Steve Garrett

As reported today by SportsCar 365....

Photo: Mike Levitt/IMSA

General Motors has ruled out the continuation of a full factory Corvette team when it transitions to GT3 machinery next year according to GM’s motorsport competition engineering director Mark Stielow, who confirmed a focus on customer teams only with the new Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R.

The Detroit manufacturer, which has fielded the works Corvette Racing squad for the last 25 years, will close out its factory chapter at the end of the current IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and FIA World Endurance Championship seasons, where it is running Chevrolet Corvette C8.Rs in GTD Pro and GTE-Am, respectively.

Stielow, however, confirmed that Corvette will continue to have a presence in the IMSA GTD Pro class next year with two cars, potentially still operated by Pratt Miller Motorsport but under a “hybrid” structure that would feature works support.

“We’re moving into the GT3 platform so we’re going to have a true customer program,” Stielow told Sportscar365 in an exclusive interview. “We’re going through the process right now.

“My team wanted to be very enthusiastic and build a lot of cars; I wanted to keep the launch slow but very high quality.

“So we’re going to launch with hopefully four cars at the Daytona 24-hour; we’ll have two GTD Pros and two GTDs. That’s the plan. We’re trying to get all those things lined up right now.

“We’ll get the cars to our key partners, our key teams in the November timeframe. We’ve got two test cars built, so we’re going to get some the teams we’re going to work with in those cars, get them up to speed.

“When they take delivery of their real car, they’ll be ready to go for IMSA in the Daytona 24-hour. We’ll have some cars in the WEC also.

“The contracts are in the mix right now trying to get that stuff firmed up.”

When asked about the status of the Pratt Miller-run factory squad, which has been in competition since 1999 as a full works outfit, Stielow said that will not continue in the current guise next year.

“We’re not going to have a fully factory funded Corvette race program,” he said. “But we’re going to have a pool of Corvette drivers [that will race with customer teams].

“We’re going to support different teams to a degree but it’s not going to be like Cadillac, which is a fully funded factory effort.

“As we moved into the GT3 platform we wanted to be able to be more customer-based. There was a lot of internal debate inside GM and us about whether we’d want our customers racing against a factory.

“We’re doing a little bit of a hybrid with that.”

Stielow indicated that Pratt Miller is still in the frame to run the cars in GTD Pro, although believed to be under a different banner than Corvette Racing.

“We’re still in the middle of trying to firm that up,” he said.

“We’ve got the [manufacturer] contracts squared away; they’re the constructor of record. We’re still trying to sort out who our Pro effort is going to be. Those contracts aren’t signed yet.

“We’ll have it finalized by the middle of the summer, which is coming up soon.”

He said the remaining initial customers for the Z06 GT3.R have already been decided internally and will be announced soon, with roughly eight cars running globally next year.

Four would be full-season WeatherTech Championship entries, split between GTD Pro and GTD, while GM is expected to secure two slots in the WEC’s new LMGT3 category for customers as well.

“Everybody’s going to be happy,” he said. “We’re also going to have cars in SRO [America] but we’ll have a ramp-out.

“We’re trying to get strategic teams to talk to and make sure they get the cars in capable teams that know how to execute a program.

“We’re trying hard not to sell just to collectors. Everybody that buys a car, we want to make sure they’re racing them.

“Then we’ll hopefully be able to get some deliveries to people who want to run the 2025 season.”

Stielow added that the move away from a full factory operation will be a “big shift” for the company but was made in order to have a larger Corvette competition footprint globally.

“From a General Motors perspective that’s how we’ve historically done it,” he said of a full factory program. “It’s a big shift for our marketing team to be like, ‘What do you mean we’re not going to have the classic two yellow Corvettes?’

“It’s an easy thing from the marketing team to wrap their head around. ‘These are our two pro cars. We have a look and feel… This is the way it’s been for 20 years.’

“Now we’re shifting to a customer model, which is different. Our counterparts in the Corvette marketing side… People don’t like change.

“I think it’s going to be good though because we’ll have more high-level Corvettes racing in more places.”

moncal90

Well that's kind of a bummer... I can understand they don't want to run the GT3 class, pitting Factory Team versus Customer Teams, but it's still sad to see Corvette Racing go away.

