The 2014 IMSA racing season will officially come to an end this weekend as the series heads to Road Atlanta for the 10-hour Petit Le Mans endurance race. Chevrolet has a heavy presence in IMSA’s Tudor United SportsCar Championship in the Prototype and GTLM classes and in the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge’s Grand Sport Class and has the chance to earn Manufacturer, Driver and Team championships in all three classes at Road Atlanta.
Currently there are five Chevrolet Corvette Daytona Prototype cars, two Corvette C7.Rs and three Camaro Z/28.Rs in IMSA competition. In the Prototype class, the top three teams are in Chevy-powered Corvette prototypes. Corvette Racing’s Antonio Garcia and the C7.R are in second in the GTLM class, just seven points behind SRT Motorsports. The Camaro Z/28.R has also proved to be competitive in its first year of competition, placing drivers Robin Liddell and Andrew Davis just 5 points out of first for the final race of the season.
Chevrolet says its heavy IMSA racing presence is due to the large amounts of technology transfer between its road cars and the race cars, which makes developing a race car easy. The C7.R and the upcoming 2015 Z06 share the same aluminium frame and similar aerodynamic features having been developed alongside one another. The Camaro Z/28.R also shares may of its components with the road car, including its downforce-generating aerodynamic package, helical-gear limited slip differential and its 7.0-liter LS7 V8.
The Corvette Daytona prototypes use components from the Chevrolet Performance division, but are not based on any road-going vehicles like the C7.R and Z/28.R. The Corvette Prototypes have so far dominated Tudor competition, giving Chevy victories at some of North America’s best and most challenging racetracks. The highlight of the year came when four different Corvette DPs swept the top four positions in the season’s opening race – The Rolex 24 at Daytona. Corvette DPs have managed to earn four victories since and will be looking for another as they head to Road Atlanta.
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