When Did Chevy Start Factory Racing With A Corvette?

The Chevrolet Corvette wasn't really overmuch of a sports car erstwhile it was introduced successful 1953, and GM astir unopen down nan program successful its early stages. But nan 'Vette sewage its first V8 successful 1955, and by 1960, acknowledgment to substance injection, nan centrifugal was capable to present some 315 horses and nan benignant of smile-inducing thrills folks would statesman to expect from nan Corvette name. 

The aforesaid twelvemonth besides saw nan car's first travel to Le Mans, erstwhile a squad of 3 Corvettes nether nan guidance of Zora Arkus-Duntov, Chevy's head of precocious performance, made its debut astatine nan iconic 24-hour endurance title — earning a people win. Yet nan squad didn't person charismatic support from Chevrolet, contempt Arkus-Duntov's presence, and nan arena didn't move into a springboard for Corvette's factory-backed racing. That wouldn't hap for different 4 decades aliases so, when, successful 1999, Chevrolet formed nan first mill racing squad for nan Chevrolet Corvette.

Why nan delay? Part of it was owed to nan unspeakable calamity astatine nan 1955 moving of Le Mans: Mercedes-Benz driver Pierre Levegh's car collapsed into a slower-moving introduction and near nan track, exploding successful flames arsenic it reached nan crowd and sidesplitting 83 people. Mercedes outright discontinue racing, and different automakers, including Chevrolet, pulled backmost their motorsports efforts arsenic well. Another consequence of nan disaster, person to home, was that nan Automobile Manufacturers Association efficaciously halted U.S. automakers' charismatic motorsports support successful 1957.

Of course, that didn't slow down backdoor mill support for racing, whether it was Arkus-Duntov lending his expertise to Briggs Cunningham's Le Mans Corvette or, successful nan mid-1990s, Doug Ripple looking to GM for thief pinch bringing his ain privately tally Corvette racer to nan competition. One changeless pinch galore of these programs, though, was GM's Doug Fehan, a erstwhile title car driver who helped person GM executives to o.k. a afloat fledged factory-backed Corvette squad successful 1996.

The crux of nan matter was that GM's engagement successful aggregate motorsports efforts — charismatic aliases different — dispersed nan automaker's resources excessively thin. Fehan believed that by focusing connected a azygous program, specified arsenic bringing nan Corvette to nan American Le Mans Series, singular occurrence would beryllium successful scope arsenic well. And Fehan meant what he said astir pulling together each of GM's resources. His dream squad would beryllium supported not only by GM engineering, but besides each GM section pinch a liking successful its success, which included getting buy-in from nan trading squad for maximum "win connected Sunday, waste connected Monday" action.

Fehan moreover claims in installments for choosing Corvette's attention-getting yellowish liveries. The original look was a silver-and-black creation that was, successful fact, utilized during nan team's first race, nan 1999 Rolex 24 astatine Daytona — wherever nan No. 2 Corvette driven by Ron Fellows, Chris Kneifel, and John Paul Jr. scored a third-in-class finish. Corvette Racing would spell connected to triumph its people successful 2001, 2015, 2016, and 2021, A privately entered Corvette won its people location successful 2025, too.

Showing precisely really accelerated Corvette Racing sewage up to speed, its 3rd twelvemonth of competition, 2001, saw nan squad adhd to its Daytona honors by winning a people title successful nan American Le Mans Series, nan first of 8 consecutive manufacturers' titles that included runs of 12 consecutive title wins from 2005 to 2006 — past another, abstracted drawstring of 25 consecutive victories from 2007 done 2009. At Le Mans itself, factory-backed Corvettes person taken nan checkered emblem for their people 9 times.

More recently, Corvette Racing has competed for nan World Endurance Championship, taking a people title successful 2023, and nan International Motor Sports Association's WeatherTech SportsCar Championship series, successful which — for nan 2025 play — nan squad was portion of a triple play: Corvette Racing won nan squad title for its class, Chevrolet won nan manufacturer's title, and nan No. 3 car's Antonio Garcia and Alexander Sims shared nan driver's honors.

Interested successful joining nan squad yourself? You tin get your ain illustration of 1 of those IMSA title winners — Chevrolet's first Corvette GT3 racer, nan Z06 GT3.R — for amateur racing. (It's nan first Chevy title car ever sold to some master and amateur racers, according to nan brand.) That said, not conscionable anyone will suffice for ownership, arsenic Corvette Racing notes that Chevy will only waste them "to racing teams who are uniquely equipped to showcase nan car connected way successful title use." Also necessary: About $735,000.