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2007 NHRA NATIONAL EVENT
SCHEDULE
Listen to Trackside Interviews
with Champions, Drivers and Crew Chiefs
Robert Hight
Hillary Will
Bob Vandergriff
Dave Connolly
Ed Iskenderian
Cory McClenathan
Robert Hight
Jim Yates
Tony Bartone
Hillary Will
Whit Bazemore
Byron Hines
2005 Interviews
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| Carmen Smith Provides In-Depth Analysis of GM Racing's Sport
Compact Program for 2007 |
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| Returns for fourth season as Program Manager
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 DETROIT, March 22, 2007 - After talking with Carmen
Smith, you can see why she's excited about the start of another drag
racing season in what promises to be a record-breaking year for Team Chevy
on the sport-compact circuit. Since 2004, Smith has been program manager
for sport-compact drag racing/drifting at GM where she has shepherded the
day-to-day marketing, engineering and administrative activities of one of
the most successful programs in the sport. In addition to on-track results
and performance, the program will also focus this year on the introduction
of a more user-friendly racing platform and the re-launch of a new and
improved GM Tuner Source web site. In the following Q & A, Smith
discusses the upcoming season and what to expect from the GM Racing Sport
Compact program in 2007.
When will we see the new and
improved version of gmtunersource.com? Our website, www.gmtunersource.com , will
re-launch this spring and will primarily be a blog. Visitors will still be
able to find driver bios, engine specs and build-books, and GM accessory
parts info, but the website will have the added bonus of frequently
updated blog content. This will allow us to always post the most recent
information, provide answers to technical questions, and give updates on
interesting events. There will be a lot more for customers who visit our
site.
Explain your role at GM Racing and your
contribution to the sport-compact program. As Program
Manager, I take on the everyday tasks of tracking the budget, paying bills
and expediting paperwork. I represent our sport-compact racing program to
marketing teams and management within GM as well as outside customers,
suppliers and sponsors. I worry about logistics and meeting deadlines, and
I write contracts and web content. The fun part of my job is setting the
overall strategy and goals for the race program, choosing and working with
our great race teams, and leading a team of exceptional engineers who work
hard to make this program successful.
GM Racing has
made their sport-compact platform even more user-friendly and accessible
this year. Can you talk about how that was done? Each year
we take steps toward this goal of making our race platform more accessible
for independent teams. This year, we are moving from a Pectel engine
controller, which is unattainable for most racers (we used them because we
had units left over from an IRL program), and we are going to a
commercially available, low-cost and user-friendly F.A.S.T XFI controller.
We have also developed base calibrations in F.A.S.T that we will make
available to racers on a case-by-case basis. In addition, in partnership
with Roush Industries, we have developed two standard wiring harnesses
(two injectors per cylinder and three injectors per cylinder) that we can
offer for sale.
How does this benefit the small-budget
team looking to break into the sport? The wiring harness
will take time and complexity out of building the race car, and having a
base cal to start with will lessen development time and risk. Once you
have a race engine built, you still must face the challenge of making it
run right. Having a base engine calibration is a big head
start.
Two new Chevy Cobalts were built for Gary
Gardella and Marty Ladwig. Does this tie in to the shift to a more
user-friendly platform? Gary and Marty have brand-new
tube-frame chassis built by S&W. S&W has standardized many of the
parts, so it's no-longer all one-off stuff. Standardization brings price
down and consistency up.
How strongly have the
sanctioning bodies embraced this new approach? I think that
the sanctioning bodies are in favor of anything that has the potential to
bring in more racers. Increasing racer count and reliability of the cars
is imperative to the health of the series.
Will the
Cobalt Phase5 be back and has it contributed to the friendlier platform
approach? The Cobalt Phase5 will be back with Erica Nocita
behind the wheel. However, the Dalcorp team is working to upgrade it, so I
don't know if we can call it Phase5 anymore. It might be a Phase6 or
Phase7. We are dropping in the TurboStreet-level motor, which is what
Brian Ballard and Jason Whitfield run in their Cobalt race cars. Erica's
car will also get upgrades in areas such as its roll-cage and brakes, with
the goal of making consistent 10-second passes. Using the
TurboStreet-style motor in Erica's car means that all of our racecars will
run the same engine long block, with variations for type of fuel and
two-injector/wet sump vs. three-injector/dry sump. The long block is
probably more robust than what Erica needs, but no one complains about
having an engine that can do more than it needs to.
