CORVETTE TODAY #142 - A Look At Corvette Racing For 2023!
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May 8, 2025
To start off the new year, I thought it would be good to take a look at Corvette Racing for 2023. We have 3 guests on this episode...first, GM's Sports Car Racing Brand Manager, Laura Klauser, joins your CORVETTE TODAY host, Steve Garrett, and overviews 2022 and where Corvette Racing will be competing this year! Next, a Corvette Racing fan favorite, Jordan Taylor joins Steve and talks about his family racing pedigree, his decade with Corvette Racing and more. Our final guest is Corvette Racing's brand new amateur driver, Ben Keating! Ben talks about his brilliant racing career, his new gig with Corvette Racing and how things stack up in the upcoming season. It's a great way to start 2023...with Corvette Racing on CORVETTE TODAY!
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[Music] welcome to Corvette today the podcast
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that talks about everything Corvette with your host Steve Garrett MC and DJ at one of the largest Corvette weekends
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in the country Corvette Fun Fest president of the Corvette club of Kansas City Missouri and radio disc jockey at
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the number one radio station in Kansas City for over 40 years here's Steve Garrett
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thanks for listening and watching Corvette today the show that talks about everything Corvette and the only current
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podcast dedicated to Corvette I'm your host Steve Garrett I appreciate you tuning in Corva today is brought to you
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enthusiasts like yourself at mid-enginecorvetteform.com and a shout out to Corvette forum and
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canadiancorpetforum.com welcoming Corvette from around the world to start off 2023 I thought it would be great to
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catch up on everything Corvette racing we have three terrific guests on this episode of Corvette today the first
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person on this Corvette racing Edition is a return guest and a friend of the show she's the sports car racing program
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manager for GM Laura wandtropclauser Laura welcome back to Corvette today thank you for having me happy New Year
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Happy New Year to you too my friend let's get right into it Laura let's do a quick wrap-up of Corvette racing last
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year in 2022. well we had quite a lot going on that was the first year that
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Corvette racing has done a full wax season so we had the car all over the
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world which was very exciting we were really thrilled with the results considering it was our first time we
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still managed to play second at Sebring we won Monza and then we placed second in Bahrain a race that we thought that
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we were going to end up riding around in the back so a great strategy by the team so very very thrilled with all the work
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that happened there and then in imsa we had to make some modifications to the car the gtlm class that we had been
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racing in for quite some time went away at the end of 2021 so in 22 they moved us to GTD Pro where we were racing
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amongst GT3 cars and unfortunately our GT3 is not ready yet it'll come out in
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2024 we've been working away at that but we were able to move some things around we had to put a mass box in the car a
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ballast box and we were on the spec tire and we had to have abs to the vehicle so it's not exactly the race car as we knew
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it before it had to get changed but still a very familiar machine and we've been working on understanding all that
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new technology that we've moved in the vehicle especially the ABS and the spec Tire man that's crazy stuff Laura now
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let's update everybody on the status of Corvette racing for imsa and the wec and the classes were going to be
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participating in this year then it's very similar to what we did in 2022 we'll have one car in imsa in the GTD
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Pro class in in the same configuration I just discussed since GT3 is not out until next year 24 and then for the wek
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we are running the full whack endurance season but what is changing the wek is their Pro offering for the GTE race car
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class is no longer so in order to keep participating we had to find an amateur
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to work with so that we have a Pro-Am offering and we have been extremely fortunate to be paired up with Ben
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Keating who was very interested in getting the Corvette and we were interested in having him as he's one of the best AMS in the world so we're
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looking forward to seeing what the car can do it's in the configuration from the beginning that we designed the car for when we launched in 2020 that's
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exciting to still be running it as it was designed and then we're still going for all of those great races around the
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world showing the world what Corvette can do as we get ready for GT3 which will also be racing all over the world
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and all those different classes so we're gearing up for a global domination good for you that's awesome and as a
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matter of fact Laura you kind of let the cat out of the bag we've got Ben and Keating on this addition to Corvette today he's going to be our third and
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final guest a little bit later on in the show also do you have an update for us for Corvette racing for Le Mans this
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year and if not what are your hopes and dreams in regards to our participation in Le Mans this year Le Mans is an
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invitation event however if you do enroll in the full season you are guaranteed a spot in Le Mans because the
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full season includes Le Mans for the Weck got it so our entry with Ben will be running Le Mans I believe that that's
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probably where it's going to end the amateur thing is a little tough once upon a time when we used to just bring the cars to Lamar we would do maybe one
