[VIDEO] Watch a Corvette ZR1X Run the 55th Annual Virginia City Hill Climb

Sep 30, 2026

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[VIDEO] Watch a Corvette ZR1X Run the 55th Annual Virginia City Hill Climb

Hill climb events have been part of the American racing scene for decades now as evidenced by the Virginia City Hillclimb event now celebrating its 55th year. The course is a 5.2-mile section of Highway 341 that starts at 5,000 feet above sea level and ends at 6,200 ft, and along the way there are 21 turns.

One of the participants is Justin Hertel who shared this POV video to YouTube showing him behind the wheel of a 1250-hp 2027 Corvette ZR1X and we just knew we were about to witness something special.

After all, we saw what the All-Wheel Drive ZR1X did when it raced at Pikes Peak earlier this year and how JR Hildebrand and Team Chevy broke the standing record for production cars with a time that was 23 seconds faster. It turns out that the combination of forced induction and hybrid assist is exactly what these cars need when participating in higher elevation events.

But unlike the Pikes Peak attempt, this Corvette ZR1X owner made this run to Virginia City without the GM engineers and Michelin tire reps. And according to the description, it just surpassed its 500 miles break in period before the attempt was made and the driver has spent zero time in the seats.

In a post on Facebook, Justin describes the experience:

With no real seat time in a car that literally hit the 500 mile break-in mark 2 days before loading up for the hill left me to learn the car on a course with zero margin for error. This is the first run I made a significant leap by refraining from over braking and focusing on maintaining more momentum. You definitely can’t no lift these turns in this car 🤠 On this run I am starting to carry more speed thru turns and plan my exits better as it does take a second or so for the boost to build back up and hit warp speed. At no point was the car out of shape. I could tell it was heavy, but it is extremely stable and well planted. Having said that, it felt like the hill was eating up the 1250HP, making me feel like I could have used more

The end result?

The Corvette ZR1X finished at the top of the weekend results with a time of 3:06:49 and just 2.7 seconds off the fastest recorded time ever for the event. Not too shabby for its first event!!