ALMS Corvette C5 R Victories - Triple Decker

The factory Corvette C5-R team continued its march towards the manufacturer, team, and driver championships in August and September, winning two out of three races in a three week span.

The first race, at Mosport on August 19th, was the only round of the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) to be held outside the United States this year. Mosport is the "home track" for native Canadian and C5-R lead driver Ron Fellows, who resides about 30 minutes away from the circuit.

After coming within inches of gaining the team's first victory at last year's ALMS Mosport enduro, Fellows and his co-driver Andy Pilgrim, plus many local fans were bitterly disappointed, so it was with a real sense of mission that "the Canadian Rocket" returned to Mosport this year.

Fellows and his co-driver this year, Johnny O'Connell, wound up winning the GTS class in C5-R No. 3, but not without some difficulties along the way. Just as qualifying began, for example, a hideous misfire surfaced. Fellows was barely able to keep his engine running and did all he could to post a time of 1:39.296, the slowest in the entire starting field. The Pratt & Miller crew worked well past midnight to diagnose and solve what turned out to be an electrical problem and to change the clutch, which was fried during the qualifying lap because of the engine misfire.

Trouble for No. 3 continued during the race, which was marked by heavy rain and numerous shunts. The Corvettes consistently outperform their competition in the rain and Fellows is renowned for his wet weather driving skills, but that is of little help when other drivers lose control, as happened at Mosport. A GT class BMW spinning across the track forced Fellows off course and into a tire barrier at turn three. He managed to get right back into the fray with little more than some big cracks and bruises, but a short time later half of the car's rear fascia simply fell off onto the circuit.

The Corvette was not a pretty sight with its innards exposed to the world, but there was no mechanical damage. Fellows radioed in that it was understeering slightly but adjusted his driving technique to compensate for that. Like a man on a mission, he caught up to and passed the Konrad Motorsports Saleen S7-R for the class lead, which he and O'Connell managed to hold onto right up until the end.

In the meantime, No. 4, driven by Pilgrim and Kelly Collins, struggled to take second in class away from the Saleen. The fight shaped up to be one of the greatest dices seen in modern sports car racing, with so much paint swapping that both drivers were eventually given the "unsportsmanlike" flag. Unsportsmanlike or not, the fans loved every minute of the action, which ultimately resulted in second place for the Saleen and third for the Corvette.

Six days after the Mosport event, action moves to America's heartland for a race at Mid Ohio. Since this was that track's first ALMS race, the Corvette team did not have any data or previous experience to draw upon, making it more of an even playing field for the Konrad Saleen entry.

Once again Terry Borcheller put the S7-R on the pole, this time with a record setting lap of 1:21.401. That was 1.411 seconds faster than Fellows best effort and 1.861 seconds ahead of Pilgrim's fastest lap.

The Saleen's superior speed mattered for naught, however, after it tangled with one of the Audi R8 prototypes shortly before the first scheduled pit stop. The No. 38 Champion Audi, driven by ex Formula One ace Johnny Herbert, nailed the Saleen in its right front corner, causing the wheel to fall off in short order. Konrad nursed his three-legged car back to the pits with no permanent damage, but the mishap did put the car down a full lap.