Month: August 2012

GT Championship Battle Resumes Saturday in the Inner Harbor

BALTIMORE, Aug. 27, 2012 – In the midst of the War of 1812, the Battle of Baltimore inspired Francis Scott Key to write the lyrics for “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Now nearly two centuries later, the Battle of Baltimore will be rejoined – not by American and British armies, but by a fleet of world-class American, British, German, and Italian sports cars racing through the streets of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.

Saturday’s Baltimore Sports Car Challenge, the eighth round of the 2012 American Le Mans Series, promises another all-out fight between drivers, teams, and manufacturers. The two-hour skirmish on the downtown street course dispenses with such niceties as strategy, tactics, and patience. It’s simply about speed, track position, and staying out of trouble.

“There is no strategy in a two-hour race,” said Corvette Racing driver Tommy Milner, a long-time resident of nearby Middleburg, Va. “It’s basically one pit stop, and whoever is the fastest and can make the best of their qualifying position is going to come out on top. Any mistake and you’re done because there’s not much time to come back.”

Milner and co-driver Oliver Gavin lead the GT championship in their No. 4 Compuware Corvette C6.R by 17 points over teammates Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia in the No. 3 sister car. But with 20 points to be awarded to the victors in Saturday’s street fight, that lead can evaporate in a heartbeat.

Gavin and Milner know the pitfalls of racing on Baltimore’s mean streets. Gavin finished third in last year’s inaugural race in a bruised and battered race car that he shared with Magnussen, who was caught up in a first-turn melee. Milner finished seventh after a fraught restart that saw him penalized for contact in Turn 1.

“I’ve done some media work in Baltimore, and I’ve seen the changes that they have made to the track that will be good for racing,” Milner reported. “The chicane before the start/finish line is gone – it was fun for us to pound the curbs, but not so good for racing. Turn 1 has been opened up and widened to create better passing opportunities and to prevent the incidents that happened there last year. The second chicane also has been relocated to allow more passing.

“Baltimore is a tough track because some sections are bumpy and low grip, while other sections have new asphalt and are very grippy,” he explained. “That poses a challenge for the engineers to set up a car that’s good in both sections. The Corvettes were quick last year, and we’ve seen this year that our new wide-body C6.Rs are competitive at every event. I’m looking forward to getting back to Baltimore and putting on a good fight.”

Gavin is on the same page as his driving partner. “It’s hammer down and go,” said the Englishman. “In a two-hour street race, it’s about being as fast as you can all the time. It’s pretty much a full-on, flat-out race to the finish.

“We stand a very good chance, but luck can play a huge role in your result in a street race,” he cautioned. “I expect the unexpected – somebody makes a boneheaded move, somebody spins in a blind corner and you can’t avoid driving into them, or you get caught up in someone else’s accident and your race is done. All street circuits are challenging and difficult for everyone involved, but they are also a huge amount of fun.”

Magnussen was teamed with Gavin last year when he went from 12th to fourth in minutes after being pinned against the wall in the first turn. This year the Dane is paired with Antonio Garcia, a rookie on the Baltimore circuit.

“It will be Antonio’s first race in Baltimore, and we have very little track time to practice and prepare,” Magnussen said. “We’ll have an opportunity to go around the track in golf karts and to look at the data from last year. I’ll give Antonio as many pointers as I can to get him up to speed fast, but with him it’s never a problem.

“I loved what they did with the whole show last year,” Magnussen noted. “Everything on track was terrific and I’m looking forward to going back. Since it’s a street circuit, it will have a tendency to change from year to year, so we have to find where the grip is. The top speeds will be much higher without the chicane in the middle of the straight, which will make it more difficult to get the car stopped going into Turn 1. Last year it was very bumpy in the braking zone, and now the cars will arrive faster so there is more chance of overtaking – and of making mistakes!”

“I always like street circuits, and the Corvette C6.R suits those circuits very well,” Garcia said. “Whether the race is one hour or six hours, track position is very important. We need to be ready and quick right away for qualifying. If you are in the top two or three positions, you have a good chance to win. We need to focus on being fast all of the time.”

The Baltimore Sports Car Challenge presented by SRT will start at 4:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, Sept. 1. The race can be viewed live on ESPN3.com starting at 4:15 p.m. ET. ABC will televise the race at 12 p.m. ET on Sunday, Sept. 2.

