A Look Back at the Last Time Chevy Went Prototype Racing With a Corvette
It’s been well over 20 years since Chevrolet got into prototype racing, but it’s good to see them back. The Daytona Prototype Corvette is nicely dressed in exotic material with some very stylish styling points that are very “C6.” I’m surprised they didn’t name the car “Grand Sport,” after all, the front fenders ARE wearing C6 Grand Sport fender vents. But, let’s not pick. The Corvette community wishes them the best and we’ll all enjoy watching the latest round of Corvette racing history in the making.
So, I thought it would be fun to look back at the last time Chevrolet went prototype racing with a Corvette. I covered the 1989 GTP Corvette back in October ‘03 in The Illustrated Corvette Series. The short article and illustrations are below. I see some feature “comparison” stories coming up. It’ll be fun to examine 20-plus years of prototype development. Below is the story,“GTP Corvette Racer – Unrealized Potential.”Continue reading “Corvette Race Car Files: C4 1989 GTP Corvette Racer”→
Dateline: 9.28.11 Ron Fellows – From Carts to Corvettes!
Happy 52nd birthday, Ron Fellows!
Good guys shine and Ron Fellows has become one of the most popular race car drivers of our time. Ron’s a great example of starting our small – kart racing small, in fact. Kart racing lead to Formula Ford 1600 and Formula Ford 2000 cars. But this was strictly entry level racing that only last as long as there’s money in your pocket. After the cash ran dry, Ron took a nine year break from racing. But when you have gasoline in your veins, the itch to race never goes away. Fellows was back on the track, launching his professional driving career in the 1986 Player’s GM Challenge, racing a showroom stock Camaro.
Trans-Am racing followed and by ‘89 Ron was one of the most successful drivers in Trans-Am history, winning 19 of 95 starts. When the C5-R Corvette Racing Team was being assembled in ‘98, Fellows was one of “the” drivers to hire. When looking back on a successful long term career, it often appears easy, but this was far from the case. It was a long, hard battle for the Corvette Racing Team from ‘98 to the 2001 GTS Le Mans win. But even after you win the big prize, the next race can be just as hard. In racing, there are no laurels to rest upon. Fellows went on to win Le Mans again in ‘02 and ‘04, as well as GTS Champion in ‘02, and was co-champion in ‘03 and ‘04 with Johnny O’Connell. In ‘05 Ron was runner-up in the GT1 championship and was the ALMS Most Popular Driver in ‘04, ‘05, ‘06, ‘and ‘07.
To celebrate Ron’s success, Chevrolet released the hugely popular 2007 Ron Fellows Z06 Special Edition Z06. Only 399 units were built, 300 for the US market, 33 for the Canadian market, and the remaining 66 cars for other world markets. This would be the first in a series of very popular special edition C6 Corvettes.
Dateline: 8.9.11 Here’s the latest episode of “Track to Street: Corvette Racing Series.” PLUS!!! All 11 previous episodes. Time to catch up!
According to Chronology of Chevrolet Corvette website, it was sometime in 1997 that the Corvette Racing Team began developing the C5-R race car, based on a production C5 Corvette. C5-R chassis testing began in November ‘97 with the first completed C5-R race car ready in early ‘98. After nearly a year of testing and development, the C5-R’s first competition was at Daytona International Speedway on January 10, 1999. After 24 hours of competition, the C5-Rs came in 2nd and 12th in the GT2 class. Not too shabby for an all-new race car and team.
1999 was a tough year with the C5-R always contenders but not taking a first place win. The best finishes were 2nd place at the Daytona 24 hours race in January and the Laguna Seca 2 hour and 45-minute race in October. The team scooped up their first 1st place win on September 2, 2000 at Texas Motor Speedway in the ALMS series GTS class. Later that month, the team scored their second 1st place win at the 10 hours at Road Atlanta.
In the world of sports car racing, if you win at Daytona, a lot of people will notice.But if you win at Le Mans, EVERYONE sees and remembers! 2001 was the C5-R team’s break out year. Not only did they take 1st place in 8 out of 10 races, but they won 1st AND second place at Le Mans. Since 2001 the C5-R and C6.R Corvette teams have won 1st place in their class at Le Mans seven times and 2nd place at Le Mans seven times.
