Sad news reaches DSC for lovers of left-field GT racing in this homologated age as Callaway Competition announce a temporary withdrawal from motorsport.
The German team, renowned for their fettling of Chevrolet Corvettes on road and track for several decades, are the longest-serving and most successful racing team in ADAC GT Masters but will not return to the Series where it has been an almost ever-present since 2007 for the coming season.
Instead, the company will once focus on road and track versions of the Corvette C8. Currently planned are cosmetic refinements to a track-day car.
The racing team from Leingarten near Heilbronn in Baden-Württemberg, Germany has taken part in every racing event of the ADAC GT Masters since 2007, with the exception of two races. During this time, the Giovanni Ciccone and Ernst Wöhr-led team quickly became a crowd favourite with their privately developed and constructed Corvettes.
The ADAC GT days came after giant-killing efforts at the very peak of International GT racing with race versions of the Corvette C4 racing at Le Mans and an attempt too to take on the then-emerging GT1 established order with their bespoke C7R of 1996/97 – a change of regulations put the promising concept out of competition.
The team took 35 race wins in more than 200 ADAC GT Masters races and started from pole position 27 times. In addition to two driver and team championships, the Corvette racing team won the trophy classification twice and the junior classification once in the top-class GT championship.
2017 was Callaway Competition’s most successful year. Together with the French driver, Jules Gounon, the team won all the titles that could be won.
Ernst Wöhr CEO Callaway Competition: “We sat down together after the season and closely analyzed the last two years. It was with a heavy heart that we came to the decision that we would withdraw from the GT Masters for the time being. Motorsport and especially the ADAC GT Masters was our home for a long time. We would like to take this opportunity to once again thank all those responsible for the ADAC GT Masters and of course, all our partners and sponsors who have accompanied and supported us over the years. But now we want and need to conserve our resources again and concentrate more on road vehicles. Of course, we’ll continue to keep an eye on the scene and how it develops. In addition, we are currently in talks with General Motors USA and are planning a return to the German GT Championship in 2024 with the new Corvette C8 GT3.”
