63Corvette

I guess that I am in the minority, and a hopelessly lost Corvette owner, BUT............I just spent a weekend flagging for the World Endurance Championship race at CoTA, and I noticed that although the Pratt and Miller truck was there, there were NO Corvettes at this race???? Why?

VetteBoy1979

Team Corvette only races at LeMans in the WEC series. They race in the Weathertech series so their major market, America, is able to attend the races. Yeah, it's a bummer, but they were at COTA with the IMSA racing.

STANG KILLA SS

yeah there are never any corvettes in the WEC series.

z06801

Actually Larbre Competition has run corvettes and was trying to permission for a GTE Pro team from GM for this year, not sure what happened. Calloway also builds a FIA GT3 spec corvette that would fit in both WC and Weathertech GTD but the deal precludes them from selling it the states. I think it would be great to see a few teams battling it out with all the others in the GTD class.

93Polo

I have wanted GM to field a WEC or FIA GT team before it for a decade in the same way Ford fields teams in both IMSA and the WEC. Labre has run WEC GT AM. I don't understand why GM would allow a GT AM effort but not a GT Pro entry. Labre has proved to be a competent team over the past few decades.

Unfortunately a major effort like Ford 2 teams takes money GM will not spend. The GT3 cars are a lower cost way of getting the Corvette brand in front of the public outside of the US. I can understand GM not in a way diluting the impact of the GTLM teams by running Privateer GTD teams.

I am surprised P&M has been funded for nearly 2 decades to run the C5R, C6R, and now C7R, and even more surprised GM has done so while involved with the evolution of Grand Am's prototype class. GM has not had a great track record of backing factory road racing efforts over the long haul.

63Corvette

Automobile Club de l'Ouest tends to start 50 to 60 cars at LeMans.
There were only 24 TOTAL cars entered for the Texas LeMans race. It sorta made for a long, HOT, boring afternoon!
http://www.fiawec.com/en/race/result/4520

jaredtxrx

Once I found out that WEC and IMSA were not going to share a weekend at COTA i knew it would probably going to be a disappointing weekend. Those two series really made for a fantastic weekend of racing.

z28lt1

Some rumors about GM not wanting them to have a Pro Car and/or not being able to get a second car. Somewhat surprised Labre didn't stay with the 1 GTE-AM car they've been running for a few years (although they did run it at Le Mans).

At one of his Corral talks, Dough Fehan explained that each regional area of GM operates its own budget for those types of things. It doesn't make sense for GM-US to spend money racing in Europe outside of Le Mans, as that isn't their audience. GM Europe has not made the investment in these things, and you could see why running a Corvette racing team probably isn't financially in their best interests. So, seems like we are stuck with no factory WEC team, and have to hope GM lets Labre or someone else run a Pro car if we want to see it there.

'Shifter

It sucks....I would love to see them in WEC. A few years ago, you could still see the C6r's compete in the International GT Challenge, but that's done too...

TLGunman

Ask Louis at LG about Corvette Racing...

PeteC7

One of the best races I've ever been to was a few years back when the WEC and IMSA shared a weekend at COTA and they ran from like 6pm to like 10pm. It was so awesome seeing them race at night.

But I went to the May IMSA race this year instead of both. The WEC is dropping COTA after this year so it will just be IMSA going forward.

z28lt1

It will be neither. IMSA dropped COTA as well.

KnightDriveTV

They are now going to run the double header at Sebring in 2019...IMSA race starts Saturday, runs til Saturday night at 10pm, then WEC starts at Midnight and runs til some time midday Sunday. (ytd)

https://www.racer.com/wec-le-mans/it...500-mile-event


I've read and heard rumors among those in the know, that the FIA have not enjoyed Corvette enjoying the marketing benefits of running at Lemans without committing to fielding a GTE PRO team. I'm wondering if that will somehow push a decision point. You see the C7R being pretty consistently saddled with a BOP that doesn't seem to allow them to win without use of a bold strategy and some luck.

GSpeed

I dont even know where to start. GM doesnt want anyone racing corvettes, except them.

Its a bad business model, and it will take years for them to change it. Just like you dont see any corvettes in Pirelli World challenge, only the Cadillac.

GM plays a dirty game with their own kind, and its beyond frustrating to those who helped them in the early years.

63Corvette

Louis,
In the 2013 Vintage racing season, I asked at the Sebring race, if the organizers of the Corvette Corral would like the vintage race cars to make an appearance in the Corvette Corral in between races. Their response was: "Why would we want that?"
Then at the Monterey Historics, Chevrolet charged the Vintage Racers (preaching to the choir) to attend a "Corvette Dinner". during this dinner, the Corvette Racing Icons, including Bob Bondurant, Doug Hooper, Dick Guldstrand and others who put "CORVETTE" on the map into the lexicon of American History, were ignored in favor of a blatant C7 Corvette sales pitch by Tadge Juechter.
I share you and your father's disdain for the lack of vision and understanding by GM, of the very people who ARE the racing arm of Corvette.

sunsalem

Very, very unfortunate.

With all due respect...it's their car, it's their $$$, they have a right to do whatever the hell they want with it.
You do not understand the purpose behind GM Racing.
GM is NOT a racing organization...it is a car manufacturer.
They are in the business of SELLING cars.
Racing is simply a part of their marketing programs...no more, no less.

z28lt1

I think sunsalem hit it on the head here. GM has apparently decided that the best decision for them is to have full control over any pro racing, at least in the US for their flagship sports car, the Corvette. As sunsalem said, they aren't trying to sell Corvette race cars, they are trying to market, and it seems they feel their team is the best team to do that (and it is hard to argue with those results). I don't mean this as any disrespect to the excellent vendors/teams who have the capability to produce good results (such as LG, Callaway, etc.) but the factory (and P&M) team are at the top of the sport, and while some will think more cars racing is better, others may think anything less than the best results can hurt.

If you want to race a GM car, they will be happy to sell you a GT4 Camaro (or you can probably buy Stevenson's if you want one "broken in".)

sunsalem

During interviews, Corvette Racing's Doug Fehan (team boss) always emphasizes the connection between the race team's car and the street car.
Of course, as we all know, if you remove the body panels you won't find a lot that looks familiar.
The trick is to make the racecar resemble the street car as much as possible.
This is all about marketing the brand...GM wants their customers to imagine they too have or can have a racecar.
Clever stuff IMO.

In terms of racing success, no GT manufacturer has been more successful than Corvette Racing since 1999.
Their record speaks for itself:
http://www.corvetteracing.com/about-2/

GSpeed

Sunsalem, you can think what you want. GM plays a dirty game, and they know it. Riley technologies was given an undisclosed sum, and the Camaro GS program after GM refused to sign the original GT2 Riley Homologation papers back in 2008, because they knew they could only race against themselves for so long. I was sitting at Bill Rileys conference table when GM made the GT2 announcement. We were all in shock.


How many of those GT1 races won were the result of them beating each other?


someone refresh my memory as to what happened in the corvette corral in 2009, when again, GM tried to play dirty?

z06801

Yes I agree I think the Corvette Racing people have the executives at GM buffaloed, what would it hurt to a model more like Porsche Lamborghini Audi where race cars are a customer base and profit center. I loved to be able to get a Calloway GT3 over here, hell our NASA race looks more like PWC with all the Porsche GT3r's Lambos, Mercedes. It's what you would need to run at the front in a Corvette