In a move that surprises no one, GM Racing has selected Pratt Miller Engineering to provide support for its upcoming Corvette Z06 GT3.R customer racing program. The GT3.R era will officially begin at the Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway in January 2024.
Pratt and Miller has been the heart of Corvette Racing for over 25 years and the engineering firm has developed and raced each version of the factory-backed Corvette racers since the C5-R began racing in 1999. Since that first race, they have went on to become one of the preeminent sports car racing organizations in the world, winning 120 races including the 24 Hours of Le Mans eight times, while also notching 14 Manufacturer’s Championships in ALMS/IMSA.
When the new GT3 era begins in 2024, Pratt Miller Engineering will provide total customer and technical support to those racing the new Corvette Z06 GTE.R both in North America and worldwide.
“Pratt Miller is doing the primary support on the technical side for the car,” says Christie Bagne, Corvette Z06 GT3.R Program Manager. “And a big benefit of that is how efficiently that works in terms of the designers sitting 50 feet away from the race team, who’s prepping the race cars, building the race cars; and they’re 50 feet away from the team who’s machining parts that will go on the race car or 50 feet away from the designers who are releasing the parts for machining. So, effectively, we have very quick feedback in terms of when an engineer releases a part, the person who’s machining that part can walk right over and give them feedback on it. And when we’re doing things like choosing air jack locations, or air jack height, or wheels, they can walk over and ask the mechanics who are actually doing the pit stops at the races to go try out different configurations to optimize for that. So we’ve had very efficient feedback in that we don’t have to wait for a track test to have crews doing the pit stops to get that feedback to the engineering team. That’s all just very quick.”
According to Racer magazine, full FIA homologation for the Z06 GT3.R is expected to be completed this fall after the car completes its initial wind tunnel and powertrain testing. While that is ongoing, PME and GM continue to prepare for the switch to GT3 racing by studying the competition, meeting with various series personnel, and making sure they have a handle on the various series regulations.
“We’ve locked in what the support is going to look like and who will be providing it, so we’re moving on to focus on things like attending key GT3 races,” explains Bagne. “We’ll be over at (the) Nurburgring 24, we’ll be meeting with the series, we’ll be looking at different teams, we’ll be seeing how they’re operating, (how they’re) successful, working through all of that, and the very unique regulations that they have there to make sure that if we choose to deploy a car in that series, we’ve gotten the lay of the land well in advance. So that’s the goal for going to Nurburgring 24 this year; it’s the goal for going to Spa 24 this year. We’re looking forward to going to the Indy 8 Hour and seeing some of the big international teams coming into the United States. All of those are just opportunities for us to learn as much as possible about this GT3 space, and what customers need to be successful within it.”
Source:
Racer Magazine
Related:
Corvette Racing’s Factory Driver Pool to be a Key Point of its Z06 GT3.R Customer Program
Corvette Z06 GT3.R Price Revealed
Chevrolet Reveals Corvette Z06 GT3.R for 2024 Competition
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Wow, you’d think that this is the first time an OEM has done a GT3 prigram before, based on their releases!
So I guess no more factory Corvettes next year on? You’d think they would have directly said that by now, right?
Rapid feedback is NOT AN ADVANTAGE in race car construction or prep; IT’S A NECESSITY!
As goes the ole saw: “The green flag waits for no one!” Yer either there or ya stays in the pits! It’s that simple!
I know that from experience as a team manager, albeit fifty years ago.
Montana Bob
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