LG Motorsports

z28lt1, no offense taken. It is good to to discuss what is going on. Facts don't change, just opinions change. GM has a different opinion about racing cars than most racers do, So be it. I am sure posting these facts will anger some hard core Corvette loyalists but you need to know that I am the #1 Corvette loyalist with no place for our team to race a Corvette.


NOW----If you want to race a Porsche, you can enter LeMans or any European series. Porsche will support you and help you and they would never stop a Porsche team from getting Michelin tires. IN Addition, there is a "Porsche Cup" series and a Cayman series. So anyone at many levels can race a Porsche. There is also a Porsche point system

-----If you want to race a Ferrari, you can race it anywhere you want. There is also a Ferrari Challenge series and multiple teams running Ferrari at Le Mans as well. and many world wide GT series where customer Ferrari race.

----BMW has many independent teams in addition to their factory team, (Turner for one)

-----Mercedes sells customer cars for most series as well and they support them 100%.


----For Corvettes there is only one team. They spend over $50 million dollars and no one in the US or Europe can get a car to run. There is NO Corvette Challenge since 1989.
>in 1990 there were no less than 5 independent teams running Corvettes against all brands.

When we decided to switch to ALMS in 2008, we got GM to give us permission to have our GT2 car built. We had GM authorization and blessing for as they called it. "The Baby GT" class.

BUT then GM was going bankrupt and decided that the GT1 class was going away because no one wanted to race in that class so as the 2008 season started- GM cancelled our Homologation that we had through Riley Technologies and pulled it PLUS they stopped Michelin from supplying us tires.
That caused the loss of our team mate and sponsor and once the Government bail out was in place, GM moved all their budget to Pratt and Miller and one single team to race in the "Baby GT Class" and pushed us out.

GM corporate has been conned into believing that only their team can win in any GT racing

They dropped the Corvette Challenge that was a huge success in 1988-89 that was a great series that built brand loyalty.

GM execs put on a driver suit and get on TV and brag about their wins when there were only 2 cars in the class and they were both Corvettes while they make excuses for not winning this year.

now they have just 2 Corvettes racing world wide. I don't count Callaway as a brand builder for Corvette. (Callaway cost $500k+ just for a car) and until this season they were barred from racing in the US World Challenge series.

So no one is going to change the GM mindset for now. The brand relies on just 2 Corvettes in front of the world. So they have to add enormous Ad buys and marketing to the mix to extend their reach.

I say that they should extend their reach by helping 5 world class teams to go out and beat the competition. Hard racing and some wins in customer hands does more for the brand than anything.

Here is a link to a Porsche page that shows how different their racing program is than GMs
Notice the end of this link says, "Customer Racing". and their racing really does improve the breed.

https://www.porsche.com/usa/eventsan...ustomerracing/


----Ferrari not only do they have a Customer program so any team from Weathertech to Risi snd others can race a Ferrari.
Check this link out to see how many places around the world that Ferrari cars can race.

http://races.ferrari.com/en/competizioni-gt/challenge/

But in GM's mind, only they can do an in house program combined with lobbying the organizers to trade marketing dollars for rule changes to float them to the top.
(This must be an off year for the GM marketing budget to get rule changes.)

Sanctioning bodies need car counts and they know they can not count on Corvette for car counts. (St pete world challenge, 11 cars in the GT class) Cadillac left because they would have been forced to homologate a true GT3 car that could not make their own rules.

So there we have it. Corvette racing program and PR effort in a nut shell.

I apologize if I have offended anyone.

Lou Gigliotti

bosco022

For Lou G, did you consider returning to Trans Am in a full on TA car?

Would love to see that !

LG Motorsports

Those days are gone this is what racing a Corvette use to be. ---Today where do they race? WE built every one of our cars other than the GT2 car and we actually did have real "Tech Transfer" to our LG parts.














































Look at how many cars were in the World Challenge class--factory efforts and private teams and some of the best racing on the planet!

LG Motorsports

Thanks, We thought about it but the TA2 class seems a good one but we really want to stick with an OEM Chassis and build a race car from that like we use to do.

