Special Edition
February 2000

Membership in the Registry has many facets . . . the C5 Net, the Web Page, the newsletter . . . . but the part I ENJOY THE MOST IS THE EVENTS! We have just returned from the C5 Registry event at the Rolex 24 Hours @ Daytona. The race itself was FABULOUS with Corvette coming in 2^nd place overall and 2^nd in the GTO class and beating all Vipers except for one . . . losing to the world champion ORCA Viper #91 Team by only 30 seconds, after 24 hours of racing!! Imagine. . . . after 24 hours of racing, the 1^st and 2^nd place cars were within 30 seconds of each other . . . that is nothing more than a hiccup during a pitstop!

The weekend started off GREAT with a C5 Registry dinner Friday night with 275 people in attendance, most of them C5 Registry members. We also had a good sprinkling of GM engineers, dealers and other Corvette "celebrities"! We had a few surprises for those in attendance. The first being "C5 Registry Motorsports" ~ our Corvette Racing fan club. You have heard me talk about this in the past. There is no cost to join and nothing to do to join . . . just show up at the races to cheer Corvette on! (We have golf and T-shirts available. Just let us know if you are interested.) We are putting together a Motorsports Web Site. When it is ready to debut, we will be sure and let you know! Check out the official Motorsports logo at the right.

We also introduced a brand new decal to show our support for Corvette's March to Le Mans . . . we SOLD OUT (over 200!) of the first printing of the decal in Daytona and have ordered additional decals to meet the demand of our members! At the Left is the decal. If you are interested in purchasing one, they are available for $3.55/each (our cost plus postage). We also made a very exciting announcement on a brand new venture for the Registry . . . we have joined forces with the Matthew Thomas Agency to produce a television show for SpeedVision that highlights our hobby . . . the Corvette! "Corvette: The American Dream" will showcase both old and new Corvettes, restoration and new part installation, and spotlight Corvette owners and their stories. It will air Thursdays at 7:00 p.m. on SpeedVision. We expect the show to premiere sometime in April - just in time for the Birthday Bash!

Saturday, we gathered early at the Daytona Backstretch to begin our historic parade lap around the Daytona International Speedway. What a sight! The Parade was led by the Millennium Yellow C5s, followed by the Indy Pace Cars, C5s, Grand Sports and other vintage Corvettes. It was great - 197 Corvettes speeding around the Tri-Oval and Road Course at Daytona!

With our adrenaline pumping high, this fabulous day was just getting started! Over 400 Registry members proceeded to the backstretch sky-boxes reserved especially for US by GM. We were treated to complimentary continental breakfast and later lunch! The skyboxes were ours all day Saturday and Sunday! We really got the celebrity treatment!

Dave Hill and Jim Campbell spent about 4 1/2 hours in the skybox with us on Saturday evening and both of them told me that our view was better than the official GM Sky Box on the other side of the track!!

On Sunday, tension was building as the Corvette C5R, under the expert guidance of Ron Fellows, came from almost three laps back to challenge the first-place Viper within 30 seconds! It was a phenomenal driving job by Fellows and his teammates, Chris Kneifel, and Justin Bell, son of the famous Derek Bell (winner of the 1986, 1987 and 1989 24 Hours of Daytona). The C5 Registry members were screaming their lungs out as Fellows gained on the Vipers, lap by lap! If the race had only been the 25 hours of Daytona, we might have grabbed the first place spotlight! But as it was, this was the absolute highest finish Corvette has ever had in this historic 24-hour race. Before this millennium race, the best finish Corvette ever had was back in the 60s, which I believe was 4^th over all.

I would like to think that in some way the enthusiasm our members showed the drivers' helped to contribute to the successful run of the C5R racing effort! This was one of our greatest events ever! If it is any indication of how the rest of 2000 is going to be, this is going to be one spectacular year!!

I would like to personally thank the people from Chevrolet for making this great event possible for the C5 Registry! See you at Sebring . . . another FABULOUS event!