Corvette Racing
Leaving Them in the Dust Since 1999
Since Corvette Racing made its competition debut in 1999, the factory Chevrolet team has emerged as America's premier production sports car racing team. Corvette Racing has won 673 of the 90 races it contested through the 2007 season. The team's list of accomplishments includes 45 1-2 finishes, five class victories in the 24 Hours of Le Mans and Petit Le Mans endurance races, five class wins in the Sebring 12-hour enduro, six class titles in the 1,000-mile/10-hour Petit Le Mans, and an overall victory in the Daytona 24-hour race. America's favorite sports car now stands at the pinnacle of international road racing after winning seven consecutive American Le Mans Series GT1 manufacturer and team championships and six straight drivers’ championships. The coverage that the Corvette Racing team receives from these victories has propelled Corvette and Chevrolet onto the world stage.
Corvette Racing in Winner's Circle @ 24 Hours of Le Mans
Corvette Racing has also won accolades away from the track. In February 2006, the championship-winning Corvette C6.R race car was named the "North American Car of the Year" by dailysportscar.com. In November 2006, Corvette Racing's LS7.R small-block V-8 was honored as the "Global Motorsport Engine of the Year" at the inaugural Professional Motorsport World Expo in Cologne, Germany.
The continuous exchange of information and the constant transfer of technology between the racing and production programs ensure that lessons learned on the track benefit every Corvette on the highway. Continuity is one of the keys to Corvette Racing's long-term success, and the team is retaining its roster of championship-winning drivers in 2008. The people who own Corvettes are very aware of the product, and they understand how racing enhances the cars they drive.
The foundation for the Corvette Racing engine program was first launched with the production LS1, the first of GM's new-generation small-block V-8s which debuted in the fifth- generation Corvette in1997. New developments have lead to the current Corvette C6.R race car, the most technically advanced sports car ever developed by GM, combining sophisticated chassis, powertrain and aerodynamic technology developed by GM Racing with the advanced engineering of the sixth-generation Corvette and Corvette Z06 production models. The current small-block V-8 shares virtually no components with the original design in 1955, yet it retains the longstanding virtues of compact size, simplicity, reliability and high specific output that have made the small-block V-8 the world's most successful production-based racing engine. The Corvette C6.R race program continues Chevrolet's tradition of racing production-based vehicles to improve the breed.
Corvette Racing has followed the strategy first mapped out by legendary racer/engineer Zora Arkus-Duntov. "Fifty years ago, Zora Arkus-Duntov, the godfather of Corvette Racing, conceived the Corvette SS race car to put Corvette squarely in the arena of international endurance racing," Chevrolet general manager Ed Peper said at the conclusion of Corvette Racing's championship season in 2007. "The drivers, mechanics, engineers, support personnel and team managers of Corvette Racing have made everyone at Chevrolet proud."
Coverage of Corvette Racing during the 2008 12 Hours of Sebring
Video Courtesy of IGOTSHOTGUN
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