From more than a few sources that I’ve been reading lately, some changes are likely in how The General supports motorsports.

One thing I’ve heard is there will be some sort of cutback at Corvette Racing, but nothing definite has been announced.
That’s despite Corvette’s racing and race-related marketing are about the last “win-on-Sunday/sell-on-Monday”
activity inside GM anymore, and the fact that racing Corvettes are actually related to the production car more than
any other Bowtie-clad race vehicle.


What about NASCAR, you say? Where can you buy a regular production front-engined, rear-drive Impala that looks
like the “Car of Tomorrow” that’s now the spec standard in the Cup series? What about Craftsman Trucks—those are
V8-powered RWD versions of what you can buy, right? Two problems there: (1) Sears’ Craftsman Tools is going away
as the series sponsor after this season, and (2) people aren’t buying trucks like they used to.

What this race fan is hoping for is: If GM continues putting corporate cash into motorsports here in the States, that it do so
with production-based and production-derived vehicles, much like what Corvette Racing has done—and done right--in recent years.

With a new Camaro set to debut for 2010, it would seem logical for GM to support teams (and the events they run in, and the
organizations that sanction those races) that built and race cars using the production Camaro body-in-white and engines derived from
what will be its production powerplants.



The engine technology to go fast and win is already there, in the Corvette Racing shop (given that I’ve heard that the new Camaro’s V8 will be one we’ve seen already in the C6). 

In other words: How about Camaros in the Cup Series, instead of that bespoilered blob that’s there now!

And , while they’re at it, make Corvette the Cup Series’ Official Pace Car –and only use production Corvettes (i.e. ones with current license plates on them) for that duty!

(All images courtesy GM/Wieck Media Services)