1980's
and early 1990's "C4 Corvette Racing"
History
|
 The
late 1980's Corvette was thriving with their high
horsepower V8 engines, aerodynamic body and rigid
suspension. As a matter of fact the Corvettes were
taking all of the titles in the late 80's. Porsche,
Lotus and many other competitors couldn't touch the
Corvette. The competitors got together and banned
the Corvette from competing against them. In 1987
a fellow by the name of John Powell came up with a
brainstorm idea of having a "Corvette Challenge".
Which meant only Corvettes could compete against one
another, in doing so he wanted to make sure each car
was to spec.
Powell envisioned having the Corvette
Challenge teams compete for an enormous and unheard
of purse at the time of $1,000,000. With one million
dollars at stake the competition would be fierce.
Fierce it was! There were some big guns coming to
the Corvette Challenge races with good reason. The
spec series became an instant hit with spectators
and teams alike. With the competition being so close,
it allowed the spectators to see some incredible accidents
and some very competitive driving at various racing
venues.
The 1988-1989 Corvette Challenge series
came about because, in the Sports Car Club of America's
(SCCA) Showroom Stock GT category, Corvette had no
challengers. From the fourth generation Corvette's
introduction in 1984 through the 1987 season Corvette's
combination of superior handling, excellent brakes,
sticky Goodyear "Gatorback" VR50 tires and
the Small Block V8's power and torque ran away and
hid from its Showroom Stock competition. It didn't
matter what the series was called, Playboy Challenge,
Showroom Stock GT or Escort GT Endurance, Corvettes
were unbeatable. Literally. They won every race they
entered, with the only competition coming from among
the Corvette entrants.
In racing dominance by a single marquee
is a promoter's nightmare and by 1987 competing manufactures
were ready to withdraw their support for one of SCCA's
most successful and high visibility series. SCCA responded
by removing Corvette from the approved list of competitors
for 1988, leaving the tiddlers to compete among themselves.
Big Dogs, however, like to run in packs and that's
what the Corvette racers, under leadership of John
Powell, did. Powell was a successful Corvette racer,
operator of one of Canada's leading competition driving
schools and creator of the Player's Cup, a Canadian
series for Camaros and Firebirds. He quickly gathered
support from the Corvette drivers and entrants and
proposed a one-make series to the SCCA to take advantage
of Corvette's popularity with both entrants and fans.
Key to the success of the Corvette Challenge
was early backing from Mid America Designs which created
the impetus that helped bring Goodyear and Exxon on
board. The groundswell of interest convinced GM to
give its blessing and to facilitate the series' development
by creating a very limited series of uniquely-configured
Corvettes to participate. These few Corvette Challenge
racers are the most rare and desirable Corvettes from
the period.
The Corvette Challenge was a marketing
and promotional success. An outstanding array of drivers
took part including Mark Dismore, Scott Lagasse, Bill
Cooper, Stu Hayner, Randy Ruhlman, Jeff Andretti,
Jimmy Vasser, Paul Tracey, Boris Said, III and Tommy
Kendall. The 1988 Championship was won by Hanyner
folled in 1989 by Cooper. Several drivers, notably
Vasser, Dismore, Tracey and Andretti, used the Corvette
Challenge to showcase their talents and successfully
leveraged their subsequent careers on it.
Another driver who made the most of
his precipitation was Andy Pilgrim, who won three
of his twenty-two Corvette Challenge starts, an outstanding
record in the highly competitive field of evenly matched
equipment. Pilgrim built a good relationship with
the Corvette team and subsequently became one of the
two lead drivers in developing and racing the fabulously
successful Corvette C5-R.
For two years the Corvette Challenge
provided exciting and close racing that highlighted
the power and handling of essentially stock Corvettes
in the hands of talented and motivated drivers at
important races across North America. Its success
and fan involvement was such that ESPN broadcast the
full 1989 Corvette Challenge season to an enthusiastic
audience, standing on its own as exciting racing.
Competing manufactures felt they had
caught up with Corvette's performance by the end of
the 1989 season and SCCA brought Corvette into its
new World Challenge series for 1990. That ended the
short but highly succ4essful and visible Corvette
Challenge but the small number of Corvettes created
for it still are recognized, enthusiastically collected
and even raced in historic events. The cars were scooped
up by collectors and have become an important examples
of Corvette history - high profile, quick nd competitive
Corvettes.
I've broken this website down into a
few main categories for your convenience. Below is
the order I'd recommend you view this website to help
you better understand the race series:
Check out some of the photo galleries
as well:
Photo Gallery 1988 Corvette Challenge Cars -->
click
here.
Photo Gallery 1989 Corvette Challenge Cars -->
click
here.
Photo Gallery 1990 R9G World Challenge Corvettes -->
click
here.
If you have any information or
pictures in regards to this car, please contact
us. If you have a Corvette Challenge Car and would
like us to update the information on this website,
please contact
us. |
