Now I know all you Corvette fans were wondering if I was driving the Blue Devil, and sorry to disappoint you I wasn’t. 

For the first three days I trained in a 2005 Z-51 and 2002 Z-06. Both totally rocketships around the track, with really nothing out there faster. It was fun in that we were just blowing by Porsches , Ferraris, and Lambourghinis like they were standing still. 

At the end of the last day I got to do 3 good laps in a 2006 Z-06, and man what a car. So fast and so much grip. I never got to do a good timed lap as there was too much traffic, but think getting lower than the time that Jan did in the car, 7:43, is very doable based on what I was seeing for section times. 

So with luck I’ll get to go back when the weather is right and have a go.

Now the trick about that place is getting to know all the bumps and heaves in the circuit. Literally 4 or 5 times you are lifting the car off the ground at over 100MPH, and in one area you are about 2 or 3 feet in the air. 

The tricky thing is getting your throttle position right so that you jump with the car flat in the air, and not with the tail up. Very hard to do, and man you have to suck it up. 

The speeds are so great, and literally you have no run-off room, so any mistake is going to be huge and painful !!!

The first day I did training there with Tom Wallace who every Corvette owner should be happy is running the ship. 

The guy is a total car nut, and so passionate about racing, the Corvette, and high performance in all the vehicles. Also he’s a really great driver on top of it all. So he has a good feel for what the Corvette should feel like.

Another guy I worked a lot with is Jim Mero. He’s the guy really in charge of how the Corvette is tuned handling wise. Also an amazing driver, the guy is totally switched on about how the car should behave, and is awesome at tuning the things. He’s one of those guys folks don’t know about, but is a key component in the world class handling of the car. 

Also there running a bunch of other high performance GM stuff ( read top secret ) was John Heinreicy. I got to look at some of his data while there, and the guy has totally no fear at all, and obviously is an amazing driver as well. 

So all in all it was a great trip and I look forward to going back. See you all at Petit this week….it should be one heck of a show !!!

Johnny O

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Johnny was scheduled to return in October to attempt to set the lap record for a street car, but a scheduled testing session for the C6.R has forced this to be rescheduled.

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