World Challenge in a GT4 Camaro does not work either because you start with a $250k car and must, I repeat MUST not touch or improve the car beyond set up and all parts must, I repeat MUST be purchased from GM racing (pratt) at 4 times the price of a normal part because they are numbered.

SO it takes away the innovation that really helps improve the breed.

look at our web site and you can see all the parts that came from our racing program.

No worries, we are planning some neat things that will be fun. Nurburgring comes to mind

Lou Gigliotti

bosco022

Thanks for the trip down memory lane Lou ! I did not go to the Rolex 24 for the first time since 1964 because of all the factory built cars, balance of power crap, no innovation etc.

At 65 years old, I will just continue my club racing with a new outlaw vintage tube frame C3, my SCCA SPO C6 and likely an SCCA Improved touring R class C4. Gonna start letting others step into the seat, including Kerry Hitt in the vintage car.

LG Motorsports

Sounds good. The whole point is that there is really no Corvette race cars to cheer for anymore. It is hard for a factory to claim racing superiority when no one races them.

>>>Wake up call for GM upper management. <<<

Kevova

Mostly because it seems to be IMSA secret what does it pay to finish in the top 3 in an event?

raff

Depends on the race and class:

In GTLM --
First place at the Rolex 24 paid $50k
First place at Sebring paid $30k

https://competitors.imsa.com/sites/d...rize_money.pdf

There's also a year-end points fund payout.

Captain Buddha

Don't forget the Rolex Daytona Watch - would be pretty neat to have that!!

Kevova

There's the problem the rewards aren't close to the expense. 250k+car to win 36k at the most. Daytona and Sebring cost a ridiculous amount of money just to run. Daytona pays if the team sells the watches ....maybe. As a privateer you have to at least be able to cover your expenses when you win, and for the peanuts they payout you can't. IMSA must be locked in the past of "Gentlemen racing" for ego, pride, and side bets.. For the factory teams the purse could be a performance bonus once you split with the team. Driver's probably take half. Senior crew 25 and the crew what left. 1k for 5th you should have stayed home. It won't even pay for tires.

Nowanker

Some former employers of mine ran a GT3RS for a season of Grand Am in 2001. Must've spent millions. Their bill just for consumables and crew expenses at Daytona alone was $250k. Not including the car, which should have been considered a consumable at that point too.
But after the season was over, those contingency checks just kept rollin' on in...
Would never have added up to enough to pay the bar tab.
But DAMN were they ever proud of those watches!

raff

That's why you need sponsors in this day and age

Apparently IMSA realizes they have a problem in the GTD re: $$$
They're looking to reduce costs for next year
http://sportscar365.com/imsa/iwsc/at...ction-efforts/

LG Motorsports

Actually, a GT3 car now costs over $500k and the spare package is another $500k if you skimp out. It costs around $500k minimum to run a GT3 at Daytona and about the same to run Sebring.
With only 9 of the 10 cars starting and 3 of them out during the race it came down to a 6 car race for international honors that eventually went to the Porsche.

NOW look at the driver line up in the GTLM field. Only 4 US drivers. And on the GM Corvette racing team only 1 US driver out of 6 drivers are from the US.

SO what is the point of following the European rules and car regulations in America when only foreigners drive them?

And when we applied to run in LeMans, they asked if we were going to have a French driver on our team???? no worries, GM blocked us anyway.

Now, I am clearly over my prime. The older I get, the faster I WAS. BUT in my prime, when I was winning championships and races and ran up front in anything I raced in, GM always called on foreigners. Not even a test or a "Gong Show" like Roush use to do.

But the whole point of this thread is about why no privateers in IMSA GTD.

I guess I got off subject but it is all connected. No GTD privateers running because it is almost impossible to do with out a very rich sponsor or family member or family company.

GM factory Corvette racing does nothing to help because they do not want to be over shadowed by any private team. even in GTD, if GM wanted to they could help AMERICANS to race a Corvette but that would never happen because TV and Magazine time would be taken away from the Hero Team that can not stand intramural competition.

