals and guys, GM chopping Corvette Racing is just an ‘opinion’ of one outlet in the automotive world. Autosport’s assertion is most assuredly a reach. And maybe a self-promoting one at that.
As I wrote previously, everyone needs to throttle back a little bit.
I, for one, don’t believe Corvette Racing is going anywhere, except maybe to a major racing organization, like Hendrick.
Mike 8TY4SPD & MNL13GS
I agree with Brian L. They have all of this success in racing and when is the last time you saw an ad about these successes? It’s not part of their marketing program for years. The Corvette could be the ideal Icon vehicle for GM. And if they did end their racing programs, the average TV listener never knew they HAD a racing program. Especially when they’ve been as successful as they’ve been. You have to tout your successes. If you don’t, who will?
GM wants to be know as a technology company so people buy the stock and a corvette burning carbon based fuel is not it. before racing improved the breed of customers cars but with EVs there is no connection between the two. i am not anti corvette as i have owned 11 new ones
Hey Mike 8TY4SPD & MNL13GS ,
Good write on the state of affairs , but I do think Klauser is qualified, however she has not shown, to me anyway, that she’s a gear head. Hey I’m and engineer and approach my car mod’s and purchases from a tech point of view. If she does move forward on the GTPro Corvette package then she’s doing great IMO.
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