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GM Media Press Release

FOR RELEASE:  September 5, 2000
CONTACT:  Chevrolet Communications
PHONE:  1-800-CHEVY MI or 313-667-9317
CONTACT:  GM Racing Motorsports Communications
PHONE:  +32-2-6632393

Corvette Does Texas-Two Step to Winner's Circle

FORT WORTH - Battling triple-digit temperatures as well as an old nemesis, Corvette drivers Ron Fellows and Andy Pilgrim claimed the first victory for the Corvette C5-R with their GTS class win in the Grand Prix of Texas at Texas Motor Speedway. The #3 GM Goodwrench Service Plus Corvette C5-R lead the majority of the 2-hour, 45-minute American Le Mans Series race and bested their main rival, the Team Oreca Vipers. 

"The snake has been bitten in Texas!" lead driver Ron Fellows said afterwards. "This is just awesome. Thanks to all of the guys. We're going to savor this one. This has been a long time in coming. This is a track that no one had been to so we thought it was going to be a straight up fight, and the guys just had a tremendous effort. The Corvette was terrific, the limiting factor was just Andy and I surviving and we managed. This feels awesome."

"The Corvette was flawless, it was just a matter of survival. I actually had to hold my breath at times because the air was so hot to breathe. Andy did a terrific job going one and a half stints, and then I got in at the end and we had a nice comfortable lead. The Corvette team has come close a few times, and we've shown we had the speed this year. Five or ten more minutes of rain and we would've won at Mosport, so maybe this is a little payback for those 3/10ths of a second." 

Expatriate Briton Andy Pilgrim was just as happy as his Canadian teammate: "We look happy, don't we? The GM Racing guys, GM Goodwrench, Goodyear, Pratt & Miller, everyone involved, this has been an incredible two years in the making. What can I say? Ron did a phenomenal job. I've really enjoyed driving with him. He's a total professional, an excellent driver, and I'm just happy to have driven with him these two races, here and at Mosport.

"This probably wouldn't mean so much if the Vipers hadn't been so good - I mean they're the world champions and have raised the bar, and we would raise it higher, so it means that much more to have beaten them on an even playing field where no one had been before. It couldn't be better. I used to live here in Texas, so it's nice to come back here and win."

The win is even more important because the Texas race wasn't on the team's initial 2000 race calendar. "Quite frankly, I didn't have any interest of coming to Texas in August, and with these temperatures, you can see why I didn't include it on our original schedule," Corvette Program Manager Doug Fehan explains. "But we had a very generous sponsor step up that's based here in Dallas, AER Manufacturing, and they're very close to Ron (Fellows), so that moved me a little." 

"But more importantly, when I looked at it, no one had been here before, no one had raced here before. What that meant was that the Vipers didn't have four years of information gathered up with which they could use to beat us. So this was a true test of crews, cars and drivers. We'd be able to see what happens when we got matched up straight away with nobody having an advantage, and I had every confidence we could do this, I believed in our personnel, and they didn't let me down. It was a great job." 

"The conditions with the heat provided challenges to the team that they also had to step up to aside from the technological ones. We incorporated some unique things to help the guys out, including a lawn chair and garden hose that we used to cool the drivers down - the Fehan special cooling technique. People laugh but it worked. And the drivers had to be in great physical condition. Andy's stint through the middle was unbelievable, just an iron-man stint. He really set the stage for Ron to recover and finish up. To be able to sit in that car that long and do that good of a job is absolutely remarkable. The guy's unbelievable - I kid him that he's part reptile."

"All I can say is God bless Texas!" Gary Claudio, Group Marketing Manager GM Racing, concluded. "The race was unbelievable. The pit stops were flawless, the Corvette was flawless. And I understand the engine that was in the car today was in the #64 Corvette at Le Mans, so the tradition continues for this engine - podium finish the first time competing in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and now the first win at Dallas. The guys performed excellently, and I think the Corvette brand and all of the Corvette owners around the world should be very proud of Team Corvette."

GRAND PRIX OF TEXAS - ALMS Round 7 - RESULTS

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