Who
are some of the GM Racing support personnel who will provide information
for sport-compact enthusiasts on the new tuner site? I'll be
on there quite a bit, with race event updates and new technical
information. Hopefully, we can convince our race drivers to blog from time
to time. We'll also see updates from the GM Tuner Tour, which travels to
cool sport-compact events (like Hot Import Nights and NOPI Nationals), and
we'll get updates from Performance Parts and the vehicle marketing teams
whenever they want to tell you about a new accessory, feature, event, or
vehicle. Basically, if someone at GM has something interesting to tell our
sport-compact customers, we'll post it.
In 2006, GM
Racing's sport-compact efforts shifted from the role of factory-owned team
to the role of support. How effective was the transition? It
was very effective. We had more teams attending more events than we've
ever had, and we saw many great performances. Jason Hunt was unstoppable
with nine wins, an NDRA championship, and records in both series. Brian
Ballard brought home an NDRA championship, despite being lined up against
some pretty tough V6 RWD cars. Don Nase Jr. established his ECOtec-powered
dragster as the quickest four-cylinder car and brought home an NDRA
championship. Gary Gardella laid down an amazing 7.565 second run, the
quickest for any FWD uni-body car, and Marty Ladwig and Bryan Jimenez
added even more wins to Chevy's portfolio. I'd say it went very
well.
How will that support role be expanded in
2007? This year will be very much like 2006. GM will still
be supporting ECOtec-powered teams by bringing our support trailer to
about 10 race events, and we'll have our expert crew at all NDRA and NHRA
Sport Compact events.
The "shared information" policy
has been a tremendous success with grassroots racers over the years. In
what capacity will that continue in 2007? The new
gmtunersource.com website is going to help us a lot with that. Having the
GM Sport Compact Build Book is great, but updating a hard-copy format is
time-consuming and costly. Fans will want to check out the web-site for
updates to the book and for new technical information. We also have a lot
of supported teams out there now; they are a great source of information
as well.
How does the sport compact program strengthen
GM's aftermarket program? We make many of our race-engine
parts available to racers though our GM Racing warehouse. We realize that
these parts appeal to a small group of potential customers, although we do
expect some growth in the market as classes such as NHRA Comp Eliminator
open up to turbo-charged ECOtec engines. For the larger customer base,
looking to buy a robust engine or add a few horsepower to their production
car, we demonstrate the capabilities of GM cars and parts. When an ECOtec
motor and Hydra-Matic transmission powers a Cobalt to a seven-second
quarter-mile pass, it shows that the package can meet the demands of our
customers.
Chevy Cobalt sales have been tremendous and
the car itself seems to have been embraced by the youth segment. How has
the Cobalt's performance on track contributed to greater sales?
The sport-compact drag racing program has done a lot to create
awareness of the Chevy Cobalt and foster a positive image within the youth
market. Since Chevy Cobalt was a new name when it launched, it was very
important to get the name out there in print, TV, and on-line. Our race
cars get coverage on-line and in magazines, as well as on Speed and ESPN2
cable networks. When the Cobalt teams perform well at the track or
participate in shows, they become the topic of discussions on message
boards and within owner groups. We also write about them on GM websites
and in press releases. All this has helped the youth market know the
Cobalt name and created positive performance associations with Cobalt and
ECOtec.
Ecotec continues to improve with each year on
the track. How has the most powerful four-cylinder engine in drag racing
evolved over the years and what should we expect to see this season?
For the past several years, our engine development has focused on
more power. In 2001, we started out making 650hp. Now we can make 1450hp.
At this point, going fast is more about getting a good launch and
'hooking-up' down the track. So, while the teams work to find the best
setup for track conditions, GM Racing will focus on increasing engine
life. We want our teams to get more passes on the same engine. Since we
use many production components, we also need to keep up with changes that
are happening in the production world and make sure we are always ready to
race.
What does the GM Racing roster look like for
2007? We are staying with our great teams and drivers from
last season: Gary Gardella, Jason Hunt, Bryan Jimenez, and Marty Ladwig in
the Pro FWD class; Brian Ballard and Jason Whitfield in TurboStreet; Don
Nase Jr. in Extreme Dragster; and Erica Nocita in
Quick16.
Are you looking forward to the new season and
what do you hope the Sport Compact program can accomplish in 2007
? It's going to be another great year for Chevy's sport-compact
program. I expect that our pro-level cars will, once-again, reset the
benchmark for performance in the Pro FWD class. And, through good
performance on and off the track, all our teams will continue to build a
positive image for Chevy Cobalt, the ECOtec engine, and Hydra-Matic
transmission.
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The Reinhart
Report
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