March 23, 1957 – Chevrolet Corvette SS makes only racing appearance
Although Chevrolet Corvette sales began to climb after the introduction of a V8 option in 1955, GM engineer Zora Arkus-Duntov saw a way to convince more buyers the Corvette was a true sports car: race it. He loaded up two stock Corvettes and a modified one and headed for the 1956 Daytona Speedweeks. The results were more than favorable. Race car driver John Fitch won the Sports Car division in one of the stock Corvettes, followed by Betty Skelton who took second place in the other. Duntov himself drove the modified Corvette in the Modified Sports Car division, which he won.
The success led to the entrance of four modified Corvettes in the 1956 12 hours of Sebring. Ed Cole, General Manager of Chevrolet, watched the action. To his dismay, the cars his team brought did not do well a...
