These quick winners...

Last week we saw the first win of one of the most recent GT3 machines out there, as the Callaway Corvette C7 GT3R won the race 2 of the ADAC GT Masters at Sachsenring, which sums up the level of commitment the manufacturers are putting in the new generation of machines, achieving good results in short time.

Of course in GT3 matters you can put the balance of performance in the mix for the quick success, but truth is that even with this resource to level the competition, winning in its first month or in less than a competitive year of a new car isn’t for every model, although some manufacturers seem to be turning the table.

The C7 GT3R developed in Germany needed four races to go to the top step of the podium, but if you count track time, it was four hours of racing, which is almost the same amount of time that the Lamborghini Huracán and the Audi R8 LMS needed to win (3 hours and 4+ hours respectively). In a broader analysis, the McLaren 650S and the Ferrari 488 could also count to this as it took less races but they were way longer.

Probably the car would be way earlier into the track if it wasn't for the discussions of the GT class convergence and some issues with authorization from General Motors to be able to modify the road car to GT3 spec. These three years of preparation, although halted in the middle, proved to be good to bring a good machine.

The weekend itself was satisfying for Callaway Competition, with the entry driven by Daniel Keilwitz and Jules Gounon being the most competitive of the two cars of the team, placed always as a fierce frontrunner in both races. As this car is still in its first year of competition, we can’t expect no more than the ADAC GT Masters, specially with Daniel Keilwitz, their main ace, racing elsewhere in other models, but Callaway is known for doing some one-off races here and there as the time goes on. The other newcomers of 2016, the BMW M6, the Mercedes AMG GT3 and the Ferrari 488, are already into endurance and sprint racing, due to their customer racing programs which bring a lot of attention.

PHOTO: Callaway Competition