June 24, 2009
Corvette Racing lives on to fight another day.
By Peter M. De Lorenzo
(Posted 6/22, 12:30pm) Detroit. Last week, while toasting the tremendous success of Corvette Racing (click on "Next Entry" at bottom of page to read previous issues - WG), I also pointed out that it hadn't come easy, as internal political squabbles within GM marketing had plagued the program from the beginning, threatening to derail it many times during its existence. This was especially true last week when GM marketing and racing operatives traveled to Charlotte to deliver the bad news about the realities of its financial cutbacks to its NASCAR teams. It's no secret that certain individuals within GM marketing are openly biased toward the company's NASCAR programs and were willing to throw Corvette Racing under the bus in no uncertain terms if it meant "protecting" its sacred NASCAR involvement.
Fortunately, that didn't happen. Last Thursday night on the "Autoline After Hours" webcast (you can see the program by going to autolinedetroit.tv and clicking on "John's Journal" - WG), Mark LaNeve - GM's top sales and marketing VP - confirmed that Corvette Racing would indeed continue, with its all-new ALMS GT2 effort debuting at Mid-Ohio in August, as scheduled. This is great news for Corvette enthusiasts and road racing fans everywhere, as now the vaunted Pratt&Miller-prepared Corvettes will be going up against BMW, Ferrari and Porsche head-to-head in the red hot GT2 class after basically running unopposed in GT1 (except for Le Mans) over the last two seasons.
With the official confirmation that Corvette Racing would live on to fight another day and go after its toughest competitors in GT2 (one world GT class begins in 2010 based on current GT2 regs), road racing fans are in for a treat, as I expect the GT2 class to offer the best road racing seen in this country since the glory days of the factory-backed Trans-Am era of 1966-1971.
That the various revivals of the Trans-Am series have fallen flat is no big surprise, as there wasn't direct involvement by enough factory-backed teams to provide that knock-down, drag-out flavor that the great road racing series possessed back in its heyday. Of late, the Trans-Am series has usually been dominated by one factory-backed team that steam-rolled privateer teams at will. That won't happen in GT2 beginning in August. With well-prepared and well-financed factory-backed teams from BMW, GM (Chevrolet), Ferrari and Porsche squaring off against each other - with the gloves off - it should be sensational.
GM's decision to continue on with Corvette Racing also validates the role racing plays in the continued research & development program conducted on behalf of the production Corvette. As I said last week, the Corvette Racing program delivers a direct transference of advanced technology to the production car. Every dime that is spent on Corvette Racing is - for all intents and purposes - an extension of an ongoing, real-world research and development exercise that actually results in calculable benefits to the production Corvette that the company puts on the street.
Since GM's entire marketing budget for the Corvette is basically encompassed in the expenditures earmarked for the Corvette Racing program, I can only hope that with a few hard fought Corvette Racing wins against its toughest showroom competitors, GM can at least spring for a couple of national print ads to promote the effort.
The car deserves at least that much...
See another live episode of "Autoline After Hours" hosted by Autoline Detroit's John McElroy, with Peter De Lorenzo and auto industry PR veteran Jason Vines this Thursday evening, June 25, at 7:00PM EDT at www.autolinedetroit.tv. By the way, if you'd like to subscribe to the Autoline After Hours podcasts, click on the following links:
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Monterey, California, 1970. Parnelli Jones gets his factory-backed Boss 302 Mustang serviced by Bud Moore's crack crew at Laguna Seca. Jones - along with George Follmer - helped deliver the coveted Manufacturer's Championship for Ford that year against stiff competition from Chevrolet (Jim Hall Camaro team with Vic Elford & Ed Leslie), Plymouth (All American Racers 'Cuda team with Dan Gurney and Swede Savage), Dodge (Sam Posey-driven Challenger), AMC (Penske Javelin team with Mark Donohue and Peter Revson) and Pontiac (Firebird Trans-Am with Jerry Titus). Other notable independent entries that year were Milt Minter, driving a '69 Camaro for Roy Woods Racing, and Tony De Lorenzo and Jerry Thompson driving their Owens Corning Fiberglas-sponsored '70 Camaros.