While that’s not “domination” (something you really DON’T want, because the sanctioning body will put heavy restrictions on your car) it does mean that Corvettes are ALWAYS a force to be reckoned with. The old days of Corvettes being considered as just unsophisticated “fast trucks” are OVER! But how did we get here? It’s the result of a factory-backed, long range R&D group team effort. This is what Chevrolet and GM should have done from the beginning, instead of cow tailing to the 1957 AMA ban on American auto manufacturer’s participation in auto racing.
So, what’s it like inside the C6.R Corvette Racing team? The series “Track to Street: Corvette Racing Series” regularly serves up short, tasty video dishes of behind the scenes action in the C6.R Corvette camp. The latest, “Episode 12” is at the top of this post. If you missed the previous 11 episodes, we’ve included 1 through 11 below for your enjoyment. Continue reading “Vette Videos: Track to Street – Corvette Racing Series – The FULL Series”→
Dateline: 8.4.11 A Birthday Salute to One of the First Corvette Hot Shoe Drivers, John Fitch
Fitch behind the wheel of one of the three specially prepared Corvettes built for speed runs on the sands of Daytona Beach in January 1956.
Racing and Corvettes are completely inseparable. John Fitch was already a hot shoe when Zora Arkus-Duntov hired him to drive one of the three specially prepared ‘56 265-CID Corvettes for a speed record run on the sands of Daytona Beach, Florida in January 1956. Were it not for those exciting early racing experiences, the tone and attitude of the Corvette would have been closer to a passenger car rather than a scrapper race car. And John Fitch was part of the first wave of Corvette drivers.
After serving in WW II as a fighter pilot, Fitch got his degree in engineering and went to postwar Europe to race sports cars. Fitch was one of the first American engineer/drivers that set the template for future engineer/drivers, such as Mark Donohue and others. A thorough understanding of how things mechanically function has proven to be an incalculable asset to a successful racing enterprise.
The SS Corvette was a beauty, but the light weight magnesium body transfered enormous amounts of heat into the cockpit, making driving conditions near unbearable!
Before driving for Chevrolet, Fitch won the very first SCCA national championship and was the only American to drive for the Mercedes-Benz factory team. In 1957 Fitch was hired by Chevrolet to prepare and manage a team of stock and semi-modified Corvettes for competition. That same year, Duntov literally put Fitch’s feet to the fire driving the obscenely hot (temperature wise) SS Corvette.
Besides racing Corvettes, John won the 1951 Argentine Grand Prix, the 1955 Mille Miglia production class, and John competed at Le Mans six times, finishing as high as 3rd place. He was the first general manager at Lime Rock Park race track, developed the yellow “Fitch Barriers” crash barrels, and started the first advanced driving school. Being an innovator must have been in Fitch’s DNA, as his ancestor, also named John Fitch, was a clock maker, silversmith, and built the first functioning steamboat in 1787. Continue reading “Corvette Timeline Tales: Happy 94th Birthday, John Fitch!”→
It’s been well over 20 years since Chevrolet got into prototype racing, but it’s good to see them back. The Daytona Prototype Corvette is nicely dressed in exotic material with some very stylish styling points that are very “C6.” I’m surprised they didn’t name the car “Grand Sport,” after all, the front fenders ARE wearing C6 Grand Sport fender vents. But, let’s not pick. The Corvette community wishes them the best and we’ll all enjoy watching the latest round of Corvette racing history in the making.
So, I thought it would be fun to look back at the last time Chevrolet went prototype racing with a Corvette. I covered the 1989 GTP Corvette back in October ‘03 in The Illustrated Corvette Series. The short article and illustrations are below. I see some feature “comparison” stories coming up. It’ll be fun to examine 20-plus years of prototype development. Below is the story, “GTP Corvette Racer – Unrealized Potential.” Continue reading “Corvette Race Car Files: C4 1989 GTP Corvette Racer” 
