After exceeding expectations with a runner-up finish in their first race with a Corvette Z06 GT3.R, the Steller Motorsport team is “pushing” for a second Corvette to compete in round two of the GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup at Monza in June.
Steller debuted earlier this year in GWTC Europe with a single Z06 GT3.R at Le Castellet, where the Silver Cup trio of Matisse Lismont, Kiern Jewiss, and Lorcan Hanafin debuted second in class.
Team manager Max Daymond says the original plan was for Steller to have two Bronze Cup Corvettes this year, but interest from Silver Cup drivers was so great that they decided to have entries in Bronze and Silver.
“Over the pre-season we were talking to a lot of drivers and [with] the level of interest from Silver drivers, [it] became apparent fairly quickly that actually it would make a lot of sense for us to run a Silver car and a Bronze car,” Daymond told Sportscar365. “That was our intention. So the Silver car came together with three strong drivers and ended up with a good result at Paul Ricard, which was fantastic.”
The two-car lineup wasn’t present at the first race, however, but Daymond hopes the Bronze car will be available for the second round of the Endurance Cup in June.
“The Bronze car, unfortunately, the deal fell apart at the last hurdle,” he said, adding that Steller hopes to have a full season deal in place for the Bronze car in time for Monza.
Praising the Silver Cup team for their efforts at Le Castellet, Daymond said they “were focused on trying to have the best result that we could” and “kind of exceeded expectations … to have a second place on our first attempt as it were, our first round, was phenomenal.”
Daymond praised Chevy for its support of the Steller team, noting it was “immediately apparent that there was a nice common ground between our approach and theirs” during off-season talks.
“They want to keep the volume of cars in the marketplace quite small,” Daymond said, “and they want to keep the number of teams that run those cars quite small as well so that they can support everything in the right way.”
Daymond especially appreciates Chevy’s regular bi-weekly meetings with all the car owners that helps with the information flow “because at least it means that we’re not in the dark as to what’s going on around the world.
“We know that if someone’s had a failure even if it’s not failed yet [for us], it was something that could potentially become an issue [and] we’re aware of it straight away. “We know what to check for, we know what is coming in the pipeline. That information flow was a big thing for us.”
Daymond called the support so far from Chevy “fantastic, both on and off site.”
Source:
sportscar365.com
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