Chevrolet is once again title sponsor of the racing festival in its own backyard, the Chevrolet Belle Isle Grand Prix of Detroit, May30-June 1. The IndyCar Series and the new-for-2014 TUDOR United SportsCar Championship top the bill.
Trophies may signify success on the race track for Chevrolet, but they aren’t the sole reason it competes. Racing really does improve the breed and it’s the next challenge that excites Chevy the most.
they are byproducts, proof points of a bigger mission with a greater purpose. That mission? To push boundaries, continually explore what’s possible between man and machine, and never stop improving.
Mark Kent, director of Chevrolet Racing, says the goals and the reasons for Chevrolet’s racing involvement – which covers just about every major form of North American motorsports (see panel, far right) – are clear and quantifiable, even if it’s not always recognizable to a fan in the stands or a prospective Chevy customer walking into their local dealership.
“What we get out of racing isn’t always obvious,” he says. “People might ask, ‘What does Chevrolet get out of racing in NASCAR? And how does that impact my street car?’ And we always say there are three key elements to our racing programs: parts, people and processes.
“We race across a wide range of series because each one meets one of those four objectives in a different way,” says Kent.
as a way to provide racing fans an opportunity to see GM products and influence their opinion of the product; and as an opportunity to put products at race tracks and let people experience them.
Few, if any, motorsports directors oversee a portfolio as wide-ranging and varied as Mark Kent’s (ABOVE).
His stewardship of Chevrolet and Cadillac Racing covers everything from U.S. open-wheel, to NASCAR, to prototype and GT sports cars, to NHRA drag racing.