Corvette Racing Proves to be a Natural Progression
In June of 1953 the first Corvette would roll off the assembly line just months after being debuted at an auto show. From the get go it was easy to see that the Chevrolet sports car looked like it wanted to race; and race it did.
In the decades that have passed since that historic day in June the Corvette has melted right into racing as natural as a fish takes to water. Over the years the Corvette has broken many records and won many championships and the natural progression that is Corvette racing is not going anywhere any time soon.
The Corvette was actually conceived because of a passion for racing. In 1951, Harley Earl took a LaSabre to Watkins Gen, which is a road course race track in New York, and was so impressed with the Alfas, Jags, and Ferraris that he then decided he wanted General Motors to begin to design a new style sports car. He assigned Bob McLean to the job and the rest as they say is history.
It wasn’t long at all after the first Vette rolled off the production line before it would begin to stake its claim in racing and in 1956 Johnny Fitch set a then speed record for a production car of 145 miles per hour at the Daytona Speed Weeks. The very next year at Speed Weeks the Corvette SR-2 would win the standing mile run in the modified class with an average speed of over 93 miles per hour.
The rest of the 1950s would pass by and see the Corvette be entered in countless races both endurance and traditional distances and many would bring home first place trophies. In 1958 Bill Mitchell completed his Q-Corvette that would later be raced with much success and then be used as inspiration for the C2 generation of the Corvette.
The early 1960s started off much like the late 1950s with Corvettes winning many events and holding their own in event they didn’t win. With drivers like Dick Thomson, Johnny Fitch, and Bob Grossman the super machines seemed almost unstoppable. But in 1963, then Chairman of General Motors, Frederic Donner issues a memo stating that the company would not be sponsoring any racing of any kind. However, that same year Chevy did ‘unofficially’ sponsor some Vettes known as the Grand Sport in the Bahamas Speed Weeks and the result saw two of the three entered take fourth and sixth overall.
The rest of the 1960s went much the same way with names like Roger Penske building, racing, and winning in Corvettes. In the late 60s the Mako Shark II was born and was dominate right from the start.
The 1970s saw only limited racing action but what the Corvettes did produce in those first four years were nothing short of amazing. The Corvette would finish third overall and win its class in the 1973 12 hours of Sebring which represented a personal best for the Corvette at the track. However after that historic year the Corvette would take a hiatus from racing the larger events and would then begin to focus on production of the new generation of Vette which was still many years away. Names like Bill Mitchell and Zora Arkus-Duntov would resign and would make way for the new designers like David McLellen to make their mark. At the end of the decade the Corvette got back into racing when the 1978 Corvette was chosen to pace the field at the storied Indianapolis 500.
The 1980s saw very little racing interaction from any big names and the Corvette was reserved for racing by the weekend warriors who had enough time and money to make the Shark into a race car. However, at the end of the decade in 1988 the SCCA Corvette racing series began and continued into 1989 with racers such as Scott Lagase and Mark Dismore among the winners of the events. Just like that, the Vette was back in the racing world.
The 1990s would bring much of the same of the past few decades and the corvette would not return to endurance and sport car racing dominance until the later part of the decade. What would then transpire is Corvette’s dominance in the endurance racing world that is still going strong today.
Names such as Ron Fellows, Boris Said, Dale Earnhardt, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and so many more have all raced Corvettes at races such as the 24 Hours of Daytona, the 12 Hours of Sebring, and others with much success. Sadly, Dale Earnhardt would race a Corvette with his son as a team mate just weeks before his tragic death in the 2001 Daytona 500. Ironically, just three years after his father’s death, Dale Earnhardt Jr. would crash his Corvette at Infineon Raceway during practice and be badly burned. That would mark the last time Earnhardt Jr. would attempt an endurance race in a Corvette.
Today the Corvette C6 races at many of the bigger tracks and is frequently seen at all the bigger events. Corvette Racing frequently sees the podium and the as for the Corvette itself; it has paced the Indianapolis 500 for the last five years straight. Never before has there been a sports car that has been so synonymous with racing; and there very likely will never be another one in this life time or any other.
Tags: Corvette, Corvette Racing, General Motors
