ED209
[Purist]
7307
Corvette C7.R at the Grand Prix of Long Beach 2015
This weekend the Tudor United SportsCar Championship racing made it's way over to Long Beach, California. This is the second year of the race series and the 3rd circuit after Dayton and Sebring. There are 4 classes in the United SportsCar Championship series, Prototype, Prototype Challenge, GT Le Mans, and GT Daytona. For Long Beach, only Prototype and GT Le Mans were racing. As a huge Corvette fan I was there over the weekend to cheer on the Chevrolet Corvette Racing Team in both classes.
Race tickets, Corvette Corral parking passes, and other items ready for the race!
As in previous years when this was the ALMS races, Chevrolet hosted a Corvette Corral and hospitality suite for Corvette owners. Private parking at the Marina area near granstand 26. 100 lucky Corvette sportscars were allowed to attend.
The Chevrolet hospitality staff did an amazing job as always. We arrived early and registration was quick and easy on several touch screens. Each of received a nice goodie bag with Corvette Racing emblems, ear plugs, and a really nice C7.R t-shirt.
Refreshments, snacks, and food were served throughout the day. Several seminars were held and started with a technical presentation by Mobil 1. Like most sports cars, Mobil 1 synthetic oil is used exclusively in Corvettes for many years and the partnership is a learning (and winning) experience on and off the race track. A really cool gift that was presented to the Corvette Racing Team was a special plaque from Mobil 1 that had a drop of oil and the race car to celebrate the success from the 2014 race season. And for the raffle Mobil 1 was generous enough to give out one of these to a lucky winner.
Next was a presentation by the Michelin Tire Team. Similar to last year, a sample cross section cut-out tire was passed around the room to showcase the Michelin technology being used on the current C7 Corvette Z06. The best part during the raffle was the bobble head Bibendum figure that was given away. I wish I would have won this really cool item. But during the presentation it was great to hear the stories from the Michelin Team members that they are test drivers and can provide valuable feedback.
In between the presentations in the morning, we took a quick break to head out the race track and see the IndyCar practice laps. On the way there we passed by the concession stands and found a fun tent, the Spamerican Tour. This was a lot of fun and they had a picture booth with their mascot that you can take pictures and upload to instagram or twitter to participate in a contest to win a trip to Hawaii for the annual SpamJam event.
And freebie tasty sample of spam were given out at their food truck.
A classic Hawaiian snack, a spam musubi with Japanese rice, nori seaweed and a pan seared slice of spam. We also sample their 'fried spam fries'. Both delicious!
Heading back to the Corvette Corral we joined in with a presentation of Corvettes by Ed Piatek. Ed was the prior Cadillac CTS-V program engineer manager and gave us a really interesting story about past Corvette chief engineer Zora Arkus-Duntov, his Z06 designation, and the relationship with the suspension design at Porsche. Yes, Porsche! I'll have to write up the full story later but it is really interesting and something I didn't know.
A raffle was held to have a hot-lap with the Corvette C7.R race car and one lucky winner (unfortunately not me) go to do a fast lap on the track. Then Janeen Azarovitz from Corvette Accessories Division gave a presentation about official factory Corvette products. New to me was the Corvette luggage that fits nicely in the Corvette C7 trunk. There were also car accessories like the carbon fiber aero panels and front splitter. Very cool and bolt on from any Chevy dealer. And it was great to hear that these can be ordered and shipped directly to the customer or to a dealer for installation. I think this is a good way for Corvette to handle these upgrades by working with their website and dealers. I also enjoyed a nice private tour of interior accessories with a C7 car on display. Thanks to Janeen for spending time with me!
After the presentation at noon, we headed over to the Lifestyle Expo area in the middle of the racetrack to see the different displays. As in past years, they have a fun kid's area with a airsoft and laser tag shooting range, inflatable slides, and a slot car race track. And they had electric race cars for kids too.
In the main convention hall Tamiya had their display of radio control cars, plastic model kits and slot cars. Tables were set up for the kids and their parents along with Tamiya staff to help assemble the slot cars then let them run it on the dedicated track. Very cool offering.
Traxxas was also very popular. It was awesome to see them out with a nice display and offroad track showing their radio control cars.
