GM = Gasping Mothers The Intro In the wake of the sudden upheaval of the dismissal of three of the drivers from the factory Corvette team, there has since followed a bizarre silence. Getting anything out of GM has been difficult and the drivers are keeping words to a minimum. The pressure has made its way to some of the automotive editors who have made a conscientious decision to ignore the whole matter. That is a heavy charge and can it be backed up? Well, yes it can. Most of what you will be reading from here on belongs to someone else. I have had to scramble the text around, add a word here and there, delete a name here and there, in order to present it on SportsCarPros. Simply put, the story was researched and written by a journalist of impeccable credentials within the automotive field. After completion it was deemed to be to "hot" to run in a mainstream publication and would have to be toned down considerably. The question now as it will be later, is why? This is just a sampling, hopefully the whole story as written and intended will be in print soon. We will let our readers know when and where… The Massacre The new program directors at GM Racing were said to be under pressure from upper management for another Corvette win in 2003 at Le Mans. This didn't happen for a number of reasons, thus the nightmare before Halloween. Firing half the six man Corvette Team's roster of highly-skilled, loyal, and proven drivers this late in the season, in favor of a short list of as yet officially unnamed and untested foreign drivers, seemed like a cold and senseless reaction to the Pratt and Miller team's failure to win at Le Mans this past June. Cha…cha…changes The supposed line out of GM is "there will be significant changes planned for next year in both the equipment and driver line-up and that management felt we should give some new talent a chance in our cars next season." Then why drop half the team and what criteria was used in selecting the three who remain? It wasn't the six drivers who lost to the Prodrive 550 Ferrari Maranello at Le Mans. The C5R was overwhelmed at La Sarthe and when the Ferrari was developed to the point of running on the short tracks of the ALMS properly, only the skill of the Corvette drivers kept the C5R in the picture. Translation: Mechanical obsolescence isn't a logical reason to let go half the team that made it wildly successful when they were on top. No matter how many failed F1 drivers you put in the existing Corvette are going to make any real difference. Lost in translation Making major program changes by removing proven winners for a group of probably equally capable Europeans proves nothing, except that Doug Fehan will have to start all over again trying to perfect the tenuous balance of egos that could deliver exactly the same performance he already had. Why on earth, when the American public wants to see AMERICAN drivers in the most American of sports cars, would GM Racing decide to choose this route? Will Doug Fehan, who has done such an admirable job, have it in him to tackle this most unwelcome situation. GM's top management must decide whether they want the Corvette to remain a world-class sports car, suitable for international GTS class racing or throw in the towel. Halfway measures are never enough in racing, especially when the pressure is on. So the question remains… why destroy the team that has given GM its best road racing record…ever. A quick analysis of what the entire Pratt and Miller team faces next year is really quite favorable compared to what they endured this year, so it would seem senseless to short circuit the winning combination. Fredric Dor's three Prodrive Ferraris will reportedly not return to America for the ALMS, which leaves the ALMS GTS championship wide open for Corvette. Sure, there will be at least one well-prepared privateer Saleen S7R (sans the weight and restrictor penalties the ACO/ALMS officials have imposed on the Saleens for the past two seasons) which could theoretically challenge the twin C5R Corvettes, but that's it. La Sarthe not le solution The problem is Le Mans. GM's top management saw two straight wins from the Fehan led team and figured they were getting a third. No one in those corner office suites even had a clue as to what the savvy team-manager had really accomplished and, like most bottom-line types, simply expected the same this year. When it didn't happen, and then the Corvettes lost the last five rounds of the ALMS they, in true corporate fashion, began looking for culprits. The Three Amigos And what of those three culprits, does upper GM management have any idea of how Andy Pilgrim saved the ALMS championship for Corvette? It was his wise personal decision, under extreme pressure, that in fact saved the Corvette team from making a fatal mistake during the final, critical race for the championship at Petit Le Mans. Had Pilgrim not had the cojones and brains to have gone against team orders to pit his third-placed Corvette in the waning hours of the race it could have cost Corvette this year's Championship. Pilgrim's Corvette was holding third when he sensed something wrong with his car. He radioed in to say that he intended to pit but was told to stay out as all telemetry data in the pit showed the car was in perfect condition. One of the Prodrive 550s was closing on Pilgrim's Corvette and loss of the position would cost the championship. Pilgrim brought the car in. It was discovered that a rear tread was just beginning to separate. Had he stayed out as ordered the tire would most likely have failed ending the American team's chances. As it was Pilgrim went on to finish third, with co-drivers, Oliver Gavin and Kelly Collins to win the third ALMS championship for Corvette. "That kind of sensitivity in a race car is just priceless," said Doug Fehan after the race. The release of Frank Freon, the team's New Jersey based French-American "third man", who only drives for the Corvette team at the major enduros, like Sebring, Le Mans and Petit Le Mans was even more bizarre, as Freon is the team's proven press star when the Corvette's go to France. The suave, handsome Frenchman is the only driver on the team who speaks fluent French and thus is mobbed by the French media who love all the Corvette driver's but must use Freon as the team's spokesman for comment on their performance. In three years as a team-driver for Corvette, Freon has never made a costly mistake and has proven himself incredibly quick, time and again, in the long, rain-filled nights that are so typical of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. That leaves Kelly Collins, the archetypal Southern California racer, he is the fast All-American kid who grew up racing everything on wheels and has, like every other member of the original group of six, proven that he is a solid, fast team player; the kind of driver the other members can count on to give them as good a car as the one he climbed into at the beginning of his stint. Coming soon to a theater near you, the sequel… It remains to be seen if the replacements are going to be significantly faster than the proven winners…and if they shave a few tenths by flogging the existing cars, what does that really prove? The ultimate goal is to win at Le Mans, a race that takes consummate skill for hours in sometimes treacherous conditions. What's needed here is the known quantity of proven success not stopwatch flash from a set of new faces that are desperately trying to impress by pushing an obsolete design beyond its limits to insure they have a paid seat in a car next season. |
Edited by Kerry Morse |
The doughnut in GM's treehouse One major point that has to be addressed is what may be the worst kept secret on pit row. The Goodyear tires as used by the Corvettes simply were not in the same league at the Michelins of the Prodrive Ferrari team. Even Rafanelli and his Pirelli shod 550 made improvements during the course of the season. The lack of public or team criticism from GM towards Goodyear is understandable when you consider the commercial implications towards the production side of the automotive business. Bad mouthing race tires from one of your big production car and truck suppliers would not be looked upon as a kindly gesture from those in the lofty offices. I'm sure that Doug Fehan, if given the opportunity, would have jumped at the chance to run Michelins, even if he had to stencil Goodyear on the sidewall…. |
Kerry Morse |
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