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other race in Le Mans it was a pro entry so the drivers that have been in the car in imsa and knew the car inside and out
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were the ones that we brought with us now that it's amateur we would have to find another am and another silver to
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race just that race if we did too and that just doesn't seem like we're setting people up for Success if you're bringing people in that are not very
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familiar with the car and feel like they can get in and just start turning laps whereas men will have been racing with
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us from the beginning for the season and he'll be familiar when we get to Le Mans so we're going to focus on giving him
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the best race car possible and seeing how successful we can be with the best damn the best team working on all those
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best absolutely right that sounds great also let's talk about the roster of drivers for Corvette racing this year
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let's overview those people yes so we brought Nikki katzberg in full time he's going to be the pro that's in the car
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with Ben we're still figuring out who our silver is going to be so hopefully news for that will be coming as we get
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ready for Sebring which is the first Wick race and then for imsa Jordan and
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Antonio are the dynamic duo again but Tommy is going to be with them in the
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endurance seat and this is the first time that those three drivers have been paired together in one car Tommy is our
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heavy hitter for all the GT3 development which behind the scenes with all this racing going on we've got a ton of tests
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and driver in the loop which is our simulator sessions all sorts of things going on to make sure that car is
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correct so we're going to keep Tommy really busy and it made sense to pull him off of a full season and make sure
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that he's available to get that done while we're racing the cars with the other drivers very cool how does where we are competing this year affect some
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of the race cars are there any modifications that we need to do to compete in all the races that we're going to be in this year for insta the
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only new one is Indianapolis and Sebring and I don't think that's going to drive too much we'll just need to figure out
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what the right setup is for that we'll do work in the Sim to get ready for that and understanding and then for the Weck
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the new race is Port of Mal and the challenge that portable brings is the temperatures it's usually quite a bit
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toasty over there when we're going to be there in April so we need to make sure that we understand how to use the tire
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appropriately for that weather we don't usually deal with that type of heat
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other than Watkins Glen will get hot every once in a while on the insta calendar but between the track surface
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and the temperature I know the team's been doing a lot of work thinking about how are they going to manage the tire and then that's where the Sim will come
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in as well we'll be doing lots of work in the simulator getting ready for that race that's awesome so let's overview
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the races coming up for 2023 then as well oh geez okay so before the very
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first one will be the Rolex 24 in January so that'll be exciting to see us out there again as we're getting ready
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for that race and that's everyone's pulling their hair out obviously it's only a couple days away it seems perfect
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for the Roar and then the next one is a dual event so it's Sebring in March Im
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so we'll be racing their 12 hour and then the wex starts off their season with their I think it's a thousand miles of Sebring is what they call it they
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race Friday night from there this is where things get crazy emsa goes to Long Beach to be with the IndyCar event and
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then the wek is racing the same weekend at portamal I'm glad we have enough people to have the two teams they can
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divide and conquer that which is going to be tricky but it's it's shame for those like me who I like to go to all of
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them so I have to pick which race which is never fun have to make that decision after that weekend I believe is Spa with
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the wek is next that's either the very last last day in April or the very first day of May then it's Laguna with imsa
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then that gets us to the big one globally we've got Lamont June then we get not much time to come back for
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Watkins Glen ctmp at imsa is the same weekend as Monza in the Weck so there's another one where some of us are going
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to have to pick which race we're going to right and we've got Road America in August September there's Fuji and
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Indianapolis and I can't remember if it's Fuji first or Indy first they're not on the same weekend but it's like a
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back to back so there's going to be quick moving across the world literally to get from One race to another and then we should be at petite with imsa to
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finish off that season and Bahrain with Weck is in November to finish off that
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season and I hope I didn't miss a race man the schedule is full the lore that's going to be a huge set of races for this
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year yes it's a lot and for 2022 a couple of us Christy the assistant program manager that handles Corvette
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went to every race in 2022 between imps in the whack and by mid-season I think
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she was kind of like oh my God what did I sign up for that's a lot and then for this coming year my goal is
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to go to every race that I don't have to pick one or the other yeah so we'll see what I'm doing about mid-season too I
