Corvette Racing’s GT3 program, meanwhile, is headed by Christie Bagne, who also brings an engineering background to the role. But her story in motorsport doesn’t start in the classroom, but instead, at local car meets in her hometown of Detroit.
“This is a long story… You may need to chop all this down!” Bagne laughs. “I grew up in Detroit. Lots of car people… Woodward Avenue… All the teenagers around me were interested in cars. And I loved the parking lot car scene — cars and coffee, that sort of thing.
“I had an old 3 Series that I modified and took to a track day for the first time when I was young, and to me, that was the coolest thing. And then I went to college and my bachelor’s degree was actually in neuroscience. But everyone was in pre-med and I was like, ‘Where are my car friends?’”
So she started a car club, with meets taking place at local parks, before a Chevy dealer offered to allow the club to meet on its premises every Tuesday in Ann Arbor.
“We had like 40 people coming to those nights,” she continued. “It was such a good place to network while I was doing my degree. I met so many engineers from Ford, Toyota and GM and lots of people working at oil change shops.”
That evolved again when Bagne had a request to run a track day via a club member who had moved from Utah to Michigan.
“That,” she says, “is when it really escalated. I wanted to get better as a driver; I wanted to make my car better. I got a Subaru WRX and took part in 21 track days in two years. I had to house-sit like crazy to fund this adventure! I wasn’t working on cars growing up, then all of a sudden I was changing brakes on weekends and modifying my car. That was how I learned about performance cars.”
After completing her degree, she realized that auto engineering was her calling. “I went back to study at Kettering University, which used to be General Motors Institute, in Flint, Michigan, and did a mechanical engineering degree there.”
This led her on a path to GM in 2018, and getting her SCCA license at Waterford Hills Competition School and ultimately to head of the GT3 program, via the production side of the business.
“I knew I wasn’t going to get to a professional level as a driver, but I loved it, visiting lots of great circuits,” Bagne relates. “I moved to GM Motorsports in 2021 — it wasn’t easy as there are so few motorsport jobs. I knew I liked the low-volume, high-tech spaces, so I ended up working on the autonomous side for a little while, then GM’s automated highway driving systems, before I was hired to work for Laura (Wontrop Klauser) as an assistant during the Cadillac DPi program, the GT4 and C8.R program.
“I got to see the transition at GM from having more of a program manager based on a marketing structure to having an in-house engineering team in motorsports. It made me passionate about customer racing, the team dynamic, winning and losing. It got me to where I am now with GT3 — it was a natural evolution for me to take over that program.”
Elsewhere, the lead mechanic on TF Sport’s No. 82 Z06 GT3.R is Sophie Bull, who worked her way up to the WEC after a stint in the British Touring Car Championship paddock. This step has allowed her to achieve her dream of touring the world with motorsports.
“I studied at a college for two years and was given a chance to do a road car apprenticeship with a motorsport team,” she says. “It was really hands-on, and it was a challenge, and when that finished I went freelance, working for various teams before landing on my feet at a top team in the BTCC.
“There I did five years, started as a number two mechanic for three years and then moved to number one. But while I did that I did flyaway freelance work and that made me want to do the WEC. TF Sport is based near where I live, and I had people tell me to speak with Tom (Ferrier, team owner).
“So at the start of 2022, I emailed Tom — I told him I really wanted to work for him, but let him know I had signed with a team for the season already. I bugged him again halfway through the year so he knew I was still there, and when the BTCC season finished, emailed again about 2023 and he offered me a trial in December which led to my job within the team which I hold today.
“Ultimately, had TF not given me the chance I’d have stayed in touring cars, but I only wanted to work in WEC if I could work for a team like Tom’s. It’s a very different experience, prepping a car for races longer than six hours after working on cars that need to last just 20 minutes. You have to be a lot fitter and it’s a lot more physical with pit stops.
“But the new Corvette is a great car to work on. It’s well-produced and has come out of the box fast. It just needs TF-ing! Some finishing touches.
“I love it. You couldn’t do it if you didn’t,” Bull says. “It was a big step but I’m thrilled to be doing it. And the team environment is fantastic. People see me for the job I do, they don’t see me as a woman.”
Having had these conversations, what is most encouraging is that the culture which surrounds GM’s sports car programs is overwhelmingly positive and progressive. Laura Wontrop Klauser is hugely proud of the way GM goes racing in sports cars, but she doesn’t necessarily think of her division as a leader in this area. That in itself is a telling sign that the sport is moving in the right direction organically.
“I have learned a lot, and I’ve been a woman longer than I’ve been in motorsport,” she notes. “Awareness in this area needs to be raised because we often seek out people that remind us of ourselves. But gender doesn’t have to be a barrier when you’re hiring people.
“Sometimes you have to remind people to pull their eyes up and think about all the reasons why any candidate can bring something positive to an organization. You have to think: “Am I judging someone too harshly because they don’t fit a mold, or am I not judging someone enough because they do fit a mould that I am expecting?
“We have always operated the way that I feel is right. But it’s not just me — it’s not the me show. We move as a team at GM and we do what makes sense to us. What’s interesting to me is that so many people have pointed out that the way we go racing is different.
“We are doing what we think makes sense and It’s been an absolute privilege.”