Stevenson Motorsports might be leaving the Camaro

[mlee]

Originally Posted by SILVER BULLET RS

Well your not going to believe this but, i went to the IMSA race at Watkins Glen this past Saturday and i talked to one of the Stevenson Audi R8 crew members! I asked him why they dropped the Camaros for the Audi R8 , he told me that IMSA told them they had to stop racing the Camaros because they were totally dominating the rest of the GS class and that made IMSA very concerned! IMSA did not want the sponsors of the european exotics pulling out their money from the Porsche , Lamborghini , Aston Martin and Audi teams because the Chevy Camaros was totally embarrassing them on the track! This would not make IMSA an International manufacturer race anymore , so they had to ban the Camaros immediately! He told me they still have all 4 Camaro Z28R cars in Carolina and they hope someday they will be able to race them again!

Figures... thanks for the update..

[BMR Sales]

Sounds like the Crew Member is voicing his opinion not the Facts. IMSA has Balance of Performance rules that they can use to equalize out the cars - this can take many shapes - add or subtract weight, reduce engine inlet size, etc.

In addition, they got $$ from Audi that GM would not provide and they moved up an entire class.

[ZED SLED]

^ this. Mike Johnson said he was told by Chevrolet they had nothing for him to race this year. Mantella was evidently told the same thing. Meanwhile, Stevenson fielded Camaros since 2010 and only dominated and won the series last year. On the other hand, Mustangs dominated under Grand Am and are still out there. There is a lot of animosity over the way IMSA is running the series as evident from having only 7-8 cars in GS. Even Jack Rousch bailed after the merger.

[SILVER BULLET RS]

Idk guys , all i know is that he was pretty upset when I brought the Camaro question up to him. He said that they were constantly being harassed by IMSA officials before and after every race last year! They were always accusing the Stevenson Camaros of being too fast, too light, and having too much power! I could tell by his reaction that they did not want to stop racing the Z28R ever! He did not seem to be blowing off hot air , his reaction seemed very legitimate to me. He was saying America is a Democracy right? Not in IMSA he said! I don't know if GM didn't want to give Stevenson any money like someone here suggested and that's why they went to the Audi R8 instead, but i just don't buy it! They just won the Championship last year in a very dominating fashion , why would they leave such formidable Camaros? I know that the 6gen Camaro would have been the obvious choice for the team and I could only imagine the harassment that they would have received from IMSA if they raced it this year! Stevenson would have totally dominated again this year and IMSA would have totally harrassed them to no end!

[hrpiii]

Originally Posted by SILVER BULLET RS

Idk guys , all i know is that he was pretty upset when I brought the Camaro question up to him. He said that they were constantly being harassed by IMSA officials before and after every race last year! They were always accusing the Stevenson Camaros of being too fast, too light, and having too much power! I could tell by his reaction that they did not want to stop racing the Z28R ever! He did not seem to be blowing off hot air , his reaction seemed very legitimate to me. He was saying America is a Democracy right? Not in IMSA he said! I don't know if GM didn't want to give Stevenson any money like someone here suggested and that's why they went to the Audi R8 instead, but i just don't buy it! They just won the Championship last year in a very dominating fashion , why would they leave such formidable Camaros? I know that the 6gen Camaro would have been the obvious choice for the team and I could only imagine the harassment that they would have received from IMSA if they raced it this year! Stevenson would have totally dominated again this year and IMSA would have totally harrassed them to no end!

I tend to favor this a little more than the money thing. Hard to believe a team is winning and dominating and all of a sudden go, "..hey, let's do something different now". As hard as it is to find a winning combination in motorsports, it had to be something huge to totally walk away from that. You ask any team on the grid, you want money, or you want to win. Ask any owner, you want money, or you want to win. Betting "win" is the going answer here. To me, it's like Hendricks going "well, we won with Chevy, now lets try it in a Toyota".

[BMR Sales]

Originally Posted by SILVER BULLET RS

Idk guys , all i know is that he was pretty upset when I brought the Camaro question up to him. He said that they were constantly being harassed by IMSA officials before and after every race last year! They were always accusing the Stevenson Camaros of being too fast, too light, and having too much power! I could tell by his reaction that they did not want to stop racing the Z28R ever! He did not seem to be blowing off hot air , his reaction seemed very legitimate to me. He was saying America is a Democracy right? Not in IMSA he said! I don't know if GM didn't want to give Stevenson any money like someone here suggested and that's why they went to the Audi R8 instead, but i just don't buy it! They just won the Championship last year in a very dominating fashion , why would they leave such formidable Camaros? I know that the 6gen Camaro would have been the obvious choice for the team and I could only imagine the harassment that they would have received from IMSA if they raced it this year! Stevenson would have totally dominated again this year and IMSA would have totally harrassed them to no end!

When a Team is doing well, the get scrutinized tougher by the Officials and of course from a Team perspective, if you've got a Car dialed in and doing well, you don't want to give it up.

Would they have been as Dominant in a 2016 Camaro, I doubt it as it takes time to get it dialed in.

When you add in the Shrink in the Continental Series, No Money from GM, Big $$ from Audi and a move up to the WeatherTech Series (everybody wants to run with the Big Dogs), it was probably an easy switch.

[kingbambino22]

IMSA did everything they could to slow down the Z/28R's to include reducing the brake piston count. I watched the whole season and every race the put more and more restrictions on the Z/28R. Look up the specs for yourself. One race was so bad on restrictions that the ST class cars was passing the Z/28R's on the straights. The race weight was 4000lbs. That's heavier that showroom weight.

[JusticePete]

Make no mistake, every mfg complains when they lose and threatens to pull out. Politics and money ruin racing.

[BMR Sales]

The Continental Series needs some fixing - in the GS Class they have been running Single Digit entrees all year and @ Mosport they only had 4 Cars entered.

[AG1LE]

Originally Posted by JusticePete

Make no mistake, every mfg complains when they lose and threatens to pull out. Politics and money ruin racing.

...and everything else...

[Stormcloak]

Originally Posted by kingbambino22

IMSA did everything they could to slow down the Z/28R's to include reducing the brake piston count. I watched the whole season and every race the put more and more restrictions on the Z/28R. Look up the specs for yourself. One race was so bad on restrictions that the ST class cars was passing the Z/28R's on the straights. The race weight was 4000lbs. That's heavier that showroom weight.

This is one of the problems with multi-mfr racing. As much as I absolutely love endurance series like IMSA, BoP is incredibly problematic.

[Moreair1]

Originally Posted by Stormcloak

This is one of the problems with multi-mfr racing. As much as I absolutely love endurance series like IMSA, BoP is incredibly problematic.

I don't get to watch racing as much but I agree, look what happened to the corvettes at lemans, new gt's sand bagged it in trials then all of a sudden before race day there like 5 seconds faster than anything out there, bop just needs to go away and if you want to level the field set standard guidelines for every one to follow.

[xc_SS/RS]

Originally Posted by BMR Sales

The Continental Series needs some fixing - in the GS Class they have been running Single Digit entrees all year and @ Mosport they only had 4 Cars entered.

Yeah the GS class is not looking good but the ST class racing is fantastic!

I think IMSA was going to look at bringing LMP3 cars to the Conti series. Not sure where that's headed or what the current situation is on that topic but I wouldn't want to see it. Closing speeds for corners would be incredibly high and that does not = safety.

[BMR Sales]

Looks like Stevenson is a leading candidate to race the New Acura NSX next year due to having had a Factory backed team and the fact that John Stevenson owns a bunch of Honda/Acura Dealerships