Car Tech Stuff: Lou G. runs the ALMS

This is an article that I wrote for Corvette Fever. Before we could get the article into print it was all over. One of the problems with print media is there's not a lot of room for history. Lately there hasn't been a lot of room for anything, but I'm not going there.

Lou has told us what he was spending and while it's a lot of money for people like us it's nothing for the factory teams. The GT1 budget for LeMans is 17 million dollars. That's right folks $17,000,000 for one race.

Once that race is over the Corvette will go to GT2. Doug Fehan is already try to lower expectations for that effort. He's probably smart to do that. GT2 won't be the same cake walk that they've had for the past few years.

This is Part One of the article. Part Two will appear tomorrow - I hope.

Richard Newton

Lou Gigliotti Plays With the Big Boys

It was time for Lou Gigliotti and LG Motorsports to step up and move to the next level. Gigliotti started working with Triumphs decades ago. He then did some driving in Formula Super Vee which I think is pretty neat since I have a restored Lola. (Lou - we have to talk about that era sometime.)

Eventually Lou moved to the world of Corvettes. Lou has set the standard for Corvette racing. In fact the SCCA tried to penalize him because he was too good of a driver. Someday I'll tell that story, but not right now. Just keep in mind that LG Motorsports was penalized for being too good at SCCA racing. The obvious answer was to head over to the ALMS series. At least it was obvious the time.

Right Rear Corner

Lou decided to step up with the big boys. Hell, he decided he was going to take on both the Porsche and Ferrari factory - at the same time. That almost defines courage - or insanity. I'll let Lou talk about that at some point.

The American LeMans Series has four classes. Three of them (LMP1, LMP2, GT1) have very few cars. The Corvette factory team in GT1 has been racing against itself for the past few years. That's about to change but I'll deal with that in a later post.

While the GM factory boys pretend they're racing against each other the real action is in GT2. GT2 is the toughest class in the American LeMans Series.

Last year The Porsches and Ferraris literally beat on each other for race victories. At the end of some races the cars looked as if they had just finished a NASCAR race at Bristol.

Porsche and Ferrari have invested millions of dollars in the GT2 class Both factories offer tremendous technical support. They also search the world for the best drivers. GT2 is no low budget operation.

Lou Gigilotti for some reason decided to step into this battle. Keep in mind that Lou was going to go where GM wouldn't go. This could not have a good ending. Like all racers though Lou forged ahead. Hell, he had no choice he had sold off his World Challenge cars to get this new GT2 car. If he was going to race at all in 2008 it was going to be with an ALMS GT2 Corvette.

Porsche and Ferrari get their crew members from MIT and Cal Berkley. These are the sorts of guys who are not only computer geeks but they actualy know how to use all the functions on their cell phones.

Lou had his old group of friends from the days when he was in high school. This merry band had won races at every level they tried. Never underestimate old age and treachery. It's a winning combination.

Restricted Intake Plenums to Even Things Up

The actual car was built by Riley Technologies in Charolette North Carolina. Riley may be one of the very best race car constructors in the world. They've had outright victories in the past three Rolex twenty-four hour races. Actually it would be easier to list which race series they didn't win than the ones they have won.

This GT2 was a huge deal for Lou. Lou was going to the big show. You either win at this level or you go down in flames and your bank records are totally trashed. When you put your 401K on the line you're really really serious about racing.

Sebring Pit Lane

Your Corvette Dash may be a little different from Lou's.

One of the very important factors was that Lou got no help from GM. Hell, he didn't even get a "Good morning, how are you doing?" During the 2008 ALMS season GM had no interest in a guy from Texas racing a Corvette.

They weren't even too excited about Lou racing in the World Challenge series during 2007. GM had spent a lot of money on the Cadillac World Challenge effort. That last thing they needed was some guy entering a really good Corvette in the series.

In the troubled world of GM no one ever directly confronts you. They just ignore you. At the St. Pete race Lou was pitted right next to the GM Corvette team. We might as well have been a Porsche team. I've been frozen out of things before but the GM freeze is really something to observe.