The History of Corvette Racing

Following a disappointing return to Le Mans in 1995, GM put all their chips on black for one final spin, founding the fearsome Corvette Racing.

Corvette and Le Mans share a spotted, if extensive, history. Chevrolet left their debut race in 1960 with one car that failed to meet the required laps for its Index of Performance. And another that caught fire at Hour 20, disappointing after a promising showing at Sebring. And every generation since the C1, the Corvette name has returned to La Sarthe at least once. The next time was a C2 in 1967, engine failure on Hour 13. Followed by two C3s in 1968, one had an accident, the other a blown head gasket. This trend continues well into the 1970s, marred with DNFs from a variety of failures. In fact, exactly three Corvettes ever finished the race with a recorded position in the whole decade. Those being: 12th and 18th in 1973, and 18th in 1974.

Photo by: Jim Culp

By 1977, the cars were so underperforming and inefficient that they semi-permanently retired. People tried making small comebacks, but none ever actually competed, let alone finished.

And that’s where our story really starts. In 1994, a man named Reeves Callaway paved the way for Corvette’s return to the oldest running endurance race. Callaway’s a name many of you probably recognize. Following a tenure as an instructor at Bob Bondurant’s Racing School, Callaway opened his own company in ‘77, but his ties to motorsport never diminished. In fact, he used his tuning company as a basis for creating the first C4 Corvette to race in Le Mans. What followed was a series of events that led to modest success, epic failure, and an incredible redemption that ultimately became Corvette Racing as we know it today.

The 1994 Le Mans Callaway Corvette

Photo by: Martin Lee

The car Callaway chose was a 1994 C4 LT1, which he fully race-stripped and fitted with a 6.2L V8. This car was dubbed the Callaway C6 SuperNatural Corvette LM, or simply “Callaway LM.” It was developed entirely in-house out of a standard Corvette shell for GT2-class competition. The rear end featured a large rear wing and the usual Callaway refinements. But the front’s where everything really took shape. The car was clearly designed with function over form, foregoing the trademark pop-up headlights in favor of a heavily modified one-piece design. It’s certainly an acquired taste, but you can’t argue with results. The streamlined carbon fiber front end marked only one of the exotic appointments given to this particular Corvette. For the full story on this car, feel free to check out Callaway’s official video, which goes in-depth into the cars mechanical anatomy: Callaway Exhibit Series 07.

Photo by: Martin Lee

Callaway raced three chassis, referred to as Chassis 001-003. In 1994, Chassis 001 became the first Corvette to put rubber to tarmac on the clock at La Sarthe in 17 years. On its first outing, the car captured pole position, nearly unheard-of at Le Mans for a small privateer team. However, the actual finish left a sour taste in Chevrolet’s mouth after it ran out of fuel on Lap 142. The following year, however, Chassis 002 and 003 were completed by Agusta in the UK. And the Callaway LM’s hype was finally realized. Chassis 002 had an accident and did not finish, unfortunately. But remarkably, the remaining cars took second and third in class, placing two Chevrolets on the podium for the first time.

The Factory-Backed but Not Factory-Backed Corvette

Photo by: Total Performance Car/Nicolas Delpierre

Meanwhile, in 1995, a new Corvette entered the fray. And this is where our story gets really interesting. This story follows a man by the name of Doug Ripple. Ripple, a long-time Corvette racer and tuner, teamed up with Mercury Marine and Lotus Engineering to create a dedicated Corvette racing engine. What came out the other side was the DRZ-500, a heavily-modified four-cam LT5. With its distinctive red wiring and black finish, the engine earned the nickname “Black Widow.” This name has a history with this particular style of racing. In 1957, Chevrolet “officially” removed itself from factory-backed racing. But silently supported Buck Baker with his ‘57 Chevy, itself nicknamed “Black Widow.” And, of course, we know about the more modern Black Widow tie-in with Avengers. Again, a quiet nod for those who know their Corvette history.

