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|  | | October 08 2014 03:32:44 AM EST | Sportscar 365 |
| 2014 was a difficult year a number of levels. We had a merger of the two major sportscar racing entities in the United States, new cars, new tracks, new rules, bad calls, no calls, balance of performance...the list goes on and on.
Corvette's mid-season performance adjustment were obviously out of line, and something was going on behind the scenes that no one wanted to talk about. All became clear Monday morning after Petit Le Mans.
Headlines broke that Chrysler was discontinuing the factory Viper GTLM program effective immediately. Earlier in the season when it was announced that they were pulling their 24hr of Le Mans entries, it was clear that a review of the program was happening. Viper sales have been poor since the new Viper was launched, possibly due to the overwhelming competition by the new Corvette Stingray and the upcoming Z06 for a fraction of the Viper's price.
Looking back, it was clear that Chrysler was communicating with IMSA behind the scenes and they wanted to get something out of their investment before pulling the plug. In our opinion, this is very unfortunate for everyone involved. It takes an army of people and countless hours of dedication and time away from family to even get a program of this scale up and running, let alone running smooth and having a competitive car. On average, it takes a manufacture three years to have a well oiled and competitive team. In just it's 2nd full year of competition, SRT Motorsports managed to win the driver's championship. It has to be a shock to the system to have the high of winning the championship, then the next day be told that you are out of a job.
We salute the people like Ralph Gilles who are the true enthusiast who know what it takes and know what a program like this does for a company. Unfortunately in the corporate world, the bean counters almost always win. Those at Chrysler do not understand that despite lack of sales, Viper is the flagship for the entire Chrysler corporation. Corvette does not race just to sell Corvettes. It has taken many years for people like Doug Fehan to convince GM execs that. And when the times got tough, and GM went bankrupt, all of the programs were reviewed and Corvette Racing survived because the ROI was realized. Ask any fans at the race track and they will say they own more that one Chevy product.
Corvette Racing is a 15 year veteran of the sport and is clearly here for the long term. That being said, BoP has been a hot topic this season. It was noted by some fans that were present at the Corvette Corral at Petit that Doug Fehan, although democratic, was clearly aware and unhappy about the BoP situation. Corvette Racing ambassador Ron Fellows was said to be a little less democratic. Either way, a meeting with IMSA is in the works.
Risi Competizione has had a rough couple of years. Since the rise of AF Corse, Ferrari has not given the support to Risi like they once did. And to top it all, the team has had 3 cars destroyed in the past 2 seasons. All of that combined with bad luck and lack of anything in return has caused some stress. To top it all, the pit lane accident at Petit Le Mans, and IMSA's lack of action sent team owner Giuseppe Risi and team over the edge. Risi's decision to continue racing in the IMSA series is now in question.
Team RLL is confident that they will be back for 2015 with the V8 powered BMW Z4s. The current Z4 was always planned to only be used through 2015 with a replacement for 2016. It was just anounced that BMW will be developing a M6 GT3 for its future motorsport program. No word yet if a GTE or Le Mans spec version will be made. They may still be waiting for confirmation of "GT convergence" like many manufacture's.
Falken, winners of Petit Le Mans for the 2nd year running, have just announced that Falken will continue in the Tudor Championship for 2015. They are currently trying to acquire more sponsors for the possibility of running a 2nd car. Something that the team has had as a goal for a few years now. Falken has gained some success over the past few years and is now a serious contender.
Core Autosport took on the huge task of being to new home of Porsche North America's new factory team for 2014. Out of the gate they won Dayton and Sebring and ended up taking home the team and manufacture's championship. Look for them to be a strong force in 2015 as well.
At this time it is unknown if Aston Martin will make a return to IMSA competition. They left the 2014 season early after frustrations with BoP.
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