2007 Corvette Racing Season

The 2007 season for Corvette Racing featured a lack of competition for the team. During the American Le Mans Series, Corvette Racing only faced two other opponents in the GT1 class across three races. This included the privateer Aston Martin DBR9 run by Team Modena at the 12 Hours of Sebring. The other opponent was the Lista Doran Racing Maserati MC12 which raced at round eight of the ALMS at Road America and the Petit Le Mans. