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cor123 | Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Press Conference Transcript | ||
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Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Press Conference Transcript Oicials met with members of the media Friday at Watkins Glen International to announce the Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports GTD PRO program for the 2024 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s GT Daytona (GTD) PRO class: Christie Bagne, Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R Program Manager Brandon Widmer, Vice President, Pratt Miller Motorsports Marc Maurini, Corvette Racing Program Director, Pratt Miller Motorsports Full transcript: C. Bagne: “We’re proud to announce that next year in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, we will be running two Corvette Z06 http://GT3.Rs" target="_blank">GT3.Rs in GTD PRO as Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports. We’re looking forward to working with the same team that has designed and built these GT3 cars, knows them intimately and will now be racing the cars in IMSA. We’re looking forward to this program benefitting our entire customer program as this team races these cars, learns about them and efficiently transfers those learnings into the customer race program in order to elevate the level of all Z06 http://GT3.Rs" target="_blank">GT3.Rs on the grid globally.” THIS IS NOT THE ONLY TEAM RUNNING CORVETTES NEXT YEAR? C. Bagne: “You can look forward to more team announcements next summer. We’re continuing to target four cars on the grid in IMSA at the Rolex 24 and throughout the season, as well as two cars in the FIA WEC and two Corvettes in SRO Motorsports America.” WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR PRATT MILLER MOTORSPORTS GOING FORWARD? CAN YOU GIVE A SENSE OF WHERE TESTING AND DEVELOPMENT FOR THE Z06 GT3.R IS RIGHT NOW?
LOOKING BACK A LITTLE BIT, HOW SPECIAL WAS THE WIN AT LE MANS? M. Maurini: “That was a pretty big effort by the entire team. I’m really proud of everyone at Chevrolet and Pratt Miller to be able to get the job done and get the victory with the C8.R and the ninth one for Corvette Racing. It was a year’s worth of effort to get there. The 2022 race didn’t end the way hoped, so to go back in 2023 and get the victory was a job well done by everyone involved.”B. Widmer: “I’ve been quite a few times at Le Mans, and we’ve had a lot of success there and a lot of ups and downs. This year, it felt like all those emotions were rolled into one race. We had a fantastic season leading up to Le Mans in leading the championship with two wins and a second-place. So we felt really confident going into the race. We showed great pace, but we also had some challenges. We had a crash a few minutes before the end of practice Wednesday. The team rallied and scrambled to get the car back together and we were able to get a few laps in during qualifying to get us into Hyperpole, then we went out and set the fastest lap time to start the race in first. We had a good race going for the first hour and 35 minutes but had to pull the car in the garage for some suspension repair. The guys did a phenomenal job, but we still lost around nine minutes so there was a lot of digging to do. Between the execution, the strategy, the driving in some challenging conditions from wet to dry. … It was quite an emotional one to overcome all that adversity and go out and win the 100th anniversary of the race with the C8.R. It was an amazing day for the team. It definitely ranks up there at the top as one of the greatest wins we’ve had.” C. Bagne: “This whole team worked together so well as they’ve done in the WEC to overcome that adversity. It was a well-deserved win for the team and important for the legacy of the C8.R program. The C5-R won at Le Mans, the C6.R won at Le Mans, the C7.R won at Le Mans and we fought so hard to for that win with the C8.R. Last year obviously was very challenging for the team, so it’s a testament to the strength of this team that every time you throw adversarial events at them, they just dig deeper. Everyone came together, rallied like Brandon said in the week leading up to the event and in the race. It definitely was an emotional win for all of us.”
GM AND PRATT MILLER HAVE BEEN INTERTWINED FOR 25 YEARS. CAN YOU CLARIFY THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THIS ARRANGEMENT AND A FULL FACTORY TEAM?
IS THERE A CONSCIOUS EFFORT TO MAKE PRATT MILLER MORE OF A HOUSEHOLD NAME OUTSIDE OF ITS CONNECTION TO GM? |
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Posted on: 2023/6/23 22:53
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