A confluence of eras and anniversaries will mark the 2012 edition of the 24 Hours of Daytona, but for sports car fans, the greatest anticipation comes from what lies ahead.
Fifty years after Daytona held its first major endurance race and 10 years after the launch of the Daytona Prototype category, Chevrolet will send the Corvette name back into action among the prototype ranks.
Corvette Daytona Prototype
John Greenwood’s patriotic Corvettes helped to blur the lines between IMSA’s Grand Touring category and what would soon emerge with the Grand Touring Prototype class, but the first bespoke Corvette prototype racer materialized in 1985 as GM, race-car constructor Lola and NASCAR entrant Rick Hendrick came together to produce the Corvette GTP.
Corvette Daytona Prototype
The fast but fragile twin-turbo V-6 Corvette was shelved by the end of the 1988 season with 12 poles and two wins to its credit, and after a brief hiatus, GM tasked Bill and Bob Riley and its partners at Pratt & Miller Engineering to deliver the revolutionary Chevy Intrepid GTP for its prototype return in 1991.
While the naturally aspirated Intrepid generated staggering cornering speeds, its overall race results were rather pedestrian. Compared to the Corvette GTP, its success was halved, taking six poles and one win before the program was axed in late 1992.
Corvette Daytona Prototype
The long gap between GM’s most recent prototype effort and the new Corvette DP activities can be traced back to the forgettable Cadillac Northstar program from 2000–2002. The plug was pulled with zero poles or wins, and GM quickly shifted its full resources to Corvette’s ALMS and Le Mans GT endeavors.
Within GM, prototype racing was on death row. Its exorbitant costs had received a third and final strike.
Fast forward to the end of the decade, and with the Grand-Am series seeking to freshen the looks of its often maligned DP class, GM saw a prime opportunity to rekindle its presence in prototype racing without breaking the piggy bank or having to build entire cars from scratch.
Corvette Daytona Prototype
As one of the original DP engine suppliers with its venerable 5.0-liter short-block V-8, GM, at the behest of Grand-Am’s founder, accepted the invitation to dress the cars used by its partner teams.
“The initiative started a couple of years back when Jim France came to Detroit,” said GM Racing Director Mark Kent. “He met with our leadership and pulled out a photo of the Hendrick Corvette GTP car from the 1980s and expressed an interest in moving the look of the Daytona Prototype class more toward a classic prototype look. He asked if Chevrolet had an interest in supporting that initiative, and we were immediately excited by the opportunity.”
Corvette Daytona Prototype
Reaching back to 1985 for conceptual inspiration, Kent’s team hit a home run by moving the bar well beyond badge engineering. Put the Corvette DP in a lineup with modern prototypes from Aston Martin, Audi, Mazda and Peugeot, and odds are the average car buyer could name only the Corvette…
“We went to work and developed what we consider a contemporary version of the Hendrick Corvette GTP car, which was the last prototype-style Corvette we believe has been on the racetrack,” Kent explained. “So GM Racing and its partners worked hand-in-hand with Grand-Am and the three DP chassis manufacturers to create this new Corvette-themed body that carries styling cues from the current Corvette. We wanted the car to have real Corvette DNA, to be unmistakable.”
Corvette Daytona Prototype
Kent also faced engineering obstacles with the Corvette DP bodywork that simply didn’t exist in 1985.
“The Corvette body fits over all three chassis, which has been an exercise in itself,” he said. “The whole process was collaborative because to get the greenhouse shape to look like a Corvette, GM Racing worked closely with the three manufacturers—Riley, Dallara and Coyote—to create a body that adapts to all three cars. To come as far as we have from a clean sheet of paper to a finished product in a one-year span says a lot for all of the parties involved. Visually, the end product is something we’re all very proud of.”
With GM Racing serving as the only DP manufacturer to answer Grand-Am’s call to produce custom bodywork for its engine partners, the series has spent more than 100 hours conducting full-scale wind tunnel tests at North Carolina’s Windshear facility to balance the Corvette’s aerodynamic gains with the older-generation DP bodies still in use.
More tweaks will be necessary as the cars race together in 2012, but there’s one big advantage that Corvette teams are already counting on.
Corvette Daytona Prototype
“We’ve always been committed to running an all-American team and know that this gorgeous new Corvette body will make us stand out among the other cars and manufacturers in the marketplace,” said Bob Stallings, owner of the Gainsco Riley-Chevrolet team.
Added Stallings: “There will just be a handful of Corvette DPs running at Daytona, and from a marketing standpoint, I think there’s no better time than the 50th anniversary of the race to give Americans something to root for—a bit of the old ‘Baseball, Hot Dogs, Apple Pie and Chevrolet’ spirit.”
Kent wouldn’t be drawn on the total number of Corvette DPs for the Daytona race, but hinted at something in the range of four to six cars.
Corvette Daytona Prototype
“We’re looking forward to our three Chevrolet teams from last year and a few new teams debuting the Corvette body at Daytona, and we’ll embrace whatever it takes to grow the sport. Grand-Am is a great place to compete and the 24 Hours of Daytona is the toughest endurance race in North America. We think starting off the 2012 season with numerous Corvette DP cars racing on the high banks of Daytona is a great way to kick off the championship.”
SunTrust Racing team owner Wayne Taylor, whose affiliation with GM’s prototype endeavors dates back to the Intrepid program, is pleased to have come full circle with The General.
“Corvette’s return to prototype racing really is about many generations at play at the same time,” said the South
African. “Mark Kent was my program manager when I first came to the States and raced for GM, and I scored the Intrepid’s only win and many poles for him. In fact, his boss, Jim Campbell, loaned me his plane while I was at the track racing the Intrepid when my first son, Jordan, was due to be born. Twenty years later, Mark is still overseeing our GM partnership, Jordan is racing for GM in the Rolex GT class, and Jordan’s younger brother Ricky is driving our Corvette DP car.
Corvette Daytona Prototype
“If you look at the continuity, the experience and even some of the youth involved in Corvette coming back to racing prototypes, it’s hard not to feel bullish about our chances.”
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