Corvette Racing’s Klauser on the ACO and No GT3 Pro Class at Le Mans

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Corvette Racing's Klauser on the ACO and No GT3 Pro Class at Le Mans

Photo Credit: Richard Prince for Corvette Racing


GM Sports Car Racing Program Manager Laura Klauser made her first public comments on the ACO’s announcement last week that it plans to limit its new GT3 class to Pro-Am entrants, leaving the future of factory Corvette Racing at Le Mans unknown beyond 2023.

The ACO said Friday that, beginning in 2024, its current GTE formula will be replaced by GT3 regulations meant for private teams only. That would apparently leave Corvette Racing’s factory team unable to compete in Le Mans where it has run for the past 21 seasons.

“That would be disappointing on our side,” Klauser admitted to Sportscar365 on the possibility of not having a GT3 Pro class in 2024. “But again it would be nice to have that formalized from them exactly. Clearly, we’re running both strategies at home to see what we would do. You can’t sign up until you know what you’re signing up for.”

Klauser says the ACO told GM last week that “the rest of the story” will be coming from the organization “by the end of the year.” It’s an announcement “we are still anxiously awaiting,” she added.

Klauser would prefer to have a two-tier GT3 formula, similar to IMSA’s upcoming GTD Pro and GTD in 2022, so that GM could separate its factory-backed pro racing from amateur competitors.

“One of the things you don’t want to do is race your customers,” she said. “That usually doesn’t work out well for either party involved. Having the ability to segregate your pro effort if you want to play factory, play there and have an area for your customers to be in, that would be ideal.”

Laura Klauser


The ACO says it is making the change to “prevent” factory-backed teams from “officially” participating in its new GT3 class to keep operating costs as low as possible for teams.

Sportscar365 specifically asked ACO President Pierre Fillon about how a team like Corvette Racing could participate in Le Mans in 2024 and he replied, “You have to ask the question to Corvette. They can come with amateur drivers and private teams.”

Fillon says the ACO hasn’t yet determined if there will be more than one GT racing class or two, as is currently the case with GTE-Pro and GTE-Am, but he reiterated that the objective is to contain costs, saying “Today GTE is very costly, and it is something we don’t want” when the new class begins racing in 2024. Fillon adds, “We will have the final decision at the end of this year.”

Klauser says if there is no GT pro class at Le Mans, it’s not clear what path GM would take with LMDh that is currently earmarked for Cadillac.

“We haven’t announced anything yet so we really haven’t committed one way or another with what’s going on in LMDh if we’re playing,” she said. “This has all been part of those discussions.”

She says GM is trying to find “the total program,” taking into account the brands that currently race and “what’s coming down the pipeline, what makes sense to pair them with the brands and how they’d be perceived and used as a marketing tool.”

Does Le Mans adjust what the company is doing, Klauser wonders. “I guess once we figure out what exactly we’re doing across [the board] … Maybe there’s an opportunity not to in the current GT space depending on what the current direction ends up being. Until we have that figured out, it’s hard to say one way or another. We might not be in a problem here.”

In other words, Corvette enthusiasts will just have to wait and see how it all plays out in the coming months.


Source:
sportscar365.com

Related:
The ACO Just Blew Up Corvette Racing’s Future Le Mans Racing Plans
Corvette Racing at Le Mans: Runner-Up in C8.R Le Mans Debut
RUMOR: Corvette Racing’s New GT3-Spec C8.R Expected in 2024

 



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6 COMMENTS

  1. “We haven’t announced anything yet so we really haven’t committed one way or another with what’s going on in LMDh if we’re playing,” she said. “This has all been part of those discussions.”

    Um, wasn’t the Cadillac LMDh program announced yesterday? This lady needs to calibrate her massaging.

    Laura, if you read this, keep Corvette Racing going, just here in North America. Screw the ACO. Corvette is a huge draw here and a major asset to IMSA. Also, there are plenty other GT3-based events Corvette Racing can go around the world. 24H at Spa, Bathurst 12, Indianapolis 8, et al…

  2. The ACO a**holes can suck it. They bent so far bass-ackwards to make concessions for Ford and their lame GT endurance racing program and now they’re taking out their ineptitudes on factory-backed teams.

  3. The simple solution is to have Callaway race Le mans, as Callaway already has a presence in GT3 in the ADAC GT Masters.

    Reeves’ Callaway Competition is a private team and can arrange very easily for the pro/am drivers required.

  4. I agree with Brian L. Corvette ‘IS’ IMSA GT! Don’t throw Zora and Doug’s hard work and history in the ashcan, considering THEY were the ones that built this brand! The millions of fans and owners, hunger for a continuance of the Corvette Racing team. Don’t pull the plug…no yet, anyway.

  5. The ACO does not give a **** about anything American. I have no faith in Laura being up to the task of this.

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