Source:
CorvetteRacing.com

Related:
[VIDEO] Here’s the Wild Finish for Corvette Racing at ALMS Road America
Corvettes Fourth and Sixth in Wild Finish at Road America
Corvettes Qualify Third and Fifth in Record-Smashing Qualifying Session
Corvette Racing at Road America: A Celebration of Speed

 

It’s been a busy couple of week with the Woodward Dream Cruise and Corvettes at Carlisle running on consecutive weekends. We finally got a chance to catch our breath and now we’ve got some really cool Corvette photo galleries coming from each event. But before we move on to Carlisle, let’s wrap up the 2012 Woodward Dream Cruise.

We and about 1.5 million of our closest friends converged on historic M-1 in metro Detroit to celebrate all things car and transportation related. Of course, the Corvettes were our favorite rides of the week so click past the jump to view our gallery of Corvettes from the 2012 Woodward Dream Cruise.

The event began in 1995 as a fundraising event for a Ferndale baseball field and has morphed into the world’s largest 1 day automotive event. Each year as many as 40,000 collector cars and over 1 million people pack the 16 mile stretch of America’s first highway to recreate years gone by when Woodward Avenue was Detroit’s unofficial automotive proving grounds.

The cruise is officially a one day event held on the 3rd Saturday in August. This year’s event took place last Saturday, August 18th, but eager cruisers hit the street days, even weeks, before that. After rain showers and storms during the previous couple of years we were happy to spend the entire day under bright Michigan sunshine basking in 70 degree temperatures.

Early in the day we perused the Corvette Timeline in the GM display and then took to the streets. After making the entire 16 mile long loop we set off on foot to explore the parking lots along the road. As usual they were completely packed with cars, trucks, and motorcycles of all makes and vintages.

If you’ve never been to the Woodward Dream Cruise, you really need to place it on your must-attend list. Next year’s cruise is August 17th, so you’ve got plenty of time of make plans. Meanwhile, enjoy our 2012 Woodward photo gallery below.

Related:
[PICS] The Corvette Timeline at the 2012 Woodward Dream Cruise
[PICS] 2012 Corvettes on Woodward Food Drive
2012 Corvettes on Woodward is Set for August 15-17
[PICS] GM Design Team’s Personal Car Show on Woodward

 

The saga surrounding the #1 Briggs Cunningham Corvette that raced at the 1960 24 Hours of Le Mans took another surprising turn over the weekend after its planned public unveiling Friday at Corvettes at Carlisle was abruptly canceled due to undisclosed security concerns. We have now learned that a Florida resident is claiming that the Corvette belonged to his father and says it was stolen from their backyard in 1976.

Several documents have been emailed to websites that have carried news of the former Le Mans race car’s finding (including CorvetteBlogger.com). The first document contained an overview of his claim that his father was the one who customized the Corvette and then raced it at drag strips in the Tampa Bay area.

Dan Mathis Jr. says the 1960 Corvette was purchased by his father, Dan Mathis Sr., from Jerry Porter for $700. Mathis Jr. says it was his father that customized the Corvette, giving it the custom body and paint that he says the car still retains today. According to the document, Mathis Jr. claims the vehicle was “KIDNAPPED” and hid away, with Mathis Sr. never seeing the car again. Dan Mathis Sr passed away in 1993.

There was no contact information provided in the first document that was emailed us, but the sender was a gmail account listed as “Mathis Group”. We replied back to the email with several questions including if Mathis was in possession of documents that showed ownership, a filed police report and pictures with Mr. Mathis Sr with the Corvette. A short reply from an unidentified person said that documentation was available, the police report was being searched for and yes, there are photos of the car.

Mathis Jr. told Jerry Garrett on Garrett On The Road that he “can show a continuous chain of title in our family since 1974.” Mr. Mathis provided Garrett with a Certificate of Title from the State of Florida and you can view it here.

In the second document we received on Sunday morning, (from a different sender with no contact info other than a gmail address), the writer claims that Dan Mathis Jr only wanted to be reunited with his father’s Corvette. Dan Mathis, Jr was quoted as saying, “when I saw the pictures of my father’ s car on the internet, it stirred up so many emotions. I want to see the car again, touch it, sit in it again, to sit snd [sic] talk my father again in heaven.”

