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ALMS: Heroes of the ALMS: Corvette Racing
Written by: John Dagys   
04/18/2009
Long Beach, CA
 

On a November day at Sebring International Raceway over 11 years ago, Corvette Racing’s legacy was born. As the first Pratt & Miller-built Corvette C5-R rolled off the transporter and took to the historic airfield circuit for its maiden test, a new era dawned in the history of the iconic American brand.

In a matter of a decade, Corvette Racing has rewritten the GT1 record books in every way. (LAT) » More Photos
 Nobody would have guessed it at the time, especially amidst the turmoil of sports car racing in North America. But as the American Le Mans Series rose to the forefront, Corvette Racing did too. And today, Chevrolet has become most successful manufacturer in Series history.

“I joke with Gary Pratt on a regular basis on how far we’ve come,” said three-time ALMS drivers’ champion Ron Fellows, who has been with the Michigan-based team since day one. “We had a pickup truck, a 38-foot trailer, one laptop, four crew guys and one car at that first test. That was Pratt & Miller and Corvette Racing in November of 1997. Now it takes about three laptops alone to start up the car! We’ve come a long way.”

Seventy-five race victories, eight championships and five Le Mans 24 Hours GTS/GT1 titles later, Corvette Racing has become a dynasty in the world of sports car racing. And aside from its historic overall win in the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona, the majority of the team’s success has come in the ALMS.

When Pratt & Miller made its race debut in 1999, they were immediately thrown in the deep end by the high level of competition. Team Oreca had been tearing up the tracks in both Europe and America with its venerable Dodge Viper GTS-Rs, and it appeared nobody would be able to beat the Hugues de Chaunac-led French factory juggernaut.

With a never-quit attitude, the Gary Pratt and Jim Miller-owned organization continued development of its C5-R. The hard work began to pay off in the 2000 season, when Fellows and co-driver Andy Pilgrim came a few laps from victory in a wet-turned-dry race at Mosport.

“It was heartbreaking in one respect because we were so close to our first victory, but it was energizing in another respect knowing that [we could defeat them],” said Corvette Racing Program Manager
Doug Fehan.

The next stop was Texas Motor Speedway, a combination infield road course and oval that neither the Corvettes or Vipers had been to before. For Corvette, it served as one of the rare opportunities to go up against the Vipers on a level playing field.

If there was a major concern for them going into the race, it was the severe Texan temperatures. At the start of the two-hour and 45-minute sprint into the darkness, the ambient temperature was 115 degrees. It proved to be a colossal challenge for the front-engined machines, as Fellows recalls.

Ron Fellows recalls the team’s first win at Texas Motor Speedway as being one of the toughest races, mainly due to the extreme temperatures. (LAT) » More Photos
 “Steve Cole, our engineer, normally gave me a little bit of information on the pace lap, like track temperature,” he explained. “That day, he sort of paused and said, ‘Track temperature is... are you ready: 168 degrees.’ That’s as hot of a track temperature we’ve ever had. It was incredibly uncomfortable!”

From the drop of the flag, though, Fellows and Pilgrim were on fire, figuratively speaking. The duo had dominated the race, pulling out a three-lap victory over the Olivier Beretta and Karl Wendlinger-driven Viper.

“That I felt was our breakthrough race,” Fehan said of the team’s first victory. “I think it demonstrated not only to ourselves what we were capable of, it also demonstrated to the world that we had arrived and we planned on being victorious every time we set foot on the racetrack.”

Click Here for a Photo Retrospective of Corvette Racing

Watch as Corvette Racing's Johnny O'Connell takes you inside the office of his mighty C6.R:



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