General Motors has announced that Mark Stielow will replace Mark Kent at the helm of its internal racing and motorsports division.
This leadership shuffle comes just as GM prepares to open its new racing and technical development center in Concord, North Carolina, which will help it to optimize the technology transfer that happens between its race cars and its production vehicles.
Stielow, a longtime General Motors engineer and project manager, will oversee all of the company’s IMSA, IndyCar, NASCAR and NHRA racing endeavors.
“At the beginning of this year, GM announced it would take steps to bring our racing and core product engineering programs closer together to improve technology transfer,” the automaker said in an emailed statement to Racer Magazine this week. “Today, we took another step in that direction with the appointment of Mark Stielow to the newly-created position of Director, Motorsports Competition Engineering. He will be responsible for overall engineering and technical direction for NHRA, Indy Car, IMSA and Motorsports Operations and will have a direct link to General Motors’ vehicle integration organization.”
Kent has been moved to the expanding GM Defense division, where he will leverage his expertise gained in the racing world to help support the rapid growth of the recently established operations arm.
“Mark Kent, who was Director of Motorsports Competition, assumes the role of Director, GM Defense Facility Operations and will leverage his experience in the fast-paced motorsports world to support the rapid growth of GM Defense,” the automaker said. “He will be responsible for operationalizing the new GM Defense facility in North Carolina.”
Earlier this year, GM Defense was awarded the production contract to build, field and sustain the U.S. Army’s new Infantry Squad Vehicle (ISV), which is a Chevrolet Colorado ZR2 from the waist down. The deal will see General Motors deliver over 2,065 of the specially designed vehicles to the U.S. Army at a cost of $214.3 million.
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The NASCAR program has been struggling for too long. It does no good to just participate. Sooner, or later, their has to be some glory for all that money dropped to support Hendricks, RCR, et al.
Mark is an excellent choice. I worked with him years ago and he is a diehard performance car fanatic.
He has a long history of building race cars and street cars that are legendary. Many were featured on the cover of Hot Rod, Car and Driver and other magazines long before he returned to GM.
He has worked in the preforms center market at SLP Summit Racing and other companies.
He is the man behind the Z28 a couple years ago as well even the Cobalt SS.
The real challenge for Mark will be where to go in the future here. Racing is in real trouble right now with the virus. The NHRA was already in trouble and is hurting more now. NASCAR is not what it once was as many like me got tired of the chase and stage games.
IMSA is a great series but expensive and tough to keep MFGs involved. GM has been a strong presence there but so many others leave every few years.
Indy has been on a rebound but still needs growth to get back to where they once was.
Mark is going to have to navigate this to see where the money is best spent. The first challange will be the Corvette team if BMW leaves and no one fills the void.
I used to read about all of Mark Stielow’s car builds in Popular Hot Rodding. He is a master builder and fabricator as well as a bona fide suspension engineer. He has obviously risen in the GM ranks and must be well respected there in order to be appointed to this new position. Kudos and good luck to Mark and GM! I’m about to take delivery of a 2020 C8 Corvette and I wouldn’t doubt if Mark had a hand in some of that suspension design somewhere. I know he is well acquainted with Tad Juechter.
Excellent choice for this position and a well deserved promotion. A true hands on engineer with the ability to fabricate and machine as well as crunch the numbers and analyze. His connections in the performance industry are a huge benefit to gm. I have many stories from years ago with Mark that I will not tell, but I will say he is one of the best mentors of young engineering talent GM has.
Glad to see nascar support separated from other Motorsports since it is it's own oasis
Could not be a better choice than Mark Stielow!
He is a solid engineer with experience in all levels and segments of the the performance
and racing industry.
He will make a difference in GMs racing fortunes!!
Homer above gave truthful and comprehensive comments on Marks Bio!