Mark Reuss Gets Back On The Horse Following Last Year’s Belle Isle Pace Car Crash

General Motors was the subject of the internet’s ridicule last year when company president Mark Reuss (who was still only serving as product boss at the time) crashed a 2019 Corvette ZR1 pace car into a wall while leading the IndyCar field to green for the Belle Isle Grand Prix.

It was an unusual mistake from Reuss, who has plenty of experience on the track and behind the wheel of high-powered GM products like the savage 755 horsepower Corvette ZR1. He expressed deep regret after the crash and apologized for letting the company down, but we’re happy to report the incident didn’t scare him away from the daunting Belle Isle circuit for good. Far from it.

Reuss was the one driving the red and black camouflaged Cadillac CT5-V prototype on track at Belle Isle this past weekend, according to The Detroit Free Press. The publication says it never expected to see Reuss out on the tight and bumpy Belle Isle circuit ever again and was shocked to see him wheeling the pre-production development car around the street course between races, giving the crowd a bit of a halftime show.

Even more impressively, Reuss was the one who piloted the C7 Corvette Grand Sport pace car for the second IndyCar race of the weekend. His crash delayed the start of the race last year, so it would have taken a good degree of confidence to step on track with the same field of drivers this year. There was no shortage of cautions in the race, either, so Reuss was certainly busy behind the wheel.

It’s not clear if he drove the pace car for Race 1 of the weekend, however, which began in extremely slippery conditions after an intense thunderstorm delayed the start. Part-time IndyCar driver Oriol Servia typically drives the pace car for the series , so we wouldn’t be surprised if he filled in for Reuss in the wet conditions.