GM FYI Blog

By Ed Peper
Chevrolet General Manager

Baseball pitchers and quarterbacks know all about the home field advantage. There’s a psychological boost when the fans are cheering for you. And although it’s tough to hear the cheers when you’re driving a 600-horsepower race car, it’s good to be the home team when the big show comes to town.

When motor racing returned to Motor City for the Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix on Labor Day weekend last month, Corvette Racing was clearly the hometown favorite. Chevy’s factory road racing team has won on race tracks from California to Connecticut and from Oregon to Florida – not to mention five class victories in Le Mans, France – but the Compuware Corvette C6.Rs had never raced in our own backyard. That all changed on the first day of September when the Corvette C6.Rs raced on the refurbished Belle Isle street circuit in the first American Le Mans Series event held in Detroit.

Corvette Racing’s roots run deep in Detroit. The team is managed by GM Racing, which has offices in the GM headquarters at the Renaissance Center. The championship-winning race cars are constructed in suburban New Hudson, and the race-prepared GM small-block V-8 engines are built and tested in Clinton Township. The team has an international roster of drivers, but the heart and soul of Corvette Racing can be found in Michigan.

So we rolled out the red carpet when the American Le Mans Series came to town. The Detroit Bell Isle Grand Prix was organized by the Downtown Detroit Partnership, whose chairman is Roger Penske. This is the same group that spearheaded Super Bowl XL in Detroit, and they definitely know how to get things done. An example: How do you get 100,000 people to and from an island in the middle of the Detroit River over a single bridge? Well, if you’re event chairman Bud Denker, you charter 115 buses and have them run like clockwork from satellite parking lots throughout the Detroit area.

One of the perks of my job is working with great people, and I have to tell you that the Corvette Racing drivers are the best in the business. Ron Fellows, Johnny O’Connell, Jan Magnussen, Oliver Gavin, Olivier Beretta, and Max Papis are winners. They understand that while the drivers may get the glory, success in racing is really all about the team. They’re obviously fast – that comes with the job description. But they’re also intelligent, articulate, and fun to be around. There aren’t any prima donnas on the Corvette Racing roster.

We kept them busy throughout the week leading up to the race. Johnny O’Connell threw the ceremonial first pitch for the Detroit Tigers vs. New York Yankees game at Comerica Park on Monday night. Although he was instructed to take it easy, that’s not Johnny’s style. He threw a hard strike to the catcher, and that set the tone for the evening when the Tigers beat the Yankees 16-0. Johnny also talked with former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani who was at the game that evening.

On Tuesday we staged a pep rally for Corvette Racing on the RiverWalk adjacent to the Renaissance Center, complete with ice cream, a drum corps, and a flyover by a Coast Guard helicopter. Mike West, a mechanic on the No. 3 Corvette C6.R, opened the rally with a Jimi Hendrix-style rendition of the “Star Spangled Banner” and Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick spoke about the city’s pride in the renaissance of the RiverWalk. Troy Clarke, president of GM North America, talked about how Corvette Racing’s success in Europe symbolized Chevrolet’s emergence as a global brand. Listening to the speakers made me proud of GM’s ongoing efforts to bring new vitality to downtown Detroit.

On Thursday evening, the Corvette Racing drivers attended an informal reception with more than 300 Corvette owners at the GM Heritage Center. Corvette drivers are passionate about their cars, and they are ardent in their support of the drivers who carry the Corvette banner in international road racing. I’m not surprised that the longest lines for driver autographs at ALMS events are always at the Corvette Racing transporters.

The Corvette team has won 61 races since 2000, so the drivers know their way around a winner’s circle. When the organizers brought out the champagne on the victory podium as I was handing out the trophies after the ALMS race, I should have known what was coming. Believe me, there is no better way to end a long week than to take a champagne shower with the home team.

To see more photos, head over to Flickr to check out our Detroit Grand Prix set.