At the end of the 2023 racing season, Corvette Racing will retire their 5.5L GTLM Corvette racing machines. The C8.R will join its predecessors from the original C5-R through to the C7.R which have raced over the last quarter of a century for Corvette Racing. During these 25 years, the racing program has scored 122 race victories around the world, including 113 in IMSA competition. Those wins have led to 14 Manufacturer’s and Driver’s championships and 15 Team titles. No team in IMSA history has won more races or championships than Corvette Racing in that span.
But this is not the end for Corvette Racing. On 27 January this year, Chevrolet debuted the new Corvette Z06 GT3.R racecar, one year before it makes its competition debut, once again at Daytona. The Corvette Z06 GT3.R will race for the first time as part of the GT Daytona (GTD) PRO category at the 2024 Rolex 24 at Daytona to open next year’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
With an eye specifically toward customer racing, the Z06 GT3.R will be eligible for multiple championships in North America and around the world. Chevrolet and Corvette Racing is establishing a complete customer support program that will be available to teams running the Z06 GT3.R in North America and elsewhere around the world. An at-track parts truck will be a fixture at North American race events starting in 2024 with expansion to overseas support ramping up in the first two years of the Z06 GT3.R program.
It was back in 1999 when Corvette Racing brought their two C5-R racecars to the Daytona International Speedway for their first race. Remembering this debut, Jim Campbell, Chevrolet US Vice President of Performance and Motorsports, told the press “Twenty-five years of Corvette Racing is a remarkable achievement. I remember being part of our first race at Daytona in 1999 and the excitement around our first race. Now 25 years later, that level of anticipation and thrill remains for everyone within our team and our Corvette owners and supporters.”
GT3 Racing, sometimes called Customer Racing, comprises racing versions of the road-going supercars/GT cars that star in video games, YouTube channels, and print platforms. The category is intended for (wealthy) amateurs, with the cars available for purchase from divisions of the manufacturer. These cars typically cost around US$500,000, offering features like antilock brakes (usually banned in racing) and traction control. These vehicles are generally easier to live with than the more highly strung GTE cars that race at Le Mans.
Corvette Racing will carry full spares packages of bodywork and internal components for its customer teams in supported championships. On the technical side, engineers will assist teams with items such as pre-race documentation, including chassis setup and data sharing plus post-event documentation, data analysis, and relative comparisons.
It is widely expected that the Corvette GT3.R will find its way to the Bathurst 12 hour race in the next few years. The GT3.R is Chevrolet’s first racecar that fully meets FIA technical regulations for GT3 cars, making it eligible for the Bathurst GT Challenge race.