As the 2008 American Le Mans Series season winds down with only two races left, teams are starting to make announcements about the 2009 season. One of the question marks over the last several years has been the future of the Corvette Racing program. With no really competition to speak of, one has to wonder why GM stays in the GT1 ranks. This year, they switched fuels and now run on cellulosic ethanol. Today, the team announced that 2009 will be a transition season as the GT1 C6Rs continue in limited competition. The GT1 cars will run at Sebring and Long Beach before going for a sixth class victory at Le Mans. After Le Mans, a new GT2 Corvette will debut running the rest of the season in preparation for 2010. New international GT class rules take effect in 2010 and are closer to current GT2 rules.
The new C6R will be based on the body and chassis of the ZR1 and cars will be run by the factory team, as well as being available to independent teams. A 6.0-liter version of the LS7.R from the GT1 car will be used in GT2 competition next year, while the 2010 car gets a new 5.5-liter version of the production engine. Like the current GT1 car, the new GT will keep running on cellulosic E85.
