Laura Wontrop Klauser (Corvette Racing) 2/3 : "In 2024, the focus will be the U.S." 

WHAT ARE THE PRIORITIES FOR YOU GOING FORWARD WITH THE GTD PRO PROGRAM? WHAT DO YOU STILL NEED TO PERFECT WITH THE CURRENT CORVETTE?

There’s still a lot to learn with the spec tire in the IMSA paddock. Any time you change the rubber that you’re riding on, a lot changes. We have a ton to learn from that. The other thing that’s been nice about the car in IMSA is that it has the ABS unit in it, it has features that were not originally in the car when it started. So that’s allowing us to integrate in those systems and see what’s working and what’s not. As we look to next year on the GT3 side of things, it’s testing and development at the beginning of the year and then the homologation process begins. There’s a lot of focus to make sure the car is right using any information that comes from the current program or programs from the past that can contribute to a good, strong foundation of a race car. That’s one thing we’re heavily focused on, and the other piece is setting up the customer support program. This will be a customer car, and we intend to have customers. We are going to start slow in ’24 because we can only build them so fast and we’ll grow from there. We’re making sure that anyone who takes delivery of the car and is racing has the complete support behind them from Corvette Racing. We want to make sure they do well because then they show out for us, and we want people know we are serious about this car.

HOW DIFFICULT IS TO PLAN WHEN YOU DON’T KNOW THE PRECISE NATURE OF THE REGULATIONS?

It’s always nice to know what you’re getting into fully. I think there’s enough information about how GT3 works today, and we can kind of extrapolate what GT3 is going to look like tomorrow based off that to get ourselves set up for what we need to know for each of the different series that the car could run in… although there are quite a few! We’ll probably have to target some main ones initially and then grow from there.

HAVE YOU BEEN SATISFIED WITH THE SPLIT STRATEGY OF A CORVETTE IN IMSA AND ANOTHER IN WEC?

From the marketing perspective, for sure. We have a global presence with the car, which is awesome just as the C8 is going into production and being available across the world. It was nice to start building fanbases for Corvette outside our traditional markets. That being said, we want to keep our traditional markets strong because that’s important to us. Developing the relationships in the WEC paddock has been successful. I’m sure Alexander can speak to this and put his 2022 Corvette hat on for a second, our experience at Le Mans this year – having been in the paddock and understanding the rules and the regs – it felt like this was totally different than in the past. I know our IMSA fans are still disappointed that they’re only seeing one car at the races here. I wish it wasn’t the case but letting the GTE car shine in the WEC where it was originally designed to run in that category and using the GTD PRO car to start learning for GT3 has been a nice balance.”

WILL YOU HAVE TWO CARS AT THE ROLEX 24? 

We have not yet made the 2023 announcements yet, but they are coming soon.

YOU SAID THE NUMBER OF CUSTOMER CARS WILL BE A LITTLE RESTRICTED IN THE FIRST YEAR SO YOU CAN PROPERLY SUPPORT THEM. WHAT REGIONS ARE YOU LOOKING TO DO THAT, AND IS THERE A MAX NUMBER OF CARS AVAILABLE FOR ’24?

Our first focus will be the United States. That’s our home market and that’s where the majority of our production car sales are. And it’s home, so it's a lot easier to figure out support when you’re in the same country. We’re not turning a blind eye to anything else. We know the big volume for GT3 is in Europe, and the Asian market is growing as well. So while you may see us primarily in the U.S. to start, there is a growth plan to get to Europe and eventually to Asia as well. In terms of number, that part we’re still working through. The regulations say you have to build 20 in the first two years, so the first easy one is to say we’ll do 10 per year. But realistically we’re going to meet the requirement but also placing cars with the right teams in the right places. We’ll see how that shakes out. It’s not going to be like off the bat we’ll have 35 cars racing all over the world in 2024. It’ll probably a little bit of a slower walk than that… maybe 10 to 12 total, somewhere in there. They won’t all be starting the season. We’ll get there as we get there.

SO IT’S ONLY GOING TO BE FOR U.S. CUSTOMERS IN ’24?

The focus will be the U.S., but we’ll place a couple in Europe if we have a good fit and it’s the right series. In terms of the bulk of the volume to start, that’ll be the U.S. with Europe quickly coming in behind either at the end of ’24 or the beginning of ’25.

•  On the same topic : First picture of the Corvette Z06 GT3.R in testing

IS THE IDEA TO HAVE CUSTOMER CARS READY FOR DAYTONA OF 2024?

We’re intending to have the IMSA cars that we will commit to for 2024 ready to roll for Rolex. It’ll be multiple teams. Details are not set right now, and we’re still working through that. You have to find the right teams to pair up with to know if it will be Pro or Am and things along those lines. But the intent is to have multiple teams racing in the Rolex. We haven’t gotten to that part of an announcement yet. As we work through this plan, we’re seeing what makes sense for the car and what makes the most sense for the brand. That will come later once we’re ready to make that announcement.

FOR 2023, THE ONLY WAY TO RUN AT LE MANS IS GTE AM. ARE YOU LOOKING AT POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS FOR THAT IN WEC OR JUST A SINGLE ENTRY JUST FOR LE MANS?

I don’t know if anyone will be doing single entries for Le Mans. Based on how popular that race is going to be, I’m assuming it’s going to be very strict. We haven’t ruled out anything. The announcement for ’23 is coming soon. We explored all paths. We didn’t want to shut any doors without properly looking into what our options were. We also aren’t going to try and force something. If it doesn’t make sense, we aren’t going to do it for the sake of doing it. We want to make sure that we still keep what everyone thinks of when they think of Corvette Racing – strong performance by a strong team with strong drivers. All of that is critical to us, especially as we are getting into GT3 and we want to court great teams and great customers for our Corvette GT3 car. We’re keeping all those values.