Born To Be Wild

The Newest Camaro Race Cars Carry on a Rich Tradition That Began Half a Century Ago

- Richard Prince

The Camaro has a deep racing heritage that stretches all the way back to the nameplate’s very beginning in 1967. It was in August of that year, at Marlboro Speedway in Maryland, that Mark Donohue chalked up win number one in his Penske Racing prepared Trans-Am Camaro. The Camaro’s half-century-long legacy continues today with a GT4.R version of Chevy’s sixth generation ponycar.

Trying to sort out production-based racing classes is a little bit like trying to drink water with a fork. In a nutshell, GT4 is a classification created by SRO Motorsports Group, a French company that organizes and promotes racing series. The rules governing GT4 allow for relatively few modifications to regular production cars, keeping costs down compared with other pro-level racing classes. After extensive evaluation and on-track testing by SRO and the FIA, a car meeting all the necessary criteria is deemed “homologated” and thus eligible to race in any of the numerous GT4 series and championships around the world. At the present time, more than 20 different cars are GT4 homologated, including models from Aston Martin, Audi, BMW, Porsche, Maserati, Mazda, Ford, Nissan, McLaren, and Mercedes.

Two of North America’s major road racing series, IMSA’s Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge (CTSC) and Pirelli World Challenge (PWC), have partnered with SRO and adopted the GT4 regulations. Jacksonville, North Carolina-based Stevenson Motorsports is campaigning a Camaro GT4.R car in the CTSC’s GS class and Chevrolet’s longtime Camaro racing partner Blackdog Racing in Lincolnshire, Illinois, is running two Camaro GT4.Rs in PWC’s GTS class.