The new GT3 car will is set to make its debut in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in the 2024 Rolex 24 at Daytona before expansion within the U.S. (GT World Challenge) and beyond.
“There’s testing and development at the beginning of [2023] and then the homologation process begins,” said Klauser. “So there’s a lot of focus on making sure the car is right using any information that came from the current program – or programs from the past – that can contribute to a good, strong foundation of a racecar.
“That’s one thing we’re heavily focused on, and the other piece is setting up the customer support program. This will be a customer car, and we intend to have customers. We are going to start slow in 2024 because we can only build them so fast and we’ll grow from there.
“We’re making sure that anyone who takes delivery of the car and is racing has the complete support behind them from Corvette Racing. We want to make sure they do well because then they show for us, and we want people know we are serious about this car.”
Klauser later explained: “Our first focus will be the United States. That’s our home market and that’s where the majority of our production car sales are. And it’s home, so it's a lot easier to figure out support when you’re in the same country.
“We’re not turning a blind eye to anything else. We know the big volume for GT3 is in Europe, and the Asian market is growing as well. So while you may see us primarily in the U.S. to start, there is a growth plan to get to Europe and eventually to Asia as well.
“In terms of numbers, that part we’re still working through. The regulations say you have to build 20 in the first two years, so the first easy one is to say we’ll do 10 per year. But realistically we’re going to meet the requirement but also placing cars with the right teams in the right places. We’ll see how that shakes out.
“It’s not going to be like off the bat we’ll have 35 cars racing all over the world in 2024. It’ll probably be a little bit of a slower walk than that… maybe 10 to 12 total. And they won’t all be starting the season.”
Klauser said that “the focus will be the U.S., but we’ll place a couple in Europe if we have a good fit and it’s the right series. In terms of the bulk of the volume to start, that’ll be the U.S. with Europe quickly coming in behind, either at the end of ’24 or the beginning of ’25.”
She emphasized that “details are not set right now, and we’re still working through that. You have to find the right teams to pair up with to know if it will be Pro or Am, and things along those lines. But the intent is to have multiple teams racing in the Rolex… We’re seeing what makes sense for the car and what makes the most sense for the brand.”
Assessing Corvette Racing’s split strategy between IMSA and WEC
This year saw Corvette Racing embark on one of its most ambitious projects, not only switching the C8.R from IMSA’s defunct GTLM category to GT3-based GTD Pro, but splitting its team to run one car in IMSA for Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor, and one in GTE Pro in the WEC for Nick Tandy and Tommy Milner.
In IMSA, that put Corvette up against the likes of experienced GT3 manufacturers Porsche, BMW and Lexus. Garcia and Taylor ultimately came up short in the GTD Pro title battle against Pfaff Porsche pair Matt Campbell and Matthieu Jaminet, scoring just one victory, albeit in a marquee event – the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.
However, given that she considers 2022 and ’23 as “learning and building years” ahead of the GT3 car’s launch, Klauser believes that more important than the results this season has been what the team has learned.
"We're very competitive in all of GM motorsports, so you're always a little sore if you didn't come out with the championship," Klauser told Motorsport.com in Japan. "We're still trying to be extremely competitive, be successful, do what we can there. But as long as we walk away with all the learnings that we've been gathering and we're able to apply those to what we're doing in the future, I'd say that's a huge success.
"You know, you always like to do that with a trophy under your arm too. But understanding everything the team's been working on, I'd say that they should be very proud of what they've achieved."
"If you look at the GT3 car that we're building, it's based off a lot of what we've done here with this [GTE] vehicle," Klauser explained. "Of course it's not a one for one. We had to make some changes to fit into all of the GT3 regulations as well as the price bandwidth that you're supposed to be in.
"But in terms of the shape and the design and the layout of the suspension, it's very similar to what we have today. So all of the learnings we've captured from 2020 onward have been put into this GT3 car.
"It's not normal that you get an opportunity to take the same generation of vehicle and almost go at it again, which is what we have here, going from first GTE and then moving into GT3. So the GT3 car is looking to be one of the best Corvette race cars we've ever produced."
Klauser also believes racing in IMSA and WEC was good from a marketing perspective.
“We have a global presence with the car, which is awesome, just as the C8 is going into production and being available across the world,” she explained. “It was nice to start building fan bases for Corvette outside our traditional markets. That being said, we want to keep our traditional markets strong because that’s important to us. Developing the relationships in the WEC paddock has been successful.”
Klauser remains hurt by the demise of the Corvette of Milner/Sims/Tandy at Le Mans when a wayward amateur in a prototype knocked it hard into a barrier – “That was our race… We were ready to see that through to the checkers first in GTE Pro” – but described the triumph at Monza as “super-exciting, to have that opportunity in the European market.”
She continued: “The race we just did in Japan wasn’t the best on our side, but the exposure we’re getting over there has been good. We’re really pleased with how things worked out.
“I know our IMSA fans are still disappointed that they’re only seeing one car at the races here. I wish it wasn’t the case but letting the GTE car shine in the WEC where it was originally designed to run in that category and using the GTD Pro car to start learning for GT3 has been a nice balance.”
Klauser would not confirm if there would be two Corvettes on the grid for January’s 2023 Rolex 24, but suggested an announcement was coming sooner rather than later.
