Four Corvettes competed in the 1960 24 Hours of Le Mans - three entered by sportsman Briggs Cunningham and one by Camoradi USA. Cunningham's No. 2 Corvette driven by Dr. Dick Thompson and Fred Windridge will be on display at the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca ALMS event, and Thompson will be on hand to describe his Le Mans experiences. The No. 2 Corvette retired at 20 hours, but the sister No. 3 Cunningham Corvette driven by John Fitch and Bob Grossman won its class and finished eighth overall.
Chevy's second-generation Corvette made its Le Mans debut in 1967, driven by Corvette legends Dick Guldstrand and Bob Bondurant. Guldstrand will be reunited with the restored Corvette and share his memories of Le Mans at the historic Corvette display in the ALMS paddock in Monterey.
The 1969 Greenwood Corvette competed in the Triple Crown of sports car racing - the 12 Hours of Sebring, 24 Hours of Daytona, and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Constructed and campaigned by John Greenwood, this star-spangled Corvette was driven by top road course drivers of the period including comedian Dick Smothers and Chevrolet performance specialist Don Yenko. Greenwood, Bob Johnson and Jim Greendyke raced this remarkable machine at Le Mans in 1973.
Chevrolet will close the circle of Le Mans Corvettes with the 2011 Corvette Z06 painted in the traditional white and blue American racing colors carried by the Cunningham Corvettes 50 years ago. This one-of-a-kind Corvette Z06 (VIN 0001) was first unveiled at the National Corvette Museum in April and will be sold at auction later this year to benefit the museum.
No team has enjoyed more success with Corvettes at Le Mans than Pratt & Miller's Corvette Racing. The team has claimed six GTS/GT1 class titles since 2001. This year's twin Compuware Corvette C6.R race cars will compete in the six-hour Laguna Seca endurance race against GT class rivals Ferrari, Porsche, BMW, and Jaguar. Corvette Racing's quartet of drivers - Johnny O'Connell and Jan Magnussen in the No. 3 Corvette C6.R, and Oliver Gavin and Olivier Beretta in the No. 4 Corvette C6.R - have a total of 17 Le Mans class victories between them. They'll be joined at Laguna Seca by Corvette Racing ambassador Ron Fellows, himself a two-time winner at Le Mans.
In addition to the history and the racing on display, Chevrolet is going to offer a 7.8-mile ride-and-drive that will allow attendees to drive the 2010 Corvette on the roads around Monterey.