Pratt Miller Takes Control of Z06 GT3.R Racing for 2024

[teamzr1]

WATKINS GLEN, NY (June 23, 2023) – Chevy & Pratt Miller Motorsports officials announced today the formation of a program that will lead competition and development efforts with the Chevy Corvette Z06 GT3.R Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports.

Starting with the 2024 Rolex 24 At Daytona, Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports will campaign a pair of the new-for-2024, GT3-spec Corvettes for a full season in the GT Daytona (GTD) PRO category of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
The factory-supported effort is the first of two 2024 WeatherTech Championship programs that feature the Corvette Z06 GT3.R with additional customer programs set to announce in the coming weeks.

Drivers for the GTD PRO effort will be announced at a later date, as well.

The link-up between Chevrolet and Pratt Miller Motorsports (PMM) is a natural fit. The current full-factory Corvette Racing program is in the midst of its 25th season with 125 race victories to date, the most recent coming at the 24 Hours of Le Mans for the team’s ninth class win at the famed French classic.
Also for the second year in a row, Corvette Racing has programs in both IMSA and the FIA World Endurance Championship with the Corvette C8.R, now in its final season of competition.
“Chevrolet and Pratt Miller have collaborated for more than 25 years on the Corvette Racing program, and we are thrilled that we are able to continue together into the GT3 era,” said Christie Bagne, Corvette Z06 GT3.R Program Manager.

Corvette Z06 GT3.R customer teams will compete under the umbrella of Corvette Racing, which also will include customer and technical support to help carry on the tradition of Corvette Racing excellence that began in 1999.

With an eye toward the future, Chevrolet Motorsports Competition Engineering and Pratt Miller began planning more than two years ago for the Corvette GT3 era. Pratt Miller located in New Hudson, Michigan is the constructor of the Z06 GT3.R. Pratt Miller engineers have worked hand-in-hand with Chevrolet Motorsports engineers on development, build and testing to date.

With Pratt Miller dedicated to chassis builds and engineering on the Z06 GT3.R, GM Propulsion Performance and Racing Center in Pontiac, Michigan, also has been busy with development and refinements on the 5.5-liter, flat-plane crankshaft DOHC LT6 V8 engine that will power the racecar.

The LT6 engine for the Z06 GT3.R originates from the Performance Build Center in Bowling Green, the same line on which all production Corvette Z06 engines are built. The racing engines are delivered to the Performance and Racing Center, where they are fitted with certain race-specific components.

The 5.5-liter power plant shares more than 70 percent of its parts with the production Z06 engine, including the crankshaft, connecting rods, cylinder heads, fuel injectors, coils, gaskets and a variety of other sensors.

“It makes sense to have Corvette Racing with Pratt Miller Motorsports lead the competition element of the Z06 GT3.R program in the GTD PRO championship starting in 2024,” Bagne said.
“We couldn’t have a better representative than the same group that has been part of the development, build and testing processes for our new Corvette racecar. The learnings we will take from testing and competition will flow to our other Z06 GT3.R customer teams to ensure that the Corvette brand is a championship contender around the world.”

Since September of last year, Corvette Racing and Pratt Miller have accumulated nearly 9,000 kilometers (5,500 miles) with the Corvette Z06 GT3.R.
The car is currently undergoing its final homologation testing in Europe, with additional testing planned for the summer and fall to fine-tune the Z06 GT3.R to multiple brands of tires for use across an array of championships around the world.

“This is an exciting time for everyone at Pratt Miller,” said Brandon Widmer, Pratt Miller Vice President, Motorsports.
We’ve experienced a lot of successes, race wins and championships with Chevrolet through the Corvette Racing program.
Now we move into the GT3 era. Everyone is pleased with the progress of our testing and development programs, and new car builds are under way.

“We’re appreciative of the decades-long relationship with Chevrolet. Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports is looking forward to continuing showing our expertise in race operations and management to our fans, our commercial partners and new prospects as we go forward.”

 

[teamzr1]

Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports’ GTD Pro effort will be bolstered by new commercial partners as part of its move to a factory supported operation, according to Pratt Miller Motorsports Vice President Brandon Widmer, who has outlined the changes to the program for next year.

Announced last week, the longtime full-factory squad will transition into a works-supported effort with a pair of new Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
The multi-year deal, which will feature a full factory driver lineup, will complement Corvette’s customer program with the new-for-2024 car that Widmer said would be a “huge benefit” to all involved.

For us, it’s definitely a new chapter, he said.
We’ve been quite happy being the name behind the scenes and Corvette Racing being in the forefront.
We spent a lot of time working with the Chevrolet folks on what should this team name be?
It sounds pretty simple, but ‘Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports’ actually took a lot of time.

For us, it’s important to have the continuation and heritage of Corvette Racing and all the success we’ve had collectively for the last 25 years, but also put the Pratt Miller Motorsports name out there as well in the headlines.
We’ll be bringing on commercial partners to help with the program as well.

That’s a great opportunity for our company directly, for partners that have shown interest in the past, and maybe those opportunities weren’t just quite there with the way the program was structured.
“For us, it’s not only a new chapter with a new GT3 car, but it’s a new chapter in our business as well.
We’re excited how it’s structured and how we’ll move forward.”
Widmer stated that the program will have a similar look and feel but with some key changes under the hood.

“We still expect to be heavily engaged in Corvette corrals and with the fans and really still be the official IMSA GTD Pro team for Chevrolet and Corvette Racing,” he explained.

The differences in how we come to the market in terms of our partners that we bring on to help support the program and how we use the team, Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports, to benefit their businesses as well.

Expect to see more partners at the track, maybe in our garage. Expect to see similar liveries but a little bit different with some partner names on them.
We fully expect to continue the heritage of what Corvette Racing is. We have a lot of very passionate fans.
I feel like we have the best fans in the paddock, and probably in the world.

With that they take a lot of ownership in what the car looks like, how we perform and where they may be able to interact with us.
We want to keep all those solid elements about the history of Corvette Racing very similar to what they’ve been,
but you will see some new names on the car in our new partners.

“We’ll have some announcements coming in the relatively near future as we bring on new partners.”
When asked how its interaction will be with customer teams, Widmer likened it to the way other GT3 manufacturers operate.

The most recent examples of constructors that also operated a GT3 team was M-Sport, which built and campaigned Bentley Continental GT3s from 2012-20, as well as JAS Motorsport with the Acura/Honda NSX GT3 Evo22.
“What we’re doing is somewhat similar to what’s been done by some other companies,” Widmer said.

“The fact that we engineered the car, we construct the car, we race the car, and we support those teams, we think that’s a triple threat that’s a huge benefit to the customer teams.”
Corvette GT3 program manager Christie Bagne revealed that the GM brand had conducted extensive research in evaluating potential works-supported teams before deciding on its longtime partner, Pratt Miller Motorsports.

Moving into this program, we tried to consider multiple options and multiple scenarios

The team laughs a little bit, but I put together a whole scoring system for teams, looking at results potential, brand heritage, brand representation, collaborative culture, things like that.

I can honestly say that Pratt Miller Motorsports came out at the top of that scoring system.

We tried to take a very objective approach to determining who the teams would be, both in IMSA [GTD] Pro and [GTD] and WEC and SRO.
Pratt Miller Motorsports was shining at the top.