Stevenson Motorsports Powers Up For 2009

Apr 28, 2009

Team moves from the LS2 to LS6 power plant

After running in the 2009 Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona season opening round with the same chassis and
engine combination they campaigned with in 2008, the team decided to make a change for the balance of
the season. The change paid off immediately when the team delivered the first win for the GM LS6
engine in a Pontiac at the Robert Bosch Engineering 250 at Virginia International Raceway (VIR), on April
25th. This was the first win for the LS6 and it came in the first race the Stevenson team ran with that
motor.
Going into the 2009 season, the Stevenson team was determined to kick their performance development
up another notch by moving to the GM LS6 V-8 engine. Stevenson Team Manager Mike Johnson
explains the reason for the switch;
“When we started the GXP.R program, our initial goal was to use the same basic package as the factory
(Banner Racing) to learn and score points for Pontiac since we knew it was a race winning combination.
If we could put together a good pair of driver’s, great reliability and some good race strategy, I figured we
could be just as strong as anyone else.
“Of course at the last race, we realized they had upped their game and even without the flat shift, we
couldn’t touch them in the straights. We pretty much knew right then that we were going to have to do
something different if we were going to have an advantage in 2009.
“With the LS2 engine, you can only use KATECH to build the engines which is also the engine builder
used by Banner. For us to try and find a competitive advantage against our number one competitor, we
really had no choice but to go to the LS6 so we could set our own course for developing and controlling
engine mapping and so on. We felt the only way to control our own destiny was to work with alternate
engine builders to get us moving forward. Leaving KATECH was very difficult since we had a great
season with them, and our reliability was 100%, but at the end of the day, their check is written by the
same guy that writes the checks to the 07 car, and we don’t plan on losing to them again this year.”
At the Daytona test days session prior to the opening round of the 2009 season – the Rolex 24 hours at
Daytona – the team decided to run a test using an LS6 V-8 engine in their Pontiac chassis. They had one
readily available in the dormant Stevenson Corvette and since the rules had always allowed either an LS2
or LS6 in both the Pontiacs and the Corvettes, the team installed the motor in the Pontiac chassis and ran
some laps. They were encouraged by the performance of the LS6 and this experience then whet their
appetite for a trial run in a race.
Further testing of the LS6 at the Homestead test in March convinced the team that they wanted to run the
LS6 engine in the Pontiac for the balance of the season.
So at VIR, the team installed the LS6 but this time the engine was slightly less powerful than it had been
when tested before the start of the season. Johnson estimates they were down about 20 horsepower
resulting in a loss of a few miles per hour down the straights to the Banner car.
The reason for the drop in power was that – during the long break in the season – a request had been
made to Grand Am to change the rules to eliminate the LS6 option all together or to replace some of the
particular internal components in the LS6 engine to reduce its performance potential. The request was
made in an effort to remove the viability of installing an alternative motor into the Pontiac chassis. The
avenue chosen was to seek a reduction in available horsepower thus negating a team’s desire to make
the switch from the LS2 engine.
Grand-Am officials subsequently ruled that changes to the LS6 engine would have to be made if a team
wanted to run that power plant in a Pontiac or Corvette chassis. The Stevenson team reluctantly sent
their LS6 to Cronin Engineering for another rebuild, replacing the previously approved internal
components with the newly defined parts. This was done to comply with the new rules, but the team
noted that the changes were viewed as being in contrast to what Grand-Am had allowed in prior iterations
of the LS6.
Right before the VIR race, the Stevenson Team approached Grand-Am and asked that they revisit the
decision to force the changes to the motor and that the team be allowed to run the LS6 in the same
previously approved configuration it had been run in last year, in the Stevenson Corvette. Upon
extensive review, Grand Am agreed this was the fair and appropriate thing to do and so they rescinded
the changes they had ordered and allowed the engine to be restored to its pre-approved state.
Johnson: “It was unfortunate that we had to go through the rules change and subsequent reversal in
order to get to this position, but we are extremely pleased with the decision of the Grand-Am officials to
allow us to rebuild the LS6 back to the original specs. They want fair and open competition and
understand that when your primary competitor also controls the engine development, outside teams
should have the ability to develop their own package. Their decision has opened up a whole new avenue
of opportunity for us to move forward with our development of the LS6 engine and chassis combination.”
The rebuilding of the LS6 is currently underway.
Johnson: “Right now our stock LS6 is back at CRD being updated to the original Grand-Am
specifications. Of course we can’t get it all done in one day, but we should see a slight improvement for
New Jersey. By the time we get to Laguna Seca we hope to be stronger than when we first tested the
LS6 at Daytona and Homestead. We feel we are now finally moving forward with our quest to come out
on top this season. At the banquet last year, John Stevenson made the point that he wanted his car to be
showcased on stage and that’s what we’re planning to do.”
The third round of the 2009 Grand-Am Rolex Series will take place on Sunday, May 3rd at New Jersey
Motorsports Park.
More information about the Stevenson Motorsports team, and the new Stevenson performance shop, can
be found at www.stevensonmotorsports.com
For more information on the Grand-Am Rolex Series, go to www.grand-am.com/rolex/
Stevenson Motorsports operates out of a facility located in Jacksonville, North Carolina.