FUMES

April 18, 2012

It's about time: Corvette prototype headed to Le Mans in 2014.  

By Peter M. De Lorenzo

Detroit. (Posted 4/16, 2:00 p.m. ©2012) While GM Racing savors its two latest victories over the weekend - with Will Power driving his Chevrolet-powered Team Penske IndyCar to the win in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach and Andy Pilgrim taking his Cadillac Racing CTS-V to the win in the Pirelli World Challenge race at Long Beach (see "The Line" - ed.) - the future of GM Racing is very much on the table for discussion. Why now? Well, it's all about orchestrating "Chevrolet Racing" and "Cadillac Racing" as GM wants to get away from saddling their racing activities with the generic tag "GM Racing."

Solidly in NASCAR and likely to remain there indefinitely with its juggernaut Hendrick Motorsports and Richard Childress racing teams, and just beginning a three-year commitment in IndyCar, GM motorsports honchos nonetheless have their work cut out for them in other areas.

Corvette Racing is the crown jewel of all non-NASCAR racing for GM, and it will continue in that role indefinitely as well. But that role is destined to change dramatically. And Cadillac is being under-served in the decidedly under-promoted and under-appreciated World Challenge series, which on paper should be a winner on and off the track but in reality is a second-tier racing series with near-zero visibility, despite Pirelli's sponsorship money.

How do the people in charge of GM's motorsports programs polish their road racing activities to a greater sheen? Especially when Cadillac - their premier global luxury brand - is basically missing in action with their participation in the second-tier World Challenge series? And how does repositioning Cadillac Racing affect Corvette Racing?

First, let's contemplate Cadillac. There is no way that GM motorsports executives can sit idly by and watch Cadillac Racing compete in a minor league road racing series for one more minute, and you can expect a decisive change to unfold - and soon. Where can Cadillac go? Well, when you structure your entire raison d'etre around the fact that the Cadillac "V" models are track proven at the world famous Nurburgring Nordschleife and you aim your high-performance marketing campaign directly at the German luxury-performance automakers (Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz) - as Cadillac marketers do - where else can Cadillac Racing go but to the GT class? Cadillac really has no choice at this point. They either take the CTS-V to the cutthroat world of international GT racing, or they end the program altogether. My bet is that GM motorsports honchos are poised to take the CTS-V racing program up a notch. Then what? Cadillac Racing won't compete against Corvette Racing in GT will they? No, that will never happen. Expect Corvette to be represented in GT by privateer teams.

But the big news? Corvette Racing aims to compete at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2014 with an all-new prototype racer. The fact that the prototype rules for the 24 Hours of Le Mans are changing in 2014 has spurred GM's motorsports managers to make the decision that Corvette Racing will finally go to the next level after fifteen years of factory-supported GT racing.

Going for the overall win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans against the toughest competition the world has to offer is crucial to the global marketing aspirations of the Chevrolet brand, and GM - from North American President Mark Reuss on down - finally realizes that. This not only bodes well for the image of Corvette around the world, it will showcase the capabilities of both GM engineering and Pratt & Miller Engineering, the two technical entities behind the decade-plus success of Corvette Racing.

You can also bet that we will see the Corvette prototype racers in the American Le Mans Series in 2014 as well, because Corvette Racing needs to compete in the most prominent national road racing series in the U.S. in front of its most enthusiastic stateside fan base. Thankfully you'll never see Corvette Racing run Sebring and Le Mans and then skip the rest of the ALMS schedule.

And the best part of this news? This will be the first time an American manufacturer will go for the overall win at Le Mans with a factory-supported effort in 50 years (I refuse to count GM's ill-fated Cadillac Racing prototype effort in the early 2000s because the company demonstrated their complete lack of will at the time. Unforgivable). Ford showed up at practice at Le Mans in 1963 with its GT40, and though it was fast the effort was ill-prepared and unreliable. It wasn't until 1966 that Ford broke through for the company's first overall win at Le Mans. Everyone assumed that Ford would be back long before now or at least by the 50th Anniversary of that first win, but that is definitely not going to happen.

As for Corvette, we will have to wait a couple of years but it's good to know that the hard-core enthusiasts at GM are willing to Go Big or Go Home at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. After years of watching Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, et al spank the field at Le Mans, we're finally going to get to see an American manufacturer go for it against the world's best.

And it's about time.

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)
Jackie Stewart and Ken Tyrrell standing next to the brand new 1970 Tyrrell 001, the Tyrrell Racing Organization's first Formula 1 car. The car made its debut at the end of the 1970 season, and though Stewart sat on the pole at the Canadian Grand Prix with the Ford-Cosworth DFV V8-powered machine, he would DNF in the last three races. Things went better for the team in 1971 as Stewart would win the F1 Drivers' Championship (the second of his three titles) with wins in Spain, Monaco, France, Great Britain, Germany and Canada and Tyrrell would win the Constructors' Championship.

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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