Losing to a Ferrari or a Porsche only gets GM to pony up MORE $$$$ to meet the challenge, no matter the reason for failure. BUT if they lost to another Corvette privateer team???? OMG, the bean counters would suddenly realize that they could get a much better bargain if they had more teams for a fraction of what they spend on Corvette racing.

The Irony is that Pratt and Miller could still rake in all the $$$ as a support group and engineering group to aid multiple private teams and the CREAM would rise to the top!! As it is now, Corvettes are just "Skim Milk".

LG Motorsports

Raff,

When Grand Am and ALMS merged, they requested input on a new name. I wrote to NASCAR/Grand Am and submitted the name
"***-CAR" and said if you insist on keeping Atherton as the head off the new joint venture, you will soon find out that you will burn down the series by following European rules and chasing LeMans as the prize.

Look at the Lemans entry and you will only see 2 or 3 American teams entered out of 75 entries. While in 2017 only 582 Corvette C7s were sold in Europe out of almost 30,000 Corvettes world wide.

SO what sense does it make to cater to what the "Elitists, Atherton and Panoz" wanted. AND they even named it "AMERICAN LEMANS SERIES" because they liked Europe more than AMERICA.
They destroyed the ALMS and before that Atherton was involved in the split up with INDY cars that hurt them as well.

Atherton stated that "Grand Am was a Distraction" and that ALMS (which he destroyed) was following the FIA and ACO european formula and it is strong" WELL HA. Guess not, because ALMS was on the verge of Bankruptcy and Atherton licked the boots of the France Family to join forces and he even somehow got them to take the FAILED FIA and ACO Formula with him.
Now they are still wondering why it seems to be hurting ???

***-CAR for sure.

Take a look at what GM is Chasing and IMSA is chasing by drooling over LeMans: Somehow is does not make sense to base an entire series and an entire brand racing in a market that does not buy American Corvettes??

European delivery of 2017 Corvette C7s.

STINGRAY STINGRAY GRANDSPORT GRANDSPORT Z06 Z06 TOTALS
Coupe Conv Coupe Conv Coupe Conv
DELIVERY:
U.S. 10355 2082 9026 1822 5423 849 29557
CANADA 610 196 511 179 576 196 2268
MEXICO 70 48 118
JAPAN 3 74 2 27 2 108
MIDEAST 40 1 93 1 13 1 149
EUROPE 175 19 208 42 110 28 582

LG Motorsports

HEY!!! Did I make any of you mad yet? Sorry if I did but

No worries, when I am through with racing/driving, we need to get a group together and start our own racing series with BIG PRIZE MONEY and LOW COSTS with TV and great cars and drivers on teams that can build their own cars or buy a reasonably priced car from a builder.

This is America and there is a free market that is working on IMSA as we speak.

Drive Fast, Drive Safe, and Drive Legal on a race track.

LG

F4Gary

Lou, you'd make a great congressman!

jfaphoenix32

Well spoken Lou... The free market is at work.

Poor-sha

I was thinking about this the other day on the way to work and here's my theory. I think we all expect to see the C8 debut early next year (Detroit?) and we will probably also see a C8.R to go along with it. However, there has also been a lot of talk about the current FE C7 continuing for a couple of years alongside the ME C8.

So could it be that we will see Corvette Racing campaign a C8.R in GTLM starting next year and the Callaway will be campaigning in GTD/WC to represent the C7 that will continue in production as well. Otherwise, I have to agree that it stinks to introduce a race car the year before the production car it's based on goes out of production.

Kevova

IMO The C8 won't be ready for competition until a year after it goes into production. Car being designed for the new 4.2 DOHC will have to perform. DNFs will hurt its reception.

To invest 2 million run a car that may only be eligible for 1-2 years is a tough sell. I would be surprised to see a Corvette in GTD

tw78911sc

The Aussies have it figured out
Bathurst is an awesome race, look at the number of brands, factory support from Porsche/Audi/Lambo/McLaren/AMG/Bently and others to customer cars, even Ginettas are allowed, I saw Mustangs, not one GM product, not even a Holden