2003 Petit Le Mans Race - Losing The Battle, Winning The War

Road Atlanta is Corvette racing's lucky track. They got their first GTS Atlanta win in 2000 when Andy Pilgrim made a stunning pass on the factory Viper during the last lap for the win. GTS wins in 2001 and 2002 helped secure manufacturer championships for Corvette. But the Pratt & Miller team came to this year's race needing all the luck that Road Atlanta could bring them.

What a difference a year makes. The awe-inspiring Care Racing/Prodrive Ferrari 550 Maranellos have been inching closer to the C5-Rs' tails for the past two seasons. The 12-cylinder wonder cars were always faster than the Corvettes on the longer tracks but lacked reliability. Care Racing was determined to change this in 2003, and an extensive winter testing program plus a stronger driver gave them a stunning victory at LeMans. In addition, the Ferraris won the ALMS races at Road America, Laguna Seca, and Miami. The Corvettes came to Road Atlanta with five wins in 2003 and an eight-point advantage in the race for the manufacturer's title, and they needed at least a third-place finish to clinch the championship.

The 6th Annual Petit LeMans endurance race (10 hours or 1,000 miles by the leading car, whichever came first) ended up being a mixed bag. First the good news, a C5-R finished third in the hotly contested GTS class. This was good enough to secure a third championship for Corvette, by just one point over the independent (non-factory-supported) Ferrari! Now the bad news-the third place C5-R finished NINE laps behind the GTS class first and second place Maranellos. This was the fourth GTS defeat in a row for the Corvettes, and it is very clear that the C5-R is falling behind the competition. If something radical isn't done over the winter to update the C5-Rs, 2004 may prove to be a dismal year for us Corvette racing fans.

Team VETTE has followed the C5-R since its debut. The first C5-R prototype was actually built in late 1994. The original design concept of this racer is now nine years old. The C5-R had its racing debut at the 1999 24 Hours of Daytona where it finished third in its class. We watched dramatic improvements being made to the car(s) at each race by the team. These changes improved its speed and reliability, and led to three consecutive manufacturers championships. In its third competition year, the C5-R finished 1-2 in GTS at LeMans and won the 2001 team and manufacturers championships. This was a first in the history of Corvette racing. In 2002, Corvettes again finished 1-2 in class at LeMans and won the ALMS driver, team, and manufacturer championships.

Corvette Racing was at the top of the hill. The 2003 season started out with a bang, with a win at Sebring giving reason to hope for another successful year. But then their chief competition, Care Racing, stunned Corvette at the next race, the 24 Hours of LeMans. A 550 Maranello won GTS and finished TEN laps ahead of the two factory Corvettes. This loss occurred just days before Corvette's 50th Anniversary Celebration in Nashville.

How did a private team trounce the factory-supported Pratt & Miller Corvettes? We did a little research to find out about Care Racing. They are a part of the Care Group that provides various services to the oil, gas, shipping, mining, and automotive industries. Headquartered in Switzerland, Care Group's owner, Frederic Dor, formed Care Racing in 2000. He contracted Prodrive of England to convert two street Ferrari 550 Maranellos into competitive GTS racers. Prodrive employs 1,600 specialists and are successful race and rally car designers and constructors. Prodrive produced two high-tech, carbon-fiber wonders for Care Racing. The cars were beautiful to look at and fast, but unreliable. With a lot of effort and money, the Ferraris have been inching bcloser to Corvette in reliability.