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might be pulling my hair on this way I hope not that's going to be a busy schedule but it sounds like a great
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schedule Laura thanks for being back on Corvette today it's always great talking to you Happy New Year and all the best
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of luck this year in 2023. thank you so much for having and I hope everyone's getting ready to root for us down in
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Daytona and then man you can see us racing all over the world it's going to be super exciting coming up in the
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Corvette today join the community and now back to the only current podcast
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on Corvette Corvette today with your host Steve Garrett hey thanks for
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833-840-5334 I'm your host Steve Garrett my next guest on this Corvette racing edition of Corvette today is one of the
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most popular Corvette racing drivers in the business he's won four MC championships just to name a few he's a
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Florida native and comes from a racing family you might know him better from his alter ego Rodney sandstrom he's Mr
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Jordan Taylor Jordan welcome to Corvette today yeah thank you thanks for having me on you bet you've been with Corvette
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racing now since 2012. that's 10 years Jordan talk to me about what it means to
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be a Corvette racing driver for 10 years yes it's hard to believe it's it's
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already been a decade I still feel like I'm pretty young but that definitely makes me feel a bit older but yeah it's amazing I think growing up in sports car
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racing around the sport especially on the sports car side of things not just open wheel or stock car racing we were
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always a sports car racing family so for us we grew up watching the Corvettes we grew up watching all these different
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manufacturers and as an American driver you always looked at Corvette and Corvette racing as a place you want to
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be it's a brand you want to represent and when you go to a place like lamad you want to represent your brand and
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your country when you go there so yeah it's been an amazing decade now obviously lots of wins together lots of
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championships together it's been an amazing experience and I think through your podcast you can tell how passionate
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the Corvette fans are in the fan base absolutely when you go to this track as a Corvette racing driver it always feels
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a little bit extra special definitely now you touched on something that I wanted you to expand on you come from a
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racing family talk about your family's racing pedigree yeah so my dad obviously
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got started back in South Africa he grew up over there and formula one and Motorsport in general is huge in their
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country so he grew up going to the go-kart track with his dad and they didn't grow up with much money so he started go-karting you know at a later
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age just with parts and pieces he could kind of get together and basically made a career out of it in his mid-20s moving
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to England to start racing taking my mom over there and then that's where Ricky was born all my dad was racing overseas
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and then the crazy part is that his first paid job to come race in America was actually with Jim Miller of Pratt
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Miller and then my first job as a race car driver was paid by the same guy Jim Miller of Pratt and Miller so it's
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amazing that I went full circle 31 years apart from my dad being hired to come to America to me driving for the same
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person basically a couple decades later but yeah my dad raced up until the mid-2000s and then started his own race
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team went to the racing and then Ricky and I kind of grew up obviously around the sport and we were never super
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interested in driving we had fun going to the racetrack driving go-karts every now and then but nothing to you serious
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and then once my dad kind of retired from the driving side and he can kind of focus on kind of teaching us what this
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whole driving thing was about and how intense it could be and how rewarding but difficult Rick and I kind of fell in
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love with it so we never had the aspirations like I was saying to go to you know open wheel or NASCAR was always
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Sports terrorism so we kind of went in early we went to skip Barber racing school to kind of learn the basics and
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then from there went straight to sports car racing and I did my first Rolex 24 Daytona at 16 years old wow so looking
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back it was it sounds crazy but I think being thrown in at the deep end
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you kind of are forced to learn you're either going to learn it or you're not you're going to sink or swim yeah and I think it was a good way to kind of learn
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you're basically driving around the best guys in the world so you're not learning at the same rate as if you go up the
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ladder we're learning at the same rate as you know another kid you're kind of forced to learn from these professionals and learn good habits rather than bad
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habits so I think it kind of expedited our learning curve and a couple years later here we are and thankfully we
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still have jobs and the rest is history right yeah exactly there you go you know Jordan I
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love your videos I love watching them I love those behind the scenes aspects of these videos where did you get the idea
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to make these where did that come from the ones at the racetrack yeah most of the sport is very closed off and sports
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cars for sure are way more open than you know a Nascar or formula one or an Indy car where you can kind of walk up to the
