Corvette GT3 boss Christie Bagne says the final stages of the build-up to the debut of the Z06 GT3.R customer programme in 2024 are all running to schedule ahead of the car’s global race debut at Daytona in January.
Speaking with DSC earlier this month, Bagne was pleased to confirm that the initial customer car builds are going well, with no significant setbacks.
“They’re on track,” she said. “We have the IMSA BoP test coming up, then the WEC cars will be making their way across the Atlantic in January to prepare for the Prologue at Qatar. Then we will have the DXDT cars delivered around April. It’s a partial season for the team, and it has been aware of that all along.
“We are looking forward to having eight cars running next year.”
Over the past six months, Corvette has gradually pulled back the curtain on its first wave of customer teams. TF Sport is headed to the FIA WEC’s LMGT3 class, AWA is set for a two-car IMSA GTD programme and DXDT has signed up for GT World Challenge America. That trio will run cars in addition to the pair of factory-supported Pratt Miller entries that will race in traditional Corvette yellow in IMSA’s GTD Pro category.
Bagne says the reaction to the customer team announcements has been overwhelmingly positive since TF Sport became the first confirmed customer back in June.
“I think there’s a lot of excitement,” she pointed out. “It’s wonderful to be finally able to talk about it all. We came into this telling the world that GM is committed to a customer GT3 programme and as this was new, people wondered what it would look like and how many cars there would be in the first year.
“The answer to all the questions I’ve been getting is ‘yes’, we have lots of cars and teams, and we can show it!
“The different series have also been very welcoming to us,” she continued. “We were at the Indianapolis 8 Hours most recently to announce DXDT and it was a great experience working with the SRO. IMSA is also thrilled that we will be quadrupling our car count, and the ACO is happy with our plans.”
TF Sport and AWA (which took delivery of its cars earlier this week) have already attended track tests of the car ahead of their deliveries, with TF Sport travelling to CoTA back in August and AWA sending personnel to a recent run at Sebring. Pratt Miller was also out running with its pair of GTD Pro-bound chassis at Sebring just last week.
The feedback and first impressions of the car, Bagne tells DSC, has been positive.
“AWA was at Sebring recently, they didn’t run the car but they attended,” she confirmed. “The car is still under development and is going through the finishing touches, but the time we get to Rolex (24 at Daytona) we expect to have a mature car.
“The feedback has been good. We aimed to take the strengths of the GTE car and make it easier to drive and set up. At this stage it appears we have been successful with that.
“Like any programme the car has had hardware and software updates, nothing unusual. Lessons with the C8.R gave us a big head start with the process.
“We have done over 8000 miles now and have two test cars currently running.”
Having a second test car has also helped with tyre testing. Next year, in its first year of competition, the Z06.R GT3 will compete on Michelin tyres in IMSA, Pirellis in SRO America and Goodyears in the FIA WEC’s LMGT3 class.
Getting a flavour of each supplier’s rubber is key ahead of the BoP tests and final homologation.
“It’s been great to have one car on Michelin and another on Goodyear rubber. It’s been a luxury!” Bagne said.
“Our engineers are working well, we are building relationships with the tyre suppliers and Pratt Miller, our technical partner, is too.”
With the Rolex 24 Hours in late January fast approaching, it won’t be long until the Z06 GT3.R is running in public. There is still plenty of private testing to come though.
To this point, all the testing has taken place in the USA and behind closed doors. However, that is set to change soon, as TF Sport plans to run in the Middle East in either January or February depending on delivery dates ahead of the WEC Prologue.
