{"id":28326,"date":"2021-11-23T11:04:48","date_gmt":"2021-11-23T15:04:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/?p=28326"},"modified":"2021-11-23T11:04:48","modified_gmt":"2021-11-23T15:04:48","slug":"payne-corvette-racing-goes-big-with-two-global-series-z06-gt3-r-customer-car","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/2021\/11\/payne-corvette-racing-goes-big-with-two-global-series-z06-gt3-r-customer-car","title":{"rendered":"Payne: Corvette Racing goes big with two global series, Z06 GT3.R customer car"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chevrolet\u00a0is revving up its Corvette race program.<\/p>\n

Corvette Racing has been integral to development and marketing of the brand\u2019s iconic sportscar, and, for the first time in its 24-year history, the race team will compete\u00a0for both the 2022 IMSA sportscar championship in the U.S. and World Endurance series overseas. Come the 2024 calendar year, GM will offer\u00a0\u2014\u00a0also for the first time \u2014 the mid-engine, C8.R race car to private teams to go head-to-head against Lamborghini, Ferrari, Aston Martin and other supercars in international GT3 competition.<\/p>\n

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The program expansion follows the C8.R\u2019s second straight U.S. title in the IMSA endurance sportscar series. That\u00a0success has paralleled the red-hot sales\u00a0of the production Corvette with sale prices often well above sticker.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the most ambitious schedule that Corvette Racing has faced,\u201d said Jim Campbell, chief of parent General Motors Co.’s Chevy Performance and Motorsports. \u201cIt will be an honor to race in both the IMSA and WEC series at some of the best tracks in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

A dominant\u00a0player in IMSA since Corvette first went GT racing in 1999, the team has also raced in choice World Endurance Championship\u00a0(WEC) races like France’s Le Mans and Spa in Belgium. The new year will mark\u00a0the first time Corvette will field a full-time car in both series. Since 2001, Corvette has won 13 IMSA manufacturers championships.<\/p>\n

The announcement came as Chevy showed off the 670-horsepower Corvette Z06 performance model\u00a0for the first time at a major\u00a0auto show in Los Angeles. The Z06 shares the same\u00a0high-revving V-8 engine the C8.R has been campaigning the last two years on the race circuit. A significant departure from the standard Corvette\u2019s traditional\u00a0push-rod, the Z06’s 5.5-liter mill utilizes Ferrari-like flat-plane\u00a0crank technology that shrieks to\u00a08,600 RPM.<\/p>\n

Corvette\u2019s move comes as sports car racing undergoes a major shift in the next two years with unprecedented interest from manufacturers across the globe. Race teams from Cadillac, Acura, Audi, BMW\u00a0and Porsche will compete in an international prototype class.<\/p>\n

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On the Grand Touring\u00a0front, IMSA is consolidating its GT classes into one and eliminating the GTLM class where Corvette dominated the last two years over entrants from Porsche, Ferrari\u00a0and BMW. For 2022, the team \u2014\u00a0managed by Pratt & Miller in New Hudson\u00a0\u2014\u00a0will field a C8.R slightly modified for the GTD class with a different rear wing and customer Michelin racing tires.<\/p>\n

The driver teams that were fielded in the 2021 IMSA\u00a0GTLM class will split with the team of Antonio Garcia, Jordan Taylor and Nicky Catsburg (Garcia and Taylor were driver champs in 2021) going to IMSA GTD for its 10-race schedule, while Tommy Milner, Nick Tandy and Alexander Sims go globe-trotting in the WEC. The international series features six races at venues\u00a0from Japan to Bahrain to Sebring, Florida.<\/p>\n

“This is a World Championship and that is something that is really important for Corvette, Chevrolet and our team,” said Tandy.\u00a0“Going for a world championship is something that not many people compete for, so I\u2019m looking forward to what comes ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Corvette will field two cars in June at the world\u2019s premier endurance race, the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France, where it has won eight times since 2001.<\/p>\n

Competitors in the IMSA GTD class run the gamut with private entries from Lamborghini, McLaren, Aston Martin, Porsche, Mercedes, Ferrari, Acura, Audi, Lexus\u00a0and BMW. Intriguingly, the Chevy would be the only mainstream badge in a sea of luxury makes \u2014\u00a0a testimony to how much less the Corvette C8.R costs than its peers\u00a0even as it boasts similar capability.<\/p>\n