Foosh

I believe the effect will very positive, which is more Corvettes racing worldwide GT racing. Corvette has been the only factory team left in GT (non-prototype) racing for 2 years now. Acura, Aston-Martin, Audi, BMW, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Lexus, Mercedes, Porsche and all other competitors switched to the partial factory sponsorship model for independent racing teams. Corvette is the last to make the change.

"Corvette Racing," which is really Pratt & Miller, is not going away. It's just that GM picked up all the costs for many years, and that stops at the end of this season. They will still offer partial support just like all the other competitor manufacturers do.

Rapid Z

The giveaway. slowly getting ready for electrification as I see it.

Foosh

That doesn't have anything to do with this decision. Every manufacturer is facing the same decision on the future electric cars and racing on the same timetable. It will be up to the various world racing sanctioning bodies to decide on when that transition occurs. That decision will be made in conjunction with all manufacturers worldwide.

This is just Corvette being the last to normalize their current GT Corvette racing program with the rest of the GT world. They were the ONLY factory GT (non-prototype) team left.

Prototype GT racing has already dipped their toes into electrification with the new class of hypercars. That's where the factory money is being spent in racing as an R&D program for the future.

GM is all in on supporting a full-factory, Cadillac hybrid hypercar in prototype racing as part of their R&D work supporting electrification.

Walter Raulerson

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Foosh

No, I don't think it's about saving money. They'll be spending the same, if not more, on partial support for 8 or more non-factory teams.

They'll actually have even more marketing opportunities with more cars racing and a bigger worldwide presence. Acura, BMW, Lexus, Porsche, and MB still heavily feature their non-factory, independent teams in their marketing efforts.

switchlanez

GM/Pratt Miller will still have a pro racing team like the 2020-2022 seasons but rebrand to a new name instead of Corvette Racing. The only GT3 season they did was 2023 and that effort is ending after only one season. So it's not totally dead like today's R&T clickbait headline says, just a rebranding and continuation of what they've already been doing for 20+ years since the C5-R.

NoMatter

Pratt Miller just started a new page Pratt Miller Motorsports on FB.

spireland

Totally stinks though IF they continue to support Gt3 racing by privateers, like Porsche does, it won't be the end of the world.

A bit strange that they finally get a mid-engine car then drop out of racing. Bummer.

switchlanez

I don't think it's a shortage of money but a shortage of talent available to replicate the legacy of synergy among current Corvette Racing talent. You can't scale that up to support the demands of pro GT3 in addition to other efforts by simply throwing more bodies at the problem (a billion dollars won't buy you a new Kobe or MJ or LeBron). Plus GT3 is a new and different beast with which they have little experience. Might be less risky to stick to their proven winning formula of dominance since the C5-R. Being so seasoned in that which they've honed for 20+ years frees up some talent bandwidth to multi-task with the customer teams.

5632

How many company employees will they be letting go that work in this division and and others associated to racing?

Red08

Follow the money

5632

I won't be watching the races any longer.

TXFlyGuy

In other words…battery power.

gajin

It's about time. Privateers and gentlemen racers cannot compete against a full-on factory program as it has been over the past couple of decades. A strong factory program supporting private racing efforts is a much better to really grow, allowing better competition with more cars and owners. Take a look around the race paddocks and see which brand manufacturers have had robust and successful programs and you'll see factory support at every race for multiple teams. The end result is a better racing program that is both profitable to the manufacturer and ultimately the racing fans and owners that will benefit from it.

Ps. Zora's dreams finally comes to fruition. First a mid-engine Corvette and now full factory supported program opening to privateers. Win-win for all.

johnodrake

The end of an era.
GM To Ditch Factory Backed Corvette Racing Team In 2024 (gmauthority.com)

dai

Go where the money is

peter pan

Will see how it goes, hope to see more Vettes racing these events

Foosh

It appears from reading this thread, that not many understand that it's always been a private company, Pratt and Miller, doing all the work on the "factory" Corvette Racing Team. It's only factory because GM was writing the checks to Pratt and Miller.

They will now be spreading the money around to other teams racing Corvette GT3s. Few, if any Chevrolet employees will be affected, and this will create new jobs with more new teams.

It was the same when Ford (Ganassi Racing), BMW (Rahal/Letterman Racing), and Porsche had factory teams in IMSA GTLM. The factories were fully funding private companies for building and racing the cars, with some sponsorship help.

This is not a big change in a negative direction. It's actually increasing the number of competitors making it more healthy.