Vetteheadracer
CCCUK Member
Anyone locked up / locked down or not aware in general of IMSA this is news for you!
The 2021 season will be the last one featuring Corvette Racing in the GTLM Class. The Class has been dying over the last couple of seasons as first the factory Ford GT's pulled out and then Porsche also withdrew leaving just Corvette Racing and BMW as the 2021 season factory backed teams - BMW are only doing the 4 endurance rounds - Daytona, Sebring, Watkins Glen (1st race) and Petit Le Mans. These were then joined at the last minute by a one race appearance of the Risi Ferrari at Daytona and the WeatherTech Porsche which has decided to do the full season.
IMSA announced that this year would be the final GTLM season and that they would introduce a GTD Pro Class for 2022.
Currently there is a GTD - D stands for Daytona - Class which is a GT3 spec car. The GTLM spec cars are currently GT2 which means that Corvette Racing have a BIG problem for 2022 as they don't make a GT3 spec. car and GM have always shied away from entering GT3 as they don't want the hassle of supporting customer programs and having to sell a minima of 20 cars to meet the homologation rules.
The idea of GTD Pro is a GT3+ Class car so potentially featuring some of the features of the GT2 Class cars on a GT3 car and featuring all pro drivers. The bit about the features is / has been discussed as for example the professional drivers don't really like the ABS standard feature on the GT3 cars and would prefer to do their own braking.
Corvette Racing have been in discussion with IMSA about running their GT2 Class cars in the GT3 Class given the time between the announcement and the start of the 2022 season (11 months) wasn't considered long enough. Bear in mind in 1943 Ford delivered a brand new B24 Liberator every hour and all the design work was done by Draftsmen and paper and pen you would have thought that GM's racing department could build 20 GT3 cars using all of the latest computer CAD design software available and CAD/CAM machines they have at their disposal but apparently not.
The GT3 rules mean that GM would need to take 20 Corvette C8 chassis off of the line at Bowling Green and either create a racing sub line in BG or ship the chassis to Pratt & Miller for them to build them up as GT3 spec race cars. Given that P&M is now owned by Oshkosh Defence who build military vehicles the racing arm of Pratt & Miller is probably not the main focus for Oshkosh.
GM Endurance racing which is now headed up by Laura Wontrop Klasser the former Cadillac Program Manager who has assumed responsibility for the Corvette Racing program as well is an engineer by trade. Engineers by nature are cautious and want things to be done right before releasing them and really don't care about timelines. Doug Fehan by contrast is and always will be a marketing genius and would I suspect have said we will be ready for 2022 and then would have gone to GM and said we need these resources to meet this timeline.
However, GM really has no one to blame except themselves in my opinion. They have long resisted GT3 and all that it entails but they have known that GT2 was dying for at least 2 years now so really they should have been developing a GT3 spec Corvette C8 since the beginning of 2019 if not before.
GM rely on Dallara for the chassis for the Cadillac DPi cars that run in IMSA and if they want to compete with the other manufacturers in the FIA WEC from 2023 in the LMH / LMDH they should have brought all of the GM endurance racing into one facility probably located in Mooresville, NC as its the capital of racing in the USA. Now it just so happens that Pratt & Miller have a facility in Mooresville as well as their traditional home for Corvette Racing which is New Hudson, MI. If I was GM Racing head (Mark Reuss) I would have approached Pratt & Miller / Oshkosh about divesting the racing arm of Pratt & Miller into GM Endurance Racing and would have looked to build a custom facility in Mooresville to facilitate all of the GM Endurance Racing programs. The two previously mention - Cadillac and Corvette Racing could also have been joined by the Camaro program which runs in the GS Class of the Michelin Challenge which is a......yes you guessed it......a GT3 Spec Class.
Getting rid of Doug Fehan as they did was also another huge mistake in my eyes. I know Doug was basically told his services were no longer required and that Jim Campbell had cleared it with Mark Reuss. (Jim Campbell is also responsible for the GM NASCAR racing programs as well as the IMSA programs)
If you want to get rid of Doug plan for it at the end of 2021. Give Laura a full year of working with Doug, let Doug introduce her to all of the people who matter who Doug holds considerable influence and also history with. Doug for example represents Chevrolet with the ACO who of course run Le Mans. He has built up a long and successful relationship over the past 20 years with the ACO / FIA and of course IMSA. Laura has worked with IMSA but has not had any exposure with the other sanctioning bodies.
On the subject of Le Mans they of course run GTE PRO and GTE Am Class cars which are currently both GT2 spec and therefore potentially Corvette Racing are going to have to run two classes of cars both GT2 and GT3 in 2022 and possibly beyond. Will Le Mans and FIA WEC also move to a GT3 spec car for 2023? Given there is the possibility to run an LMD/LMDH car replacing both IMSA DPi and FIA WEC LMP1 from 2023 it would make sense to also provide a global standard GT spec car which to my mind would have to be a GT3.
