The writing has been on the wall for Corvette Racing for some time now as we’ve seen the various racing series moving away from hosting factory-backed programs in the GT racing classes. Now with Chevrolet introducing its new Z06 GT3.R-spec racers in 2024, it was made official that Corvette Racing will end operations as support from GM Racing will flow to the individual teams.
Pratt Miller Motorsports has been the partner with GM for the last 25 years of the Corvette Racing program, and as was reported, they will transition to providing the customer support programs for IMSA, WEC, and the SRO America series.
But don’t despair, Corvette Racing fans, as GM’s motorsport competition engineering director Mark Stielow says that as many as four new GT3 Corvette Z06s could be racing at the start of the IMSA 2024 campaign with two GTD-Pro cars and two GTD cars racing in the series.
“So we’re going to launch with hopefully four cars at the Daytona 24-hour; we’ll have two GTD Pros and two GTDs. That’s the plan. We’re trying to get all those things lined up right now.
“We’ll get the cars to our key partners, our key teams in the November timeframe. We’ve got two test cars built, so we’re going to get some the teams we’re going to work with in those cars, get them up to speed.
“When they take delivery of their real car, they’ll be ready to go for IMSA in the Daytona 24-hour. We’ll have some cars in the WEC also.
As GM moves to a customer-centric GT3 program, Stielow says there was an internal debate about having customers race against a factory-backed team, and he calls their current plans a “hybrid” as Pratt Miller Motorsports may still end up running the GTD-Pro team in IMSA, just not under the Corvette Racing banner.
A total of eight Corvette Z06 GT3.R racers are expected to make their global debut in 2024. They include the aforementioned four GT3s in IMSA WeatherTech, two in the FIA WEC’s LMGT3 class, and the final two will appear in the SRO America series.
Stielow says the move away from the factory effort to more of a supporting role will be a “big shift” for GM from a marketing perspective, adding that “people don’t like change.” But he concludes that it will good “because we’ll have more high-level Corvettes racing in more places.”
GM’s Laura Wontrop Klauser says that the customer teams will be announced soon, saying “I think fans will be very happy with the organizations we have chosen.” Those team are expected to get their race cars later this fall.
Corvette Racing’s final race in IMSA will be Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta on October 14th. The World Endurance Championship will come to a close on November 4th in Bahrain.
Source:
SportsCar365.com
Related:
Pratt Miller Engineering to Provide Customer Support for the Corvette Z06 GT3.R Program
Corvette Racing’s Factory Driver Pool to be a Key Point of its Z06 GT3.R Customer Program
Corvette Z06 GT3.R Price Revealed
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This transition was inevitable; all of us have speculated this for months. This said, I do get GM’s concern of the potential long term consequences of customer teams having to compete against a no-holds barred works operation. In situations like that, it is rare that customers ever one-up the factory, ultimately leading to a loss of racing customers, so a customer-centric operation will be good for the overall health of the program. Besides, more Corvettes on the track will mean that much more data, so the Z06 GT3.R will be truly optimized over time, rather than seeing what we all have seen over the years, which is a strong #3 and an inconsistent #4. What does that mean? A greater chance of seeing Corvette at the top of the podium any given weekend!
What would be really good is if Laura “unambiguously unambiguous” Klauser felt that the gentleman motorsport community would be even better served by having a one-make GT3 series like what Porsche, Lamborghini and Ferrari already do, right here in Corvette Country. Call it the Corvette Supercup presented by Mobil 1 or something. Callaway & Pratt-Miller can do the cars with GM providing support. I can dream, right?
Good days are ahead, fam!
This is just the other shoe dropping after they fired Doug Fehan.
https://www.corvetteblogger.com/2020/12/18/doug-fehan-didnt-retire-he-was-forced-out-and-im-mad-as-hell-about-it/
GM is a DEI and ESG company, so this was coming. Can’t be putting carbon out and have all biological male teams.
LeMans 24 pre-show on now. Vette on class pole. Keating is pumped. As far as IMSA is concerned, they don’t want any better in their series. They have been allowing GTD pro cars to chrome horn the vetted for at least 3 years. The Weathertech team even took one car out back when it was a GTD am team. All American company my a__. They need to campaign a Z06 GT3.R to make that statement true.
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