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2012 Petit Le Mans Recap
October 21 2012 01:22:12 AM ESTDANBOYD
With Corvette Racing wrapping up the GT championship at the last event at VIR, they went in to Atlanta with nothing to loose.

Jan Magnussen on the other hand, had a personal record to uphold. He was the only driver to have won at least one race for every year of the ALMS.

The Corvettes were strong all week and qualified P4 and P5 in a very tight qualifying round.

Going into race day, the guys were looking to just have a clean race, no mistakes, and hope to be in a stop to compete for a win at the end. Both cars lead the race and different points, and ever were 1-2 for a while, but they had some very strong competition, as usual.

The #01 and #02 ESM Ferrari's locked out the front row in qualifying and have shown to have become a force to be reckoned with this season and into the future. The #01 Ferrari took the fight to the Corvettes all race long and all the way to the end.

The #4 Corvette was taken out of contention about half way through the race with a steering box issue and fell 22 laps down with no chance to come back, but it did make it back out on track to give the fans and sponsors a proper show.

It all went down to the end with the #3 Corvette, #01 Ferrari, and #55 BMW. BMW killed their hopes when they received a pit violation for putting the car up on jack while still fueling. The Ferrari was running on fumes at the end (does that sound familiar?) In the end, the Ferrari was running on the hopes and dreams of the EMS team, and managed to make it across the line first.

At the end of the day, the 2012 season ends with Corvette Racing cleaning house, winning the Team, Manufacture's, and Driver's Championships, and even the Green-X Challenge.

147 days until Sebring...... preparation starts now.

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You might need your rear wheels to be banalced and/or replace the rear tires depending if you have a shifted belt in the tire. I have seen really bent rims cause a wicked vibration. Go to any tire shop that has a wheel balancer/road force machine and let them know that you want your rear wheels inspected.
--- Christophe from unknown on 12.04.2012 at 7:35PM


2014 C7 Corvette News: Part 1
October 18 2012 05:39:06 PM ESTGeneral Motors
Today at Road Atlanta, Corvette Chief Engineer Tadge Juechter revealed the logo for the next gen C7 Corvette, shown above.

A new website one13thirteen.com has been posted with some teasers that will be unlocked in the following months coming up to the official unveiling of the new car at the Detroit Auto Show in January.

The 2014 C7 Corvette will debut the night before the opening of the North American International Auto show in Detroit on the evening of Sunday, January 13, 2013.

Tadge also confirmed that Corvette Racing will campaign the C6.R for the 2013 ALMS season, as the C7.R is expected to make its racing debut in 2014.

For the full press release and more, click HERE


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Corvette has evolved solwly over the decades from its sort of adorably nerdy beginings to looking like some kind of rocket sled for middle aged guys trying to recapture their youthful hotness. It should be rebooted into some kind of new concept that avoids the middle aged moron midlife crisis solution look.
--- Maritza from unknown on 04.02.2013 at 4:56AM


GT Unification
October 13 2012 10:06:49 PM EST
SPEED Reporter John Dagys has just broke yet another major story for the future of sportscar racing.

The Automobile Club de l’Ouest and FIA revealed Saturday evening in Fuji that plans are being put into place for a single set of GT regulations, which could be launched as early as 2015.

Technical chiefs from both organizations confirmed that a working group will be formed to create the new worldwide GT platform, based on the merging of the current GTE and GT3 categories.

The first meeting, which will include all of the major GT automakers, is scheduled for November.

The philosophy of the unified category would be to take the technology creditability of GTE and merge it with the reduced costs of GT3.

Few details are known at this point, but FIA technical director Bernard Niclot indicated a formal announcement of the new regulations could be made as early as next June.

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Interesting. Should NASCAR screw up the new US series this may help them see what they can do to fix it or it will leave a path for the great ALMS GT teams to look at.
--- TR6speed from Florida on 10.14.2012 at 9:55AM


Is Corvette the Greatest Racing Brand in the USA?
October 01 2012 05:20:13 PM EST
The DRIVE Network is asking the question "Is Chevrolet Corvette the Greatest Racing Brand in America?" You know what our answer is, but voice your opinion and check out this latest episode of SHAKEDOWN to see what Leo Parente has to say.

Corvette Racing took the Team, Manufacture, and Drivers championship at the last round of the ALMS at VIR, and Chevrolet took home the Manufactures championship in Grand-Am this past weekend at Lime Rock with the Corvette DP.

Now is a good time to be a Corvette fan...

