First Corvette Races Competitively at the Corvette Museum’s Motorsports Park

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The first Corvette to compete in a race at the National Corvette Museum’s Motorsports Park made a very good showing over the weekend.

Team Braunschweig, out of Minnesota, decided to make the trip to compete in the World Racing League’s season opener in Bowling Green on Saturday, making their No. 117 C5 the only Corvette to compete against 21 other teams in the GP1 class.

Braunschweig wound up with a best time of 1:50.481 and best speed of 65.17 mph to finish runner-up behind Triple Nine Racing’s best time of 1:50.419 and best speed of 65.206 mph.

Braunschweig member Matt Peterson said the challenge of being the first Corvette to compete at the Motorsports Park was the draw for his team to make the trip from Minnesota to Bowling Green.

“That was kind of the reason we did it,” Peterson said. “We were kind of on the fence about coming, but we saw that a Corvette had never been raced here, so we’re like ‘we’ve got to do it.’ ”

Saturday’s race was Team Braunschweig’s fourth WRL event, coming off a third-place finish at Texas World Speedway last December.

League President Joey Todd praised the location of the NCM park, saying “it bridges the gap between the Southern states and the Northern states.”

He also said racers enjoyed the actual track, though some were disappointed they only ran two miles of the 3.1-mile layout. “They said this is a fun track,” Todd said.

Peterson agreed. “It’s a lot of fun,” he said. “It’s a great layout with nice facilities.”

In case you’ve never heard of the World Racing League, the endurance racing series is attracting attention in just its second year of operation with its straightforward rules and a power to weight-based classing system that opens the series to most production cars racing today.

“WRL is open to just about every race-prepared production car you can imagine, from Boxsters to Bobcats,” Todd said. “Our races attract a lot of support from local racers who want the challenge, strategy, and fun of team-based endurance racing without the contact or one-off rules inherent to grassroots budget endurance racing. To that end, we provide a pro-racing experience on an affordable budget.”

Team Braunschweig’s Peterson is definitely impressed with the WRL and the NCM Motorsports Park.

“The biggest thing about these events are the people,” he said. “The people are fantastic.”

While Peterson said the team wasn’t sure at first about making such a long trip to Bowling Green, once they arrived, they were sold on the new motorsports park.

“We’ll definitely be back next year,” he said.


Source:
bgdailynews.com

Related:
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Corvette Museum’s Motorsports Park Recognized as Outstanding Facility of the Year
[VIDEO] Take a Hot Lap of the NCM Motorsports Park with Ron Fellows

 



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