The Corvette C7.R had a successful debut year, helping Corvette Racing win four consecutive GT Le Mans races and place second at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Not so bad for an all-new program, but the Corvette Racing team is still making as many improvements to the C7.R it can in the TUDOR United Sportscar Championship offseason, Racer reports.
The C7.R had to work around certain Balance of Performance regulations in the TUSCC this year, which along with the ongoing development of the new program, made winning the championship an especially daunting task. Corvette Racing program manager Doug Fehan told Racer they’re making small changes to the C7.R in order to find more speed come next season.
“We’ve been working on two different fronts,” Fehan said. “One is obviously vehicle development. The rules are frozen, for the most part, so we’re looking at a bunch of small things – aero enhancements, fuel economy improvements, and all the little areas we’re allowed to modify.”
Fehan explained that TUSCC rules are being kept mostly the same through to next season, forcing them to make incremental changes to the car in order to gain a competitive edge over the competition.
“We started the process by looked through the entire year of data and identifying areas that stood out for being improved, and no, you can’t take a big swing at things because of how the rules are kept so tightly controlled, so that makes us work that much harder on finding the small things that add up to a bigger overall improvement.”
Corvette Racing is expected to keep the same driver lineup of Tommy Milner, Oliver Gavin, Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia, however its endurance roster has yet to be announced. Racer notes IndyCar driver Ryan Briscoe made a strong impression on the team at Petit Le Mans this year, however Jordan and Ricky Taylor, Richard Westbrook and Robin Liddell could also make a return in 2015.
Comments
Why spend money, efforts and time trying to improve the cars. Any gain in performance will be clawed back by Tudor through the BOP. Remember last year?
Can not beat corvette on the road or the track. A ll i hear in blogs from foreign readers is how poor everything is in the corvette. All one has to do is lok at corvettes race record since 1993 since corvetyes comeback even though they held their own in all the years corvette raced. All i hear from foreign bloggers is complaints against corvette. I own an 08 Z51 436hp velocity yellow convertable and if i had millions of dollars to waste i would still go with corvette. It is the best vehicle best driving best riding most comfortable vehicle i have ever owned in my 67 years on earth. I am a 100% disabled vet and any other vehicle ive owned isnt as comfortable. I can not do much but drive and since purchasing my corvette it has given me a new lease on life because of everything i mentioned above especially being comfortable. All other vehicles i can only drive a short distance before i have to stop because of severe pain. THANK YOU CORVETTE FOR GIVING ME MY LIFE BACK AND FOR ALL YOU NEA SAYERS ON CORVETTE, GET A LIFE.
The real threat last year was the Vipers saying they were thinking of leaving. The series then penalized the Vettes to help the Vipers. Then what happened the Vipers left anyways.
I hope that the series will have learned their lesson that they got played by Chrysler and will leave the Vettes alone. Or Patt and Miller could just threaten to leave themselves. There are other series they could be in.
I know P & M were very mad about what was done to them and I do not think they will let it go as easily this year. I expect them to come back with a fury.
Jake is pissed and he is coming for your trophies.
You’re right Scott. Corvette was doing quite well and running even with the Vipers until Tudor took them out of contention with an unfail adjustment to the BOP. The purpose was to make sure Viper would win the championship. Dirty trick but it worked.
Yes that is an accurate assessment as it came right from the team and they are making sure the series knows they expect better treatment next year.
Their view was if you develop better car don’t take us out of contention because of it.
I hope if anything Dodge burned some bridges here that may hurt them if they should ever return. While the series screwed the Vette team, Dodge screwed the series by leaving anyways.
The Vette team will be ok next year as long as they are left alone and this year I suspect they will be hands off as the series needs them more than any other brand.