sixty years of corvettes corvette racecars: from the advent of the marque into the 21st century and beyaond


By John r. Wright Photos courtesy of frank salem, John Wright, Wayne ellWooD anD gm motor- sPorts


Corvettes that could go faster and faster. In fact, many were racing the first Corvettes with their Blue Flame Six’s with automatic trans- missions, even though as most cognoscenti knew way back then, all “real” sport cars had to have manual transmissions. It took Jim Hall and his slushbox Chaparral to prove the aforesaid cognoscenti were wrong. Cut to 1955, with the introduc-


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tion of the famous 265 ci engine with the equally famous powerpack performance package including four barrelled carburetors abound- ing on a sophisticated intake mani- fold. At last, Corvette lovers had a high-winding engine, which could compete with the best Europe had to offer, at a fraction of the price. American driver Doctor Dick Tompson (the world’s fastest den- tist) was probably one of the first


8 varac.ca


ince its inception in 1953, peo- ple have always wanted


North American drivers to become successful in various race competi- tions while driving the Corvette. In this endeavour, he was certainly aided by the legendary Zora Arkus Duntov and his band of merry men in the bowels of Chevrolet Engi- neering.


Te first automotive event where


Corvettes participated and showed their mettle was the 1956 NASCAR Speedweeks in February 1956, when a team of three Corvettes set numerous accelera- tion and speed records. In March of that same year, a Corvette driven by John Fitch and Walt Hansgen fin- ished first in class as a part of an of- ficial GM factory team. Corvette’s winning ways continued when Dr. Tompson won a national champi- onship in the SCCA Class C pro- duction. “When I began racing my production Corvette in 1956, no- body else was racing Corvettes. By 1962, when I won my fifth national title driving a Corvette, they were completely dominant,” said Dr. Tompson. “Corvette drivers were competing against each other. If an- other production car was faster,


we’d protest it because it was im- possible to beat us legally. Corvettes were simply that good.” One of the most interesting ef-


forts at producing an even more dominant Corvette was the 1957 SS, seen here in a photograph taken at the Elkart Lake Indiana Road America course back in 1957. Lack of enthusiasm from GM manage- ment meant that the Corvette SS would make only sporadic appear- ances on race tracks around the USA. However, a few individuals from the engineering department at GM were determined to get around the official GM policy. In Canada, there were a number


of Corvette drivers who made names for themselves such as the late Canadian driver Norm Namerow. In fact, there is a curve at the race track at St. Jovite named after him. Ed Leavens was another Canadian Corvette driver who had the distinction of being named as a factory Corvette driver for Canada, driving a Corvette sponsored by the ever enthusiastic people at Gorrie’s Chevrolet in Toronto, ON. Te ac- companying photograph taken by


Frank Salem, himself a Canadian racer of note, shows Ed touring the track at Watkins Glen in a rapid Vette. Later on, John Cordts also drove a Gorries Corvette and it was his skill which encouraged Dave Billes to put John in one of the big booming CanAm McLarens. Gor- ries even went on to sponsor en- gines for the famous Canadian specials of Bill Sadler. Te engines were supplied by Gorries and were built to perfection by noted circle track racer Doug Duncan. Te Grand Sport Corvettes Te 1955-62 Corvettes were


rapid machines, but in 1963, the newly re-designed Corvette was surely destined for great things. However, there was one glitch in the ointment. Te glitch was the new Cobra sports car. In its first races, the Cobra was not a threat to the Vette because of its unreliability. However, after Carroll Shelby and his men worked out the bugs, Vettes were also-rans. To say the engineering staff at GM were dis- tressed would be an understate- ment. Something had to be done. What followed was the Corvette


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