Anyway, sorry for the very long post but I thought I would share a lot of what I do know and also a lot of what I don't!
The 2021 season will be the last one featuring Corvette Racing in the GTLM Class. The Class has been dying over the last couple of seasons as first the factory Ford GT's pulled out and then Porsche also withdrew leaving just Corvette Racing and BMW as the 2021 season factory backed teams - BMW are only doing the 4 endurance rounds - Daytona, Sebring, Watkins Glen (1st race) and Petit Le Mans. These were then joined at the last minute by a one race appearance of the Risi Ferrari at Daytona and the WeatherTech Porsche which has decided to do the full season.
IMSA announced that this year would be the final GTLM season and that they would introduce a GTD Pro Class for 2022.
Currently there is a GTD - D stands for Daytona - Class which is a GT3 spec car. The GTLM spec cars are currently GT2 which means that Corvette Racing have a BIG problem for 2022 as they don't make a GT3 spec. car and GM have always shied away from entering GT3 as they don't want the hassle of supporting customer programs and having to sell a minima of 20 cars to meet the homologation rules.
The idea of GTD Pro is a GT3+ Class car so potentially featuring some of the features of the GT2 Class cars on a GT3 car and featuring all pro drivers. The bit about the features is / has been discussed as for example the professional drivers don't really like the ABS standard feature on the GT3 cars and would prefer to do their own braking.
Corvette Racing have been in discussion with IMSA about running their GT2 Class cars in the GT3 Class given the time between the announcement and the start of the 2022 season (11 months) wasn't considered long enough. Bear in mind in 1943 Ford delivered a brand new B24 Liberator every hour and all the design work was done by Draftsmen and paper and pen you would have thought that GM's racing department could build 20 GT3 cars using all of the latest computer CAD design software available and CAD/CAM machines they have at their disposal but apparently not.
The GT3 rules mean that GM would need to take 20 Corvette C8 chassis off of the line at Bowling Green and either create a racing sub line in BG or ship the chassis to Pratt & Miller for them to build them up as GT3 spec race cars. Given that P&M is now owned by Oshkosh Defence who build military vehicles the racing arm of Pratt & Miller is probably not the main focus for Oshkosh.
GM Endurance racing which is now headed up by Laura Wontrop Klasser the former Cadillac Program Manager who has assumed responsibility for the Corvette Racing program as well is an engineer by trade. Engineers by nature are cautious and want things to be done right before releasing them and really don't care about timelines. Doug Fehan by contrast is and always will be a marketing genius and would I suspect have said we will be ready for 2022 and then would have gone to GM and said we need these resources to meet this timeline.
However, GM really has no one to blame except themselves in my opinion. They have long resisted GT3 and all that it entails but they have known that GT2 was dying for at least 2 years now so really they should have been developing a GT3 spec Corvette C8 since the beginning of 2019 if not before.
GM rely on Dallara for the chassis for the Cadillac DPi cars that run in IMSA and if they want to compete with the other manufacturers in the FIA WEC from 2023 in the LMH / LMDH they should have brought all of the GM endurance racing into one facility probably located in Mooresville, NC as its the capital of racing in the USA. Now it just so happens that Pratt & Miller have a facility in Mooresville as well as their traditional home for Corvette Racing which is New Hudson, MI. If I was GM Racing head (Mark Reuss) I would have approached Pratt & Miller / Oshkosh about divesting the racing arm of Pratt & Miller into GM Endurance Racing and would have looked to build a custom facility in Mooresville to facilitate all of the GM Endurance Racing programs. The two previously mention - Cadillac and Corvette Racing could also have been joined by the Camaro program which runs in the GS Class of the Michelin Challenge which is a......yes you guessed it......a GT3 Spec Class.
Getting rid of Doug Fehan as they did was also another huge mistake in my eyes. I know Doug was basically told his services were no longer required and that Jim Campbell had cleared it with Mark Reuss. (Jim Campbell is also responsible for the GM NASCAR racing programs as well as the IMSA programs)
If you want to get rid of Doug plan for it at the end of 2021. Give Laura a full year of working with Doug, let Doug introduce her to all of the people who matter who Doug holds considerable influence and also history with. Doug for example represents Chevrolet with the ACO who of course run Le Mans. He has built up a long and successful relationship over the past 20 years with the ACO / FIA and of course IMSA. Laura has worked with IMSA but has not had any exposure with the other sanctioning bodies.
On the subject of Le Mans they of course run GTE PRO and GTE Am Class cars which are currently both GT2 spec and therefore potentially Corvette Racing are going to have to run two classes of cars both GT2 and GT3 in 2022 and possibly beyond. Will Le Mans and FIA WEC also move to a GT3 spec car for 2023? Given there is the possibility to run an LMD/LMDH car replacing both IMSA DPi and FIA WEC LMP1 from 2023 it would make sense to also provide a global standard GT spec car which to my mind would have to be a GT3.
Anyway, sorry for the very long post but I thought I would share a lot of what I do know and also a lot of what I don't!