Nearly four months after Doug Fehan was dismissed from his position as Program Manager for Corvette Racing, the good doctor is returning to the fold as a Brand Ambassador. Doug will be with the team starting with their next appearance at the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix at Belle Isle Park on June 11-14th.
This is great news for Corvette Racing fans as it’s the side of Doug that we all know best. As a Brand Ambassador, Doug will make regular appearances in Corvette Corrals during the 2021 season as he interfaces with owners and fans, and you can bet that he will still be the go-to guy for TV appearances and media quotes.
“This is a welcomed opportunity to help continue taking the Corvette brand forward,” Fehan said as quoted by Autoweek. “We have a lot of exciting challenges ahead, but the competition engineering team is well-equipped to continue taking the legacy of Corvette Racing into the future. That’s evidenced by the win at the Rolex 24. I’m definitely looking forward to seeing all our fans during the 2021 IMSA season.”
We said last December that of all the events we attend and the “official” GM people we hear from, nobody does a better job at promoting the Corvette, Chevrolet, and General Motors than Doug Fehan. It was his unyielding belief that racing creates a better street car and his ability to communicate that to enthusiasts inevitably lead to the creation of one of the largest fan bases in sports car racing, and whose fans follow the Yellow and Silver race cars as ardently as any sports franchise.
With Doug’s leadership over the last two decades, Corvette Racing won 113 races including eight class wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Also included are 14 Team championships, and 13 Manufacturers and Drivers Championships as well.
While consistency has been one of the hallmarks of Corvette Racing, within the last eight months fans have seen an unprecedented upheaval with the team. Long-time crew chief Dan Binks retired, Pratt & Miller was sold to Oshkosh Corp, and the captain on the team, driver Oliver Gavin, “stepped back” at the end of the 2020 season as well. Mark Stielow became Director of Motorsports Competition Engineering, replacing Mark Kent who was shifted to GM’s Defense Operations. Following Doug’s ouster and the naming of Laura Klauser as the new Program Manager for the team, we also saw Nick Tandy and Alexander Simms added as drivers. And with the recently announced changes of IMSA doing away with the GTLM class in 2022 and possibly having the C8.Rs racing under a waiver next year in the new GTD Pro class, it will be good to have Doug back with the team and communicating with fans in his own unique style as only Doug can.
Former drivers Oliver Gavin and Ron Fellows also serve as Brand Ambassadors for Chevrolet. Oliver will join Antonio Garcia in early May as Corvette Racing will enter a single car in the FIA WEC’s season opener in Belgium at Spa-Francorchamps.
Corvette Racing will be back home in Detroit on June 11-12 for the IMSA Chevrolet Sports Car Classic. The race starts at 5:00 pm ET on Saturday, June 12th.
Source:
Autoweek
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it has been more than A year since Doug was no longer being quoted for comments for each race on Social Media. To me, this created a HUGE void about the campaign news of the vette team. Doug is also Known to give praise for other teams about their success where credit is due. Consequently he exposes the strong camaraderie within the GT racing community and validates the evolution of each brand and Racing Heritage. Nobody does this better than Doug. He is the ambassador for THE GT racing community, and respected all around the world…
Looks like GM wisely saw the need to do a bit of “damage control”.
This is great news, perfect position, everybody wins and Doug has a lot less stress in his life!
Go with what works……….Easy day..
Great news for Doug and for the Corvette Teams, not to mention for the CR fans. I’m hoping he’ll be unbridled to do his job as only he can. I don’t know what the organizational structure looks like, but it will serve no purpose if he’s relegated to only being Klauser’s puppet. Guess we’ll see how this fleshes out in the coming weeks and months. Hoping for the best.
Welcome back, Mr. Fehan! You are the leadership “glue” that will hold the elements of Corvette Racing together through all the changes in the next few years. Will be watching to see how you handle Corvette’s entry into the GT Daytona Pro class racing, especially at Le Mans.
It would be nice to know what is really going on at Chevrolet.
Lol! GM has no idea what they are doing these days. Doug should have never been let go of in the first place!
What Jay said.
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