Photo by: Total Performance Car/Nicolas Delpierre

But, back to the story. What we have, effectively, is Doug Ripple, a man who’s built an engine and needs a car. To facilitate this, he effectively starts a crowdfunding campaign, enlisting the aid of anyone he can find, including GM, to build a GT1-class chassis for Le Mans. In less than a year, the project bore fruit, namely the ZR-1 LM. And the resulting monstrosity of a car debuted at the 12 Hours of Sebring with basically no testing. Effectively, the ultimate baptism of fire. And it did really well, even leading the race at one point. However, at La Sarthe, disaster struck the home-grown team as the car qualified 61st of 64 total from a head gasket failure. And then, on top of that, the Black Widow died on Hour 22 of the race, an incredible disappointment for the team.

The Comeback

The ZR-1 LM was effectively a totally untested car, and later on in life, it actually went on to become a highly decorated race car. But our story continues elsewhere, at La Sarthe. GM had caught the bug now. In the past, every single car was fielded by privateers, small-time teams. Or the cars were just aging or untested, or any number of other misfortunes. But this time, they’re gonna do it right. And the C5 platform, with its highly aerodynamic shape, required little modification to make it competitive on the world stage.

So GM set about gutting their brand-new still under-development platform and building one heck of a race car. They partnered up with Pratt & Miller, based out of Lyon Township, Michigan to develop the prototype GT1. The development time and testing spanned 2 years. This resulted in a totally bespoke GT1 racing shell, powered by a 6.0L LS1-derived LS1.R, coupled to a 5-speed manual gearbox.

The team formed a coalition, becoming the first group to bear the name “Corvette Racing.” And they debuted the brand-new C5-R at the 1999 24 Hours of Daytona, taking third in class on their first-ever race. Certainly an impressive showing for a car competing against 911 GT2s and Viper GTS-Rs. Ultimately, the engine proved underpowered and was replaced with a 7-liter unit, built by Katech, which the C5-R used for the rest of its career.

La Sarthe had a great respect for the Viper by this point, but the Corvette name was well on the backburner. With the name soured by prior failures, GM was looking to expand brand recognition and garner validation. They knew their car was fast. But the stars just never seemed to align right. They got a small taste of it in 1994, but now it’s time to take the gloves off.

Corvette Racing Cements Itself in Motoring History

The C5-R began its Le Mans career in 2000, debuting to fierce competition in the GTS-class. Namely from Vipers, who took gold and silver. But, just one and two laps behind respectively, both C5-Rs took a brilliant 3-4 finish. The team continued iterating and improving on the chassis, fully intending to race the C5-R for at least a few more years. Largely to pull the rug out from under their rival, the Viper. And that’s exactly what they did, taking class wins at ALMS in 2000, followed by a class win at Le Mans in 2001. The first for a Corvette. 2001 proved to be Corvette Racing’s true tour-de-force, as they ran their first full ALMS series that year, taking six class wins. Now it was Chrysler’s turn to play catch-up. This battle remains ongoing practically to this day across a variety of motorsports venues.

The C5-R remained competitive throughout the entire lifespan of the C5. Its last race was the 2004 Monterey Sports Car Championship at Laguna Seca. Which, naturally, it won. It’s seen two engines, two different gearboxes (the second being a 6-speed), floor-shift, paddle-shift, lightening, ballast, rule changes, and so on. In total, it ran 55 races and won 31 of them with 50 podiums. Which is, frankly, ludicrously fast. This was a team that didn’t exist in anyone’s mindset prior to 1994. And within the span of 6 years, overthrew the Viper as the American car to beat and cemented its legacy which continues to this day.

Photo by: Osajus Photography

Corvette Racing is the winningest American team at Le Mans today with nine victories (and counting). Plus four wins at Daytona, ten ALMS, and much more. In total, Corvette Racing has won 30 American championships alone since its debut in 1999, including eight years in a row at ALMS (2001-2008). And it all started with a bunch of privateers proving that the Corvette was faster than people gave it credit for. And GM saw its potential and realized it. Which they continue to do today, their most recent achievement being the C8.R taking its first Le Mans gold just a few weeks ago.

Featured photo by: Martin Lee

Brochures used: 2001, 2002 Corvette

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