Of course Chevrolet had a large area with several Corvette's and Camaro's on display. Cadillac Racing was there too and gave out some nice t-shirts.
Back again at the Corvette Corral for lunch. Roast beef sandwiches were tasty and so were the potato and macaroni salads.
Desserts and cookies to finish up for lunch.
At 2pm we had Ron Fellows, a former Corvette Racing Team driver and winner at ALMS, LeMans among many others, spoke about Corvette Racing and his racing school. Last year I remembered him speaking about the collaboration he has with Chevrolet and offered any C7 owner a subsidized racing school program. Raffles were given for a free racing lesson from his school.
Heading back over to the race track, we had a few distractions
Then in the grandstands we cheered on the Corvette Racing Team in the #3 and #4 C7.R race cars.
Well in the end, the #3 Chevrolet C7.R came in 3rd place behind the IHG Rewards Club BMW Z4 and the Risi Competizione Ferrari F458 Italia. In the Prototype class Corvette came in first and took the checkered flag with the Konica Minolta Racing Corvette DP Team.
Hope you enjoyed the pictures, I'm looking forward to Corvette Racing when the next race takes them to the Mazda Raceway Leguna Seca next month.
Regards,
ED-209
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Corvette C7.R at the Grand Prix of Long Beach 2015
This weekend the Tudor United SportsCar Championship racing made it's way over to Long Beach, California. This is the second year of the race series and the 3rd circuit after Dayton and Sebring. There are 4 classes in the United SportsCar Championship ser...
I wish I could have done a lap on the track
They had a raffle for a hot lap in the C7.R with one of the Corvette race car drivers. Wish I would have won that :) Thanks for reading Nicolas. Regards, ED-209
re: GPLB 2015
Thanks for sharing the pics, Long Beach GP is always fun to attend. You got Spam Musubi? Cool! A few years back when we were in Oahu we spotted the Spam-mobile! -MW
It was a fun event as always
Corvette does a great job every year since I've been attending. And the SoCal Corvette enthusiasts really show their dedication. We had 100 Corvettes. There was a BMW and new Bentley Corral's this year, but surprisingly both were sparsely populated. Spam ...
Wish I could've made it this year, Ed. As it turned out . . .
. . . there were unexpected issues that cropped up; otherwise, I was planning on attending Saturday afternoon. Here's hoping for next year! Art
Looks fun!
Reminds me of when I attended the Long Beach Grand Prix with you and other fellow PuristS at the Corvette Corral. I probably would've never made it inside the tent, the 100 Corvette cars would've taken two hours just to look over each car individually!
The BMW Corral could have used your support
They only had a few cars in the BMW Corral. Hope you can make it next year. On a lighter note, it was the first win for BMW in the GTLM class this year. Regards, ED-209
The poor BMW group...
Ahh, the BMW people... Well, I'd think the Corvette group would be more interesting and more involved. I remember last year you mentioned they had technical educational seminars about tires etc. The BMW Corral might've been more empty because it was less ...
Just a little tent
I wish more BMW enthusiasts (I know that there are plenty in SoCal) would have supported BMW's efforts of sponsoring a corral. Great parking and they could have cheered on the BMW that won it's first race of the season. BMW had a very small tent with 2 st...
Well, I'll go to Pebble Beach 2016. How about that?
It's a big year for BMW (their centenary) as the company recognizes it was founded in 1916 (although some historians would argue even earlier than that).
I'm sure it will be spectacular
BMW's 100 year anniversary next year will be big, hope they plan on some epic showcases of cars at Pebble Beach next year. Regards, ED-209
Hopefully it'll be at Pebble...
And I hope you'll make it up to Pebble to celebrate with all the BMW crazies!
BMW and Bentley corrals
Both the BMW and Bentley corrals were sparse. Wish more enthusiasts would have taken advantage of the great parking location. Bentley only had about 6 cars, BMW about the same. There were plenty of more spaces :( Hope you and Patrick can attend next year ...
Corvette still looks much more interesting...
If BMW only had a small staff of two, and no educational seminars, I'd go to Corvette. The passion is for cars in general, and I'm not held to a specific brand. If Bentley has any interesting seminars, that'd be worthwhile to consider as well. Although co...