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car see the car up close see the crew see the drivers but you never see all the details you kind of see the press
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releases before and after and hear one story yeah but there's so much that goes on behind the scenes that I feel like
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pretty much any race weekend could be turned into like a full TV show with how much goes right and how much goes wrong
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and how much craziness is going on and I think people would be shocked of how it seems like everything's going so
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smoothly on the outside but how it's crisis control all the time it's nice to show that when you watch a race on TV
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obviously the drivers are getting all the credit but trying to show what goes on behind the scenes with the crew guys the engine viewers management I'd say I
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didn't do as much as I would have liked to this year with that behind the scenes I think to do it properly you'd have to
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have a camera guy there at all times kind of following you around to kind of capture those moments right it's kind of
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hard to capture them after the fact but I think if I had someone there throughout a whole weekend it would really create a nice story to kind of
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follow it it was definitely nice to give a little bit of a taste I was shocked of the reaction after posting a couple of
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those videos I didn't think they were that great but then the reaction that the track was amazing people were always
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commenting on them so I'm definitely gonna keep trying to do them in the future keep going this year 2023 will be
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a lot of fun and it's great like I said to see all that behind the scenes stuff you know this is the 25th year for
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Corvette racing in 2023 give us some perspective about all the changes happening for Corvette racing and what
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you're hoping for for this year yeah I mean things are definitely changing I think things out of our control are
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changing with rule changes especially in the Weck with GTE Pro going away so now it's just a GTE am class so
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unfortunately we won't have a full Pro car at Lamar so on that side of things there'll be a Pro-Am lineup going to Le
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Mans racing in the Weck whereas this year Tommy Miller and Nick Tandy were racing over there in the Pro class and
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then on the MS side we'll still have our same car as we ran this year which was kind of our dtlm turn GT3 car for the
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empty Championship so I think for us last year was I feel a struggle kind of making that adjustment to the GTD Pro
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class understanding the tire having the series understand the capability of the car and how to balance it performance
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wise to everyone else so we definitely felt we had a lot of weekends there that we definitely didn't have a chance to
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kind of really compete and show what we could do so definitely frustrating but I think coming back now for a second year
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with the same car and so should really understand the capabilities and understand where we are so yeah hopefully things are balanced out a
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little bit better and we can kind of show what Corvette racing really does best and get back to Victory Lane a little bit more often I hope so too talk
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about your teammates coming up this year Jordan you've been paired with some people and we've got new people coming
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in as well yeah so on my side I'll be back with Antonio Garcia full time so
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we've been together since I moved the team full time in 2020 he's from Spain obviously obviously a Corvette Legend at
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this point winning pretty much every race there is to win in a Corvette he's been an amazing teammate obviously a guy
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that you can really learn a lot from especially when I came from prototypes GT racing with the understanding traffic side of things the tire side of things
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and helped my learning curve when I made the move and yeah it's been a great relationship with Antonio and then our
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third driver will be Tommy Milner this year who's an American obviously another long time Corvette driver I think he
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joined the team in 2010 or 2011 so he's also been there a long time considering how young he is and I actually won the
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mall with him back in 2015. I think we've only done two races as teammates together with Corvette and one was a win
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at Lamaze so it's been a pretty good relationship I'd say so far our record's pretty good yeah my third driver who was
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with us the past couple years Nikki katzberg will be moving to the Weck to drive in the Pro-Am car with Ben Keating
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next year so from a driver and lineup point of view Corvette puts a lot of effort and a lot of emphasis on thinking
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the right eyes obviously everyone's fast but there's a big thing in endurance racing about understanding the bigger
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picture not just being the fastest guy outright every lap of the race you need to get the car to the end you need to
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save fuel safe tires all these sorts of things and they do a good job of picking guys that can you know really leave
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their egos at the door when they get to the track and you know everyone's on equal footing and everyone's there to win as a team yeah very cool you know I
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love the Z06 gt3r that car looks like a monster talk about the GTR its
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development and what role you're going to be playing in that development yeah it's been fun obviously when we made the
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move to this GTV Pro class obviously we need to have a GT3 car and I think moving forward with the class structure
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GT3 car can then go race worldwide at races like Nurburgring and Spa so I think for Corvette and Chevrolet as a