The document claims that both Miller and Mackay were notified that there was an owner of record in Florida and that the case is now being investigated by police:

Lance Miller and Kevin Mackay were previously contacted by sources inquiring about the true ownership of the car, inquiring about the title for the car, and inquiring the previous transactions involving the car. They were also informed that there was an owner of record in Florida. After learning this new information, Lance and Kevin opted not to take
the reasonable and prudent route to legitimize this famous car. Instead they took route of deception and theft. The Carlise [sic], PA Police department, Pennsylvania State Police Dectectives [sic] and The District Attorney all were involved at the home and Lance Miller’s mother where the private showing of the car took place. Anonymous sources confirmed that the vehicle was being held and hidden from the police in the same garage while the police investigated and threatened search warrants and closure and the Corvettes at Carlise [sic] vent [sic] that was taking place at the fairgrounds.

The investgation [sic] concluded with a erroneous story being to that the corvette was no longer on the premises.

This case is currently being reviewed by state and federal law enforcement officials for identification of suspects and levels of criminal prosecution.

A picture of police outside Lance Miller’s mother’s home where the 1960 Corvette was last seen was included in the document:

We asked Lance Miller about the allegations from Mathis Jr. on Saturday morning. He said he could not comment on the matter specifically and that it’s now being handled by attorneys.

Mathis Jr. told Jerry Garrett he was a former law enforcement officer. A name search shows that a Dan Mathis Jr. served various Florida county sheriff departments from 1991-2007 where he is listed as having retired in good standing from the Hillsborough County Sheriffs office. A further search also showed that he was arrested in October 2010 and charged with Fraudulent Use of Personal ID Info. Jerry Garrett asked if that was indeed Mathis and he replied “Yes…First and only, and was thrown out by the State.”

Make sure you check back with CorvetteBlogger.com as we’ll continue to follow this story as it unfolds. In the meantime, check out Jerry Garrett’s excellent posts regarding the 1960 Briggs Cunningham Corvette here and here.

Sources:
Garrett On The Road
Mathis Document #1
Mathis Document #2

Related:
Public Reveal for the #1 1960 Briggs Cunningham Corvette Canceled Due to Undisclosed Security Concerns
[PICS] The #1 1960 Briggs Cunningham Le Mans Corvette Revealed at Corvettes at Carlisle
No. 1 Briggs Cunningham 1960 Le Mans Corvette Racer Found
The Quest Documentary is Now Available on DVD

 

Mystery continues to surround this 1957 Corvette drag car that was found covered by vines and other plant growth, barely visible in a field located in an undisclosed state, definitely a long way from its heyday as a racer.

Mike C. tells BarnFinds.com that a friend found the car and is trying to unearth as much information about it as he can to help in its restoration. Who knows? Some might even suggest that the car should be left just as it is, a living, breathing time machine of a vehicle.

Mike and his friend do have a few clues. The markings on the side indicate the Corvette was an NHRA racer in the 1960s. According to the BM/SP designation, we also know that this class ran from the mid-’60s to the late ’60s and included modified sports cars with an engine size to weight ratio of 7.5 to 9.99 pounds per cubic inch. Some have speculated that Martin & Hulford may have been the team or the drivers who raced the car.

At least one man has already responded on the Web claiming that he may have owned the car from 1965-68. “I am the one who painted it orange,” he writes. “It left my garage in that color. It ran a 283 in 65, a 327 in 64 and again in 1967-8. Unless there were two of them…which by the way DOES happen! Someone sees the car and replicates the design elsewhere. Again may NOT be the same car but as it looks in your pictures it brought back immediate memories!! I bought it stripped like in those photos.”

Perhaps someone out there knows the real story of this historic treasure and can offer details about how it was originally equipped and then modified. We wonder if the car ever won any races or set any records?

Source:
BarnFinds.com via CorvetteOnline.com

Related:
1963 Split-Window Corvette Barn Find Covered in 33 Years of Dust
Corvettes on eBay: 1961 Corvette is a True Barn Find
Wasting Away: 1963 Corvette Split Window Coupe