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Written by:
Marshall Pruett
10/02/2007 - 07:00 PM
Braselton, GA
A clean sweep of ALMS GT1 victories in 2007 has lacked the hard fought element of battle that Wesoloski (middle) and Co. craves. It's left GM unconfirmed for the category in 2008. (Photo: GM) » More Photos
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He has one of the most varied and wide sweeping roles in professional motorsports. Road Racing Group Manager for General Motors, Steve Wesoloski is responsible for the oversight of the General's ALMS, GrandAm, and SCCA World Challenge programs. Broken down into categories, Wesoloski has the mixed fortunes of playing politician with the French ACO organization that runs the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the American Le Mans series, the NASCAR infrastructure behind GrandAm, and the SCCA Pro Racing rule makers.
It takes a special talent to navigate between European, Southern, and Mid-west sensibilities, let alone do so with a soft, deft touch. Push or pull on any one of those different entities in the wrong way, and the General loses an argument that can ruin their competitive fortunes overnight.
Add to that the routine conflict of having to lobby for his own factory GM team while arguing against privateers in the same series running GM products, and the tangled web of Wesoloski's daily routine is something most people would steer extremely clear from. More than simply being asked to swiftly navigate these distinctly different political minefields, Wesoloski also has to ensure all his programs are on point, on budget, and on top of the podium.
Will this continue to be the look of Corvette's future Le Mans racers, or will the new 2010 rules entice them back into prototypes? (Photo: GM) » More Photos
With rumors flying about the future of the ALMS GT1 Corvette program, Wesoloski did his best to answer a question he's both tired of hearing, yet can't answer as openly as we'd like. "It all depends-if we have someone to race, we'll likely be back in the ALMS next year. It doesn't even have to be a factory team we race against, but it does have to be some one that allows us to fight and demonstrate what makes us unique. That's why we do this."
In the absence of an ALMS GT1 rival, it's probable we'll only see the yellow C6R's run in France next June. "We'll be back to Le Mans, that's not a question-it's just a matter of what our American program will
Steve's always been a forthcoming chap-someone to tell you all he can divulge, and without smoke and mirrors. As much as I'd like to press for more 2008 ALMS details, it's clear that we've mined all there is to have on this topic. It's another topic, the recent McLaren F1 spy case that Wesoloski has firm feeling on with his own racing programs. As a high-profile representative for GM, those in his command are expected to both positively represent the marque, while looking for any available advantage.
The Aston Martin team told me at Le Mans this year that they'd grown accustomed to photographers from 'the yellow cars' shooting 'spy' images of their green DBR9's at every opportunity on pit lane and on track. While such photography is by no means illegal in the ALMS or at Le Mans, it does open the question of to what lengths and degrees do we accept such snooping between competitors. "You know, I think it's an interesting position with the openness of the series. With the ALMS and ACO at Le Mans- the cars are right out in the open and if you've got something that you want kept secret, put a blanket over it and don't let anyone, the fans or other teams, see it. Otherwise, it's out there and people are going to see it, you can't really stop it, so if somebody takes a picture of it and sends it to us or if somebody takes a picture of our car and sends it to them, you can't really police that because that's the nature of the series; we want the people to be able to see the technology that's in these cars.
"There's a lot of stuff that is pretty deep down in the car that gets into the private stuff [that's hard to see or photograph]. You won't see us leaving an engine out there without the valve covers on it with the head off so that you could see the internals of the engine, but there's a lot of other stuff that you (can see in the ALMS) wouldn't see in a Formula One or even a NASCAR garage. That's just the nature of the series. We don't go over and say, 'Hey, the Aston Martin's 'XYZ' is uncovered. Go shoot photos and drawings or whatever else you can get on it.' That's not how we're going to win races."
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