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brand it'll be amazing to see the car going over those places obviously it's still very early in the development
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phase the car will only be racing in 2024 but we've already started testing this year so I've already done four days
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in the car I think two at Mid Ohio two in Sebring and then we do a lot of correlation from the real life racetrack
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like we did in Ohio in this evening then we go to the simulator in Huntersville North Carolina to kind of correlate that
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data to see just how well the simulator is working on the development side of things so between those big tests we can
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use a simulator to try new pieces try new parts on the car see what works see what doesn't so that when we do go to
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the real life racetrack we can kind of plug those pieces on see how they do and yeah it's definitely an interesting process I've been involved with a couple
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car developments but it's always exciting to kind of see it from the ground up the first car that you see is always exciting and then by the end of
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the process of development it's a completely different car I think the car that we're driving right now is one
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thing and then by the time we get to the end of the homologation process we're gonna have a different car but way more improved way more developed I think once
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Rolex 24 2024 comes around it's going to be a pretty impressive car I think so
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too that thing like I said looks like a beast yeah it sounds very good too I'll say that I can imagine well buddy thank
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you so much for taking time to be on this Corvette racing edition of Corvette today best of luck to you and the team
24:29
in 2023. yep thank you thanks for having me on coming up next you'll meet the newest member of the Corvette racing
24:34
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you're listening and watching Corvette today with Steve Garrett hey thanks for
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listening and watching Corvette today the show that talks about everything Corvette brought to you by wheelcraft
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833-840-5334 I'm your host Steve Garrett my next guest on Corvette today is the newest member of the Corvette racing
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team he's competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans the 24 Hours of Daytona the 12 hours of Sebring and most recently the
28:22
World Endurance Championship he ranks as one of the top non-professionals in endurance racing he's Mr Ben Keating Ben
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welcome to Corvette today howdy Steve I'm excited to be on the show thank you for having me it's my honor and pleasure
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to have you here Ben first let's talk about racing you're coming from Aston Martin talk about the transition from
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Aston Martin to Corvette so it's been really interesting so far I've only done
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about 10 laps in the Corvette I got to do those 10 laps at the rookie test in Bahrain at the last round of the World
28:54
Endurance Championship but the Aston Martin has been an incredible car I've been in the Aston Martin for the last
29:00
two years I was in the Porsche before that I am so excited it's hard to
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explain how excited I am to be in an American car with an American team with
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people that I can understand on the radio when we win a race that they're going to play the American national
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anthem even more importantly to race something I sell I've been wanting to
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get this opportunity for a long time it's really interesting to me to see how different the cars are on the racetrack
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right and in my short 10 laps I left feeling very excited with anticipation
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because I've got a lot to learn and that's fine one that's really fun you know Corvette racing is moving from GTE
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Pro to GTE amateur you've been racing in GTE amateur already talk about Corvette
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Racing's transition into GTE amateur and the races that we'll be participating in
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this year I'm so excited about it Corvette racing has only been in the Pro class in its history with the World
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Endurance Championship this year in 2023 there's not going to be a pro class and
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so they are willing to enter a car into the GTM class most people may not know
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this but all drivers are categorized by the FIA as either being bronze silver
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gold or platinum to be in the GT am classification you have to have one
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bronze one silver and one either gold or platinum okay one of the things that
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differentiates this class is that you know that each one of the cars has got a
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bronze driver who is typically an older guy like me and you typically have a
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silver driver who is usually you have to have a silver driver that is usually a young guy who is not proven himself yet
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so to speak and then you get a pro which for us this year will be Nikki katzberg it's really interesting for me in the GT
30:59
and class because it's the only sport that I know of in the entire world where
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a 51 year old car dealer from Texas can play in the Super Bowl and catch the
31:11
game-winning touchdown pass from Tom Brady that's awesome we're in the same race as all the top Professionals in the
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world we won the 24 Hours of Le Mans this year in the Aston Martin just having the ability to run in those types
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of events as a bronze as an amateur driver and compete at the same time on
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the same track with the best guys in the world is just incredible that is incredible now you mentioned Nikki
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katzberg talk about Nikki and all also who might possibly be rounding out the team this year ah would you like to know
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Steve for I think seven years I raced in imsa