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... For those who answered the C2 you are on target.
The C1 was actually stable for its top speed with slight modification by Mr Duntov (Belly Pan) above 150mph. The C2's upward curve nose could not plow the air to the sides, it just kept piling underneath to lift the entire front end...Making steering dangerously light. On the GS, they blew off hoods, hence the tremendous ammouts of louvers were needed to counter this effect. RIP Bill Mitchell, your styling made the Mid Years the hottest collectibles, more that any other American sports cars, including the AC Cobra.
--- Zonker2 from Montreal on 10.09.2012 at 9:33PM


Getting The Job Done - 2012 VIR Recap
September 15 2012 10:49:29 PM EST
Corvette Racing came to VIR without any knowledge of the track. Most teams got a chance to test at VIR earlier in the year while others were at the 24hrs of Le Mans.

With the ALMS GT class being ultra close competition as usual, Corvette Racing qualified 3rd & 4th.

This race marked veteran driver Oliver Gavin's 100th ALMS start.

Saturday's race started off with a pile up in turn 1. The #4 Corvette luckily escaped damage free, but the #3 Corvette was not as lucky and their bad luck streak continued. They received major front end damage and a repair put them 4 laps down.

After the first lap chaos, the #4 Corvette lead nearly the duration of the race, and ran the entire 4hr race in pure, drama free form. No mistakes.

Oliver Gavin, Tommy Milner and the #4 crew not only took home the race win, but brought home the Manufacture's, Driver's, and Team Championship. Corvette is once again top dog in the ALMS.

All of the hard work, blood, sweat, and tears from everyone at GM, Pratt & Miller, the Corvette Racing crew and drivers has finally paid off since moving to the GT2/GT category. Congrats to everyone!

Next up - bragging rights at Petit Le Mans.



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And with DP Vette podium sweep in Grand-Am at Lime Rock comes another championship for Chevy! YEAH!!!
--- 72 from st. coll on 09.30.2012 at 9:17PM


ALMS - Grand-Am Merger Details
September 05 2012 01:59:06 PM EST
This past weekend news leaked out about an ALMS / Grand-Am merger. Today, at the official press conference, some of the detail were given. Here's what we know.

1. This is not so much of a merger as it is a buyout. The Panoz Motor Sports Group (ALMS) has been sold to GRAND-AM/NASCAR Holdings LLC for reportedly around $20 million. This also includes the sale of Road Atlanta and the long-term lease of Sebring International Raceway. A new LLC will be formed for 2014 and beyond for this unified sports car racing entity in the USA.

2. Jim France (GRAND-AM co-founder and NASCAR Vice Chairman/Executive Vice President) will be the Chairman of the unified series, which does not have an official name as of yet. ALMS founder Don Panoz will be Vice Chairman. And ALMS President and CEO Scott Atherton will be President of the new organization. Both Panoz and Atherton will be on the board of directors.

3. Class structure is not set in stone yet. Don Panoz stated that the LMP1 class from the ALMS will no longer be a part of the new series as expected since there are only 3 cars currently. Unofficially, other sources are saying the ALMS LMP2 class will make the transition along with the GRAND-AM's Daytona Prototype class. Don Panoz also went on the record stating DeltaWing will also be a part of this new class as well. Both LMP2 and DP regulations are due to be revised in 2014.

4. ALMS CEO Scott Atherton went on the record and said "Current GT content of ALMS has been agreed to be part of new series. Going forward that's the plan." Off the record, other sources have unofficially said the tube-frame construction Rolex GT class will also stay as the Jr GT class. Some people are already speculating that the Rolex GT class will be phased out in favor of FIA GT3 cars in which some are already retrofitted into Grand-Am spec.

5. There will be an approximate 12-race schedule. Teams will discard points from one of the 12 races. This will allow a team to drop a bad performance, but it will also allow a team to participate at Le Mans if invited.

6. This new entity will take effect for the 2014 season, as commitments were well in place for 2013 and could not be altered. The two series will operate separately for one more year.

This is just the initial statement. Don't be surprised if some things change between now and February 2014. As long as the ALMS GT class remains untouched, we here at BBV will remain optimistic. The first year of this new venture will also be the first year of the new Corvette C7.R if GM sees fit to continue the program in the new combined series.

It is also worth mentioning that the ALMS's contract with the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO) is due to end after 2013. Both parties have agreed that the relationship with the ACO needs to continue, and this new merged entity should resign an extended agreement with the French sanctioning body so it will still have ties to the 24hrs of Le Mans.

There are still many unanswered questions. The next 12 months will be interesting for sure, and we will update you with all the information as it becomes official.

If you missed the press conference and would like to watch it in its entirety CLICK HERE

Stay tuned race fans.....


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NASCAR is on ESPN and ALMS is on ESPN3. Any connection here with regards to the merger? Perhaps the days of having to have access ESPN3 are coming to an end along with reruns for yesterday's events. I remember watching live coverage in 1966 when Ford gave us the first American win at Le Mans. The merger should give us more competition not domination.
--- SteveM from Topsham, Maine on 09.30.2012 at 10:26PM


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