New GM Racing Director Addresses Media

Mark Kent answers media questions as new director of GM Racing

MICHAEL GARDNER, MANAGER, MOTORSPORTS, HERITAGE AND PERFORMANCE COMMUNICATIONS
"Mark is not a stranger to the motorsports scene. In the late eighties and early nineties he held engineering and program management positions for our IMSA GTU and SCCA Trans-Am programs. He spent the bulk of his 25-year career in powertrain engineering and recently led the engineering design team that was responsible for GM's Northstar V8 engines. As you'll see, he has a strong technical background and a true passion for the sport. I'll turn this over to Mark now."

MARK KENT, DIRECTOR, GM RACING
"Good afternoon, I'm excited to be here. It's a great time to be here in racing at General Motors and I'm really looking forward to the challenge. With that, I'll take your questions."

DETROIT FREE PRESS: JUST WONDERING, WE TRUST YOU WON'T BE JOINING ANY NASCAR TEAMS SOON?

"No, I don't plan on that. I'm GM to the bone and I plan on staying here for a while."

DETROIT FREE PRESS: UNDER YOUR REIGN, WHERE WILL GM RACING HEAD? I KNOW THAT THERE IS A LOT OF DIVERSITY THERE WITH NASCAR, ROAD RACING, OVAL RACING, DRAG RACING, GRASSROOTS RACING, ETC. WHERE WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE THE RACING PROGRAM GO?

"Right now we're focusing our efforts on production-based vehicles and we have a lot of new and exciting products coming out like the Pontiac GTO that we want to showcase in the Grand American series. You'll see us get into more production-based racing in the near future that will get us closer to the vehicles we're selling."

DETROIT FREE PRESS: FOLLOWING UP ON MY LAST QUESTION, DOES THAT MEAN LESS FOCUS ON IRL AND OVAL RACING AND MORE FOCUS ON STREET RACING AND PERHAPS SOME OF THE OTHER DRAG RACING CLASSES?

"Right. As you are probably aware, we're actively involved in sport compact drag racing, a really great venue for us to showcase the Chevy Cobalt. Like I said, the GTO and CTS.V in road racing series and the Corvette in the ALMS series are some wonderful venues for us to showcase our vehicles. Right now, that's the direction we're heading."

MONTEREY COUNTY HERALD: HI MARK, BACK ON THE IRL PORTION, GM ANNOUNCED THE PULLOUT AND THEN YOU HAD A VERY STRONG SHOWING IN THE OPENER THIS PAST WEEKENED. IS THE INTENTION OF CHEVROLET TO PULL OUT ALL TOGETHER OR IS THERE A POSSIBILITY OF A RETURN IN THE FUTURE ONCE THE SPECS ARE KNOWN FOR THE NEW ENGINE CONFIGURATION THAT THE IRL WANTS?

"Right now the performance that we saw last weekend really wasn't that big of a surprise. As you may recall, late in the year last year, the engine was quite competitive. You know, the team was quite competitive. So, we weren't surprised, we are cautiously optimistic. But even with a great performance this year, which we're looking forward to, in fact, we're committed to going out strong here. We have not pulled back any resources and we're working very hard to make that effort this year a winning effort. But our focus, like I mentioned earlier, is to get more into production-based racing. But, you can never say never

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