pictured left to right jim agar (communications) - Description ...

For all of the team's success in the last 10 seasons, perhaps its
most significant victory to date was its overall win in the
inaugural ALMS Green Challenge on Oct. 4, 2008, a "race within
a race" contested in conjunction with Petit Le Mans. Working
with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S
Department of Energy, and SAE International, the series
organizers and the Argonne National Laboratory determined the
"greenest" entries in the Prototype and GT classes based on
energy used, greenhouse gases emitted, and petroleum fuels
displaced. The Green Challenge was designed to recognize the
fastest car with the smallest environmental impact - and when
the results were tallied, Corvette Racing's No. 3 Compuware
Corvette C6.R had the best score among the 37 entries, securing
the GT team award for Corvette Racing and the GT manufacturer award for GM.
Corvette Racing has also won accolades away from the track. In February 2006,
the championship-winning Corvette C6.R race car was named the "North
American Car of the Year" over marques such as Audi, Aston Martin and Maserati
by dailysportscar.com, a noted online magazine that provides in-depth coverage
of sports car and GT series worldwide. In November 2006, Corvette Racing's
LS7.R small-block V-8 was honored as the "Global Motorsport Engine of the Year"
at the inaugural Professional Motorsport World Expo in Cologne, Germany. The
award was voted by an expert panel of 50 key race engine engineers
representing the spectrum of motorsports.
The Corvette C6.R race car is the most technically advanced sports car ever
developed by GM, combining sophisticated chassis, powertrain and aerodynamic
technology developed by GM Racing with the advanced engineering of the sixthgeneration
Corvette, Corvette Z06, and Corvette ZR1 production models. The
Corvette C6.R has strong links to its showroom counterpart, as required by the ALMS and Le Mans rules
that mandate close adherence to production specifications. For example, the same hydroformed frame
rails used in production Corvettes provide a strong foundation for the race cars. The race-prepared LS7.R
engine shares its architecture with the production 505-horsepower LS7 small-block V-8 that powers the
Corvette Z06.
"We have a saying that we race around the clock and win around the world," explained Chevy Racing
marketing manager Todd Christensen. "The coverage that the Corvette Racing team receives has
propelled Corvette and Chevrolet onto the world stage. The people who own Corvettes are very aware of
the product, and they understand how racing enhances the cars they drive."
For more than 50 years, racing has played a key role in defining Corvette as America's performance icon.
Corvette's first class victory at the 12 Hours of Sebring in 1956 was the first step onto the world stage
that established its reputation as a contender in top-level competition. Now, with eight ALMS
manufacturers championships, seven drivers championships and six GT1 class victories in the 24 Hours of
Le Mans, America's favorite sports car now stands at the pinnacle of international endurance racing.