AWA Racing was handpicked by GM Racing to field two new Corvette Z06 GT3.R racers in the GTD class in IMSA for the 2024 season but things haven’t been going well at all for the Canadian-based team in the first two races of the season.
At Daytona, both cars failed to finish the race while at Sebring, AWA’s number 13 Z06 GT3.R wearing the Yellow/Black livery finished 9th in class. Unfortunately, the Teal/Red livery number 17 Z06 GT3.R once again had electrical issues and failed to finish the race.
According to a new report from Motorsportweek.com, this has led to a division of the AWA team as one of the team’s members, Anthony Mantella, has “elected to step away from the GTD Program at this moment in time.” According to the statement, “The #13 car will continue to proceed as planned and will be present at the upcoming round in Long Beach.”
Mantella is reportedly the owner of the number 17 Corvette Z06 GT3.R and his co-drivers were Endurance Cup driver Thomas Merrill and 2023 WEC Champion Nico Varrone, along with Corvette works driver Charlie Eastwood for the season opener at Daytona.
On Monday, Mantella posted photos of the number 17 Corvette Z06 GT3.R on Instagram, offering the car for sale. He writes:
IMSA spec GTD Corvette Race car for sale. Used very infrequently. Hasn’t finished a race. Perfect for the collector who wants the latest iron from Pratt and Miller / Corvette Racing. Not a perfect race car but unobtainium to the public. @prattmillerms @corvette_motorsport
While the first two races were certainly brutal for the number 17 Corvette, Mantella is getting lit up in the comments of his Instagram post as users reminded him that it takes time to sort out a brand new racer while others called it a garbage move for quitting after two races and taking his car home. One other says that Mantella will never be granted another opportunity to get a first year OEM race car.
These Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs were said to cost over $750,000 each and we are sure that AWA Racing had invested even more for equipment, training, and other expenses related to racing.
We’ll keep an eye on this situation and keep you updated with anything else we find.
Source:
Mantella_autosport / Instagram via Motorsportweek.com
Related:
Corvette Racing at Sebring: AWA Leads Corvette Contingent at Finish
[PICS] AWA Racing Takes Delivery of Two Special Corvettes
AWA Racing Announces Driver Lineups for their Two IMSA GTD Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs
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Throwing in the towel after just two races? There has got to be more to this. For this car to likely end up in a collector’s hands will completely defeat the purpose of the customer racing program IMHO.
Where’s Laura to tell everyone how this will benefit the street variant?
I can’t sell my Z06 for 6 months. How can GM allow this car to be sold off to a “collector” when the owner made a commitment to race it in order to secure the purchase?
Ok. when you see how PM struggled with these “new” cars, i can understand this dissapointment and reaction. Obviously PM was so heavy occupied to bring their own cars with professional drivers into life and still dissapointed in both races.
As I recall, the cars came with technical assistance from P&M. Did Anthony “follow the directions”? And it’s also correct that it takes more than a few races for the team to settle in to be competitive. Perhaps Anthony thought he was buying a guaranteed “winning” car???
I would assume that all the prospective customer teams had to show GM their level of commitment, ie, funding, infrastructure etc, to be taken seriously, as GM undoubtedly wants these cars on the track. Porsche did the same thing with the 963 GTP to ensure cars did not end up in a collector’s garage. Given the charm campaign that Laura and her group mounted regarding these cars, I wonder if GM has any legal recourse against this.
Yes, this car is new and has been left seriously wanting here stateside, but still not much of an excuse to throw in the towel after just two races. The car has potential- TF Sport made a good first show, including a pole.
Like what @Boba said, there must be more behind this.
what a disaster.
What a joke and a waste of time, these idiots don’t deserve the cars anyway. They expected all wins in their first season??? The cars have a great track record so that makes me think these guys are just clueless douche bags that bit off more then they could chew. Maybe someone that knows what the hell they’re doing will pick it up and show these idiots how it’s done. Pretty sad.
Two races. These losers are giving up and selling the car after just two races. That’s pathetic. At least their car looks good.
I can it coming… Does the air blow cold? Paint readings, please. Date code on the tires? Numbers matching engine and transmission? Clear title?
Mantella- what a pussy.
Another rich crybaby!
How do you make a small fortune racing? Start with a large fortune.
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