Le Mans key to road car sales

The American brand, owned by General Motors, is looking to expand its base in Europe and increase its market share in road car sales away from its home base.

And with arguably the most prominent motorhome in the paddock - a two-floor glass house completely surrounded by large Corvette yellow flags and decals - there's no doubting the significance of this event for the company.

"Le Mans is very important for us, because largely this is a marketing tool for GM to get the Corvette brand and Chevrolet to the world," GM Racing's road racing group manager Steven Wesoloski told autosport.com.

"Our success at Le Mans in the past few years has really helped enhance our image. We were always seen as an American brew, certainly not as refined as Ferrari. Performance-wise, we had the ingredients, but it wasn't as refined and as powerful as a package. So that's where we've set our target.

"What GM is trying to do, as a company, is go more global; have less focus on being the 'big dog' in the US. We need to spread out and be a more global product and a more global company - this is a large part of what Le Mans means: getting Chevrolet's name here in Europe, with a proper reputation.

"Instead of being the cheap American alternative, now it's becoming one of the brands of choice in Europe, and that's why we're here."

Wesoloski ruled out, however, any new racing programme outside the GT classes, stating GM will only race with cars that are similar to road cars.

"The GT1 class is perfect for us, because we want to maintain proximity to road car production," the American said. "A car that looks like a Corvette, sounds like a Corvette, and has a lot of Corvette context that applies directly to production, and that's what's important for us."

And while Corvette's name becomes increasingly familiar in Europe, Wesoloski says their participation in the 24-Hour race has also increased the familiarity of Le Mans in the United States.

"Since we began racing here in 2000, we've seen an incredible increase in our fan base and their understanding of Le Mans. In fact, in my first year here in 2001 - and in subsequent years - there were 25 or 30 people who shipped their Corvettes over from America, did a 2-3 week tour of Europe in their personal car, ending here, to watch us race in Le Mans.

"So we get quite a following, and they understand what this race means for road racing, now that we've got the story out to them a little bit more.

"It's difficult, because as we talk about sports in America, people have such a big choice: you can watch football, basketball, hockey, baseball, golf... motorsport is kind of down the list. Whereas in Europe, our view is that there's really two sports: there's soccer, and there's racing. So that's where people gravitate towards.

"But it's growing in the States; Speed TV channel covers more hours of the race, and we'd like to think that our participation added to the race's fan base as well."