Here for the IMSA GP....

me too. Funny how GM/Corvette can simply turn its back on such a great venue as Lime Rock and not support a Corvette Corral. I mean there isn’t much money in the New York/ CT area. Not many people buy Corvettes in the region. Why would you want to support the likes of Kerbeck Chevrolet and McMulkin Chevrolet who are the number 1 & 2 Corvette dealers in the world. Nah, just turn those sales over to Porsche, BMW, and Ford. We travel to great Corvette Corrals at Daytona, Sebring, Watkins Glen, VIR, and Road Atlanta but in New England we get zippo. Wake up Chevy. Support your fans and the Team. By the way, spare me the excuses. I’ve heard them all. They make no sense. Bring back the freaking corral.

Yet I was surprised to see the Corvettes her parade laps - I didn’t notice them doing this for anyone else.

We had to leave early and listened to the last hour on the radio - have the DVR set (3:30 FS1) - have to see the mistake the vette driver made that gave up the win (grrrrr!)

This subject hilites the internal differences in GM, on one hand the Corvette (production/development) team and on the other the accountants, legal and advertising groups. When I joined the NCM in 2003 there was a small amount of support and corral operations were farmed out to a small production company (think lowest bidder). They negotiated parking area and arranged for water sometimes and once in a while a tent. 2 individuals, one in Atlanta GA and one in Monterey CA mobilized their clubs and set the pattern for what was to come, visits by the drivers, talks by Fehan & others and slowly GM started to buy into that. It was part of my job starting in 2004 to arrange for volunteers and logistics working with a new promotions company that had their people in offices in the RenCen to make a seamless transition and represent GM/Chevrolet/Corvette. This was highly successful for several years and I was approached by other teams on how to make their corrals work as well as Corvette (it helps to be Corvette doh!). However in 2006 GM decided they could do it all themselves and Sebring was a disaster. I was there on my own and people from the production company asked me to intro the drivers and such because he didn’t know them and didn’t know what they were going to do. They didn’t even have car show supplies. The Museum (Events Dept) was asked to do corrals for balance of the year and the next year on an advisory basis (teach them the ropes) and then the economy and then bankruptcy changed it all. But even before 2008, which races to have a corral was based on the estimated size and Lime Rock having small area and high $$ cost (that little patch of grass is quite pricey as well as using the track caterers, table suppliers, etc) meant they had to pick and choose. Road America was an issue to them because the local club, Kettle Moraine, had built the corral and that was their real estate. So you can see it’s a an ongoing balancing act between the disparate groups and small venues with short races will go corral-less. That’s why Mid Ohio didn’t have one, they will concentrate on big races like Sebring, Laguna Seca, Rd Atlanta. Rd America since they in essence are subsidized by the existence of the permanent corral and of course Belle Isle becasue it’s in their home town. So it’s somewhat based on where to put advertising $$s (same with Cadillac btw) and remember they don’t really advertise Corvette that much - the theory being that they only build what has been sold so why bother?