[VIDEO] Le Man’s Memories: Mike West Plays the Star Spangled Banner

The Corvette Z06 GT3Rs are in Le Mans this week for the annual French Summer Classic at La Sarthe, but unfortunately, it just doesn’t quite hold the same excitement for us as it once did when our dedicated IMSA factory team was there. Don’t get me wrong, we are supporting TF Sport throughout this weekend, but I just don’t know anything about them. Back in the hey-day of GT1 racing, we could name all six drivers on the two teams, as well as the crew chiefs and even some of the crew members. Sure, it was a factory backed team, but it was run like a privateer team whose only goals were to win and have fun doing it.

There were a lot of Corvette Racing traditions set back then, including the first iteration of the mascot Jake who was just a skull painted on the pit floor. Then we had David James blowing the famous train horn daily at 12 noon for lunchtime, as well as Mike West playing of the National Anthem on guitar on Fridays.

I had sort of forgotten about the guitar bit, but this video from Pratt Miller Motorsports on X.com popped up in our timeline to bring it all back. The video features Mike West who was one of the Corvette Racing crew members for the team back in the day, although he moved over to Johnny O’Connell’s team when Pratt Miller started racing Cadillacs.

In the video, he talks about how playing the Star Spangled Banner with a guitar on Pit Road came to be:

Source:
Pratt Miller Motorsports

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Corvette Racing at Le Mans: Satisfying Sunday
Corvette Racing at Le Mans: Taking on the World
[VIDEO] Doug Fehan Talks About Corvette Racing’s Never Give Up Attitude at Le Mans

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