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Callaway Corvette GT3 Update

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critt99

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GT3monza.jpg


A BITTERSWEET
VICTORY
By
Walt Thurn
The 2007 FIA GT3 championship headed to Monza, Italy for round 3 of this years exciting series. GT3 showcases the top exotic car manufacturers in the world. Most of these manufacturers build race spec versions of their streetcars to assure that their products are competitive against their competition. Ferrari, Porsche, Lamborghini, Viper and Aston Martin all offer GT3 spec racing versions to their customers. In addition factory technical support is provided to fix any racetrack failures that might occur during the heat of battle. One exception to this is Corvette. The factory does not build a GT3 spec customer racecar and they do not provide support to teams who race their product. Last season Carsport Holland and Callaway Competition purchased eight street Z06 Corvettes. Callaway and Carsport modified them for GT3 competition and experienced reliability problems. The cars were fast but fragile. All research and development to fix these failures fell onto the team. Converting these great streetcars into competitive GT racers was time consuming and costly.

For 2007 Uli Martini Berberich purchased the Corvette team and they now race under Martini Callaway Racing banner. Nicolai Bulgari also provides sponsorship to the private team. Callaway Competition built two new cars for this season and retained the first car they constructed in 2005. The cars are numbered 16, 17 & 18. A second team from France called Team Riverside purchased three cars from Callaway/Carsport last year. They are numbered 19, 20 & 21. The #20 was badly damaged in a crash at the last race in Bucharest and is undergoing repairs. The #19 driven by Ruffier/Peyrolles has won several poles and has had several top three finishes. The #18 driven by Pirri/von Gartzen finished second at Silverstone and won the pole for the first race at Monza. The #16 car driven by Berberich-Martini/Ludwig won the pole position for the second Monza race. The race had 37 starters for the two one hour events on Sunday 24/06/2007. Autodromo Nazionale di Monza is located 25 km north of Milan and is each lap is 5,770 meters. The track is very fast and favored the 7 litre Corvette Z06 engines. Both races saw an epic battle between Corvette, Aston Martin, Ferrari and Viper.

In both events it was the #18 Pirri/von Gartzen Corvette that took the checkered flag in first place. Two back to back wins for Corvette, finally! Unfortunately it was not to be, a Ferrari team protested Callaway’s second win based on article 60 of the FIA rulebook that required each car to have 2 kg of fuel remaining in their tank. Callaway only had 1.7 kg of fuel so their second win was disqualified and they were listed as a non-finisher! It was quite a blow to the private team. They learned of the steward’s decision after their victory circle celebration. However, it is obvious by winning Monza’s race number one that Callaway Competition is fielding a competitive and reliable Corvette. We are certain that Corvette will continue fighting for the top position during the remainder of the season. Pirri and von Gartzen, drivers of the #18 Corvette are now second in the FIA GT3 drivers championship.

It is an exciting time to be a Corvette fan. Stay tuned.


 
:upthumbs Congratulations to the Callaway Racing team.

Everyone present saw the Callaway Z06 finish first. You know Ferrari is nervous if they have to go weigh the fuel left in the tank and compain over .3 kg of fuel. :chuckle

Looking forward to more good news out of the team in the future.

-Luigi
:cool
 
Win on Sunday, sell on Monday!

great news Callaway Competition...when will we see a C16.R?



Great thought there :cool

Imagine a deep front end component with wide flares and a wing like the C4 LM cars had :eek:hnoes

That would be amazing! I am sure that for the race car at least, carbon fiber would be employed :upthumbs

Great news :lou
 
So that is where you get all the cool race pics!!

Thanks,

-Luigi
:cool
 
Callaway Racing is Kick'n !@#$ in Europe.....

I want to thank Tyler Thurn for keeping us up to date on the GT racing. Be sure to check his website: http://www.corvettemotorsport.com/news.htm

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CORVETTE Z06R
WINS
LAUSITZRING

By: Walt Thurn
Photos: Markus Berns

Drivers Toni Seiler and Patrick Gerling won their first ADAC Masters in their Martini/Callaway Z06R Corvette at the EuroSpeedway. The 14 turn 4.534 km EuroSpeedway is located in Lausitzallee, Germany. The nr 25 Corvette qualified fifth fastest for the first of two ADAC Masters weekend races. The Corvette started behind two Lamborghini Gallardo’s, one Porsche and the pole setting Kissling Motorsport Callaway Competition Corvette Z06R.


The pole winning nr 51 Corvette had to start from pit lane after undergoing repairs before the start of the race. When the green flag fell three Lamborghini’s and one Porsche fought for the lead while the nr 25 Seiler/Gerling Corvette held fifth. By the 12th lap the Corvette was 1.9 seconds behind the leading nr 7 Lamborghini. Meanwhile the nr 51 Corvette of Bert/Kissling was moving rapidly up from its last place starting position.
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This new team was showing impressive speed in their Callaway Z06R. Pit stops and driver changes took place for the leaders on lap 17.

Seiler replaced Gerling in nr 25 and Bert replaced Kissling in the nr 51. On lap 27 Seiler passed the nr 7 Lamborghini to take over the lead and Bert was now in fourth position. The silver Corvette took the checkered flag on lap 41 with a 0.884 second advantage over the second place nr 7 Lamborghini. Bert finished a fine fourth after starting last. Team manager Ernst Woehr was all smiles on the victory podium as Seiler and Gerling celebrated by spraying everyone with champagne. It was a fine victory for this hard working Corvette team.​

___________________________________High Res images coming soon!​














KisslingZ06R.jpg

Kissling Motorsport Z06R unveiled​

Kissling Motorsport will be the first team to enter a Corvette Z06 in the BFGoodrich VLN series. The Bad Münstereifel-based team is a stalwart VLN competitor, entering Opel machinery for several years now. After their discontinued Opel Speedster project, Stefan Kissling’s men have decided to start something new by bringing a Corvette Z06 to Nürburgring Nordschleife racing.​

The whole project is not an easy task as it requires some modifications to the car. The car’s seven litre engine is exceeding the series’ engine capacity limit of 6.2 litres. Kissling had to equip the Corvette with a new engine package, rumoured to put out about 500hp. The FIA GT3 Corvette has also been modified in terms of suspension as Kissling Motorsport is using a new KW suspension package. The car has already enjoyed some brief laps on the Nürburgring Nordschleife during Friday’s VLN open practice sessions. The sixth VLN round of the 2007 season in mid-August is scheduled to be the first race outing for the brand new car, no co-drivers for team principal Stefan Kissling have been announced yet.​
 

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