GM Eyeing “Different Scenarios” for Further Z06 GT3.R Rollout

Chevrolet is evaluating future rollout steps for the second year of the Corvette Z06 GT3.R program, with various series “on the radar” as it plots further expansion of its global customer racing network.

The new-for-2024 GT3 challenger recently made its global racing debut in the Rolex 24 at Daytona with Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports and AWA, while in Europe TF Sport has taken delivery of its pair of cars ahead of a FIA World Endurance Championship LMGT3 bid.

A fourth program is also set to come online in the not-too-distant future, with DXDT Racing fielding two Z06 GT3.Rs in Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS.

Program manager Christie Bagne told Sportscar365 at Daytona that the brand has multiple championships on its list when it comes to deciding where the Z06 GT3.R competes next.

Bagne herself led a delegation of Corvette personnel on a fact-finding mission to various major endurance races last year, including the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa and the Nürburgring 24, the latter of which was notably won by two current Corvette factory drivers in Earl Bamber and Nicky Catsburg.

“We’re not prepared to announce specific series at this time, but as you’ve seen, we’ve been on our various [exploring trips],” Bagne told Sportscar365.

“There’s certainly a lot of interest in putting together different scenarios.

“So we could do Nürburgring, GT World Challenge Europe is of interest, the Intercontinental GT Challenge is of interest and obviously European and Asian Le Mans Series provide a lot of nice of opportunities to try and get additional cars for Le Mans. 

“So I would say all of those series are on our radar to consider. There’s quite a bit of interest, which is great. We’re very fortunate to have that.

“Now it’s all about understanding what’s the right model in terms of where can we provide the best possible support in terms of parts and engineering to be successful with those teams.”

GM sports car racing program manager Laura Wontrop Klauser previously indicated that Chevrolet was set for a limited production run for the first two years of the program, targeting a batch of ten cars per year, which falls in line with the minimum production requirements by the FIA.

Bagne gave similar comments when asked about the plans for the second year, saying that “you can continue to expect about two cars per race [series]” in the second year.”

She added: “We always went into this with the plan to be fairly low volume at the beginning and to make the support really, really [good].

“Our feedback from customer teams has been really good, from AWA and from TF Sport and even DXDT about the initial exercise.

“Speccing out the cars, making sure they have the spares at the right time, all the setup equipment. The feedback has been really good and it is important to us that we scale at a rate where can continue to support our customers.

“Running with a lower volume program is meant to benefit the customers in terms of not having so many supply chain issues, having good engineering support available, we want to make sure we preserve that.”

Bagne also indicated that the aforementioned fact-finding missions could “potentially” continue this coming year as Chevrolet prepares for the next phase of its support network rollout.

“I think that’s still really important and maintaining the relationships with the sanctioning bodies [and] with the technical personnel at the sanctioned bodies,” she said.

“Especially Nürburgring was so unique, that was very valuable to us in terms of seeing the uniqueness of the ways the teams are operating out of their garages and the pit stops are unique.

“The cars have a different bumper package typically, the bodywork is different. For example, fender louvres is something we need to remember to bring.

“So being able to sit down with the technical committee in person, I found, is much more valuable and efficient than trying to just read the regulations in a vacuum.”