31:49
and my teammate was Jerome bleakamolin who was a great guy I loved being with Jeron he's Dutch because of him being
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Dutch and Nikki being Dutch and Nikki was always around the garage or around
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the truck in the paddock saying hi and I always got along with him really well paid attention to him he's super fast
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he's driven lots of different types of cars I'm super excited to be teamed with
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Nikki somebody I've known for a really long time and I've gotten along with him extremely well over the years I know
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he's super fast I know that we are going to make great teammates that's awesome I
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will be the bronze driver Nikki will be the Platinum we still have to select the silver driver okay that hasn't been done
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yet I keep a list on my phone of all these silver drivers that I think are rock stars yeah all year long at the end
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of the year the FIA upgrades a bunch of them I have to take them off the list and so I've selected a handful of those
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guys off my list that did not get upgraded and we are going to test those guys in the car and try to figure out
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which one we want to be teammates with that sounds good you've had some tremendous success in gtem you're a
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class winner at Lamar you've also won at Daytona and Sebring talk about the driving experience that you've got and
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what you bring to the team yeah it's pretty interesting to look at my history this will be my eight Le Mans in seven
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different cars wow I have driven almost every single GTE am car with the
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exception of the BMW my first Le Mans experience was in the Viper I got third
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place in 2018 in the Ferrari I won the race in the Ford GT in 2019 I had a
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terrible race in 2020 in the Porsche rsr and then I got second place in first place place in the Aston Martin for the
33:41
last couple of years having that car knowledge between all the different cars
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and the way you find speed in each one of them is a little bit different but
33:52
having the knowledge of knowing how each one of those cars operate helps when
33:58
you're racing wheel to wheel with each one of those cars and it helps to try to figure out how you have to drive the
34:05
Corvette to be able to get that extra tenth of a second out of the corner I also think it's a big deal that I've
34:12
been racing in the World Endurance Championship for the last three years in a row and so I have series knowledge
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knowledge of how they do things how they go about things knowledge of what the
34:23
best strategy is in our class and different things like that I have knowledge that is specific to the GTM
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class it's very different than the GT Pro class you have a bunch of different types of driver abilities and skills and
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levels between the bronze the silver and the Platinum yep you got to be able to realize how to work that system because
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I've been there for three years I know the tracks I feel like I bring a lot of knowledge and experience to the team
34:53
that's slightly different than the knowledge and experience that they've had even though they've been at these
34:59
same tracks in the Pro class that's really cool Ben I know you've always wanted to drive for Corvette racing talk
35:05
about what this means to you in the future for Corvette racing so I am pretty unique in that racing is not my
35:13
day job my day job is I'm a car dealer I own 28 dealerships in the state of Texas
35:19
most importantly to this opportunity I own Aggieland Chevrolet and Port Lavaca
35:26
Chevrolet where I retail Corvettes I am so excited to race what I sell yeah I
35:33
mentioned it earlier in the show when I answered a question when I was racing for Porsche three years ago it was so
35:39
hard to understand the Germans on the radio when the car is loud in your ear and they're trying to tell you something
35:45
important I am so excited to be with a team that sounds like me I'm so excited
35:51
to know that when we win a race they're going to show the American flag we're
35:56
going to hear the American national anthem there's just something really special with having that opportunity
36:03
this is the 25th year for Corvette racing it's the 100th anniversary for
36:08
the 24 Hours of Le Mans I am going to be the very first bronze driver the very
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first Privateer if you will to join Corvette racing in their 25th year
36:19
there's a lot of exciting things that are all coming together for our 2023
36:26
effort I've been trying to get this accomplished for a really long time because I wanted to race what I sell
36:33
Corvette just did not want to deter from the efforts they were making in GT Pro
36:40
and I totally understand where they're coming from they don't want to divide their efforts they want to be focused on doing well in GT Pro but because GT Pro
36:48
is going away the door is opened up and I've been there to pounce on it I am very excited and I would expect that we
36:56
would do well I have done very well in the GTM class as the bronze driver I
37:03
know that Corvette has been in the World Endurance Championship for this whole year with Tommy and Nick Tandy right
37:09
they have done incredibly well they've learned a ton and I really expect 2023
37:15
to be magical that's awesome congratulations on all your success has been welcome to the Corvette racing team
37:22
we're looking for big and fantastic things for you and the team in 2023. thank you Steve I am as well I'm excited
37:29
about it thanks for listening to Corvette today and please be sure to tell your family friends and other Corvette enthusiasts about the Corvette
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Today podcast and thanks to our sponsors wheelcraft one to dress up your Corvette with bright Chrome or black chrome
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wheels visit wheelcraft.com to learn about their Advanced PVD chrome finishing they can refinish your wheels
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with Steve Garrett if you'd like to contact Steve with any thoughts on the podcast or ideas for guests on Corvette
38:28
today you can email him at Steve Garrett DJ gmail.com that's Steve Garrett DJ
38:35
gmail.com Garrett has two r's and two T's or connect with Steve on social
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media on Facebook Twitter or Instagram using at Steve Garrett DJ
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thanks again for listening to Corvette today [Music]
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