November 16, 2011
GM Racing gets cozy with the Grand-Am series, and U.S. road racing continues down its chaotic path.
By Peter M. De Lorenzo
(Posted 11/15, 4:00 p.m.) Detroit. GM Racing unveiled its new "Corvette" Daytona Prototype body made to order for the Grand-Am Series Tuesday (November 15) in Daytona Beach, confirming three things about the state of road racing right now in the U.S. As follows:
1. If you build it, we'll let you run it. Grand-Am has obviously tweaked the parameters and specifications of its third-generation DP class car in direct consultation with GM. Why? To allow GM to not only develop bodywork for its Daytona Prototype that bears no resemblance to any of the previous DPs that the NASCAR-governed road racing series has allowed in the past, but to gain a distinct advantage over the competition. A surprise? Not really. At the press conference announcing this new car Grand-Am officials admitted that they had been working on the program together with GM for 18 months. The bottom line here is that Grand-Am worked in direct consort with GM to formulate its third-generation DP rules and specifications. And what does GM expect in return for this? A win at the Daytona 24 Hour. I bet it makes the other non-GM teams competing in the DP class in 2012 feel really special right about now, don't you think?
2. Marketing-Schmarketing. In the recent history of GM Racing, make that GM road racing, Corvette Racing has always been top dog. And even though the Neanderthals at the top of GM in the past never knew what to do with the Corvette - even when Corvette Racing delivered multiple GT class wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans - Corvette Racing was still the only game in town. (Other manufacturers, of course, would have made the Corvette the tip of the technological spear for the entire company, but that was clearly a concept lost on the powers that be who ran GM in the past. But I digress...) The most that GM marketers would ever do with the success of the Corvette Racing program was to promote the fact that there was a direct, quantifiable connection between the street car and the race car, and that the technical transference went both ways between the Pratt&Miller-run racing team and the production engineering team. At the media unveiling GM operatives actually had the cojones to say that this new "Corvette" DP would also promote a direct connection to the Corvette street car, which is not only unmitigated bullshit, but a blatant insult to the accomplishments of their internationally recognized Corvette Racing team (even though Pratt&Miller made this whole DP program come together).
3. A typical auto manufacturer will always try to get the racing playing field skewed in its favor, and in this case GM is no different. Yes, none of you out there have fallen off of the turnip truck yesterday, but for those of you who did, here's the thing: Manufacturers rarely race for the sport of it, they race to win. Wait a minute, that didn't come out right. That makes it sound like that in some instances at least manufacturers race for the pure sport of it, the never-ending quest, the glorious pursuit of excellence, etc., etc. Now don't get me wrong, some manufacturers actually do race for the sheer sport of it and even for the long-term health of the sport itself, and should that play into their marketing objectives, even better. That isn't the case with GM's escalated involvement with Grand-Am and the DP class. This was and is a business deal, pure and simple. GM approached Grand-Am suggesting that if they play ball with the third-generation DP rules, they'd be inclined to participate. As in spend more money. A lot more money. And if Grand-Am was to let GM Racing basically decide what those new rules would be, well then, a very mutually advantageous deal could be struck. And voila! That's exactly what happened.
The problem with all of this? Well, if you're a non-GM DP team planning to compete in Grand-Am next season, you might be a little paranoid that you might not have the best stuff going forward. And you'd be right.
Secondly, GM is stating that they couldn't be bothered about the future direction and health of road racing in the U.S. because, if they feel like winning the Daytona 24 hour race and the France family will play ball, then that's exactly what they're going to do.
So any thoughts of a unified road racing series in this country have clearly and emphatically just gone out the window, or at least been put on hold until GM gets its fill of watching its "Corvette" Daytona prototypes running against each other for the win in front of 12 spectators.
So here we are. A manufacturer cooks up a deal with a sanctioning organization to their mutual benefit and it's all good, at least for the participating parties.
As for contributing to the future positive direction of road racing in this country? Well, it looks like that will be left to racing organizations and manufacturers with more vision than these two entities can muster.
And the chaos continues.
(Photos courtesy of GM Racing)
Publisher's Note: As part of our continuing series celebrating the "Glory Days" of racing, we're proud to present another noteworthy image from the Ford Racing Archives. - PMD
(Courtesy of the Ford Racing Archives)
Daytona Beach, Florida, February 28, 1965. The Shelby American-entered No. 73 Ford GT40 driven by Ken Miles and Lloyd Ruby gets serviced in the pits on its way to victory in the Daytona 2,000 km Race. The Miles/Ruby duo won by 5 laps. The No. 13 Shelby American-entered Cobra Daytona Coupe driven by Jo Schlesser/Hal Keck/Bob Johnson was second, and another Shelby American team car, the No. 72 Ford GT40 driven by Bob Bondurant/Richie Ginther finished third.
Publisher's Note: Like these Ford racing photos? Check out www.fordimages.com. Be forewarned, however, because you won't be able to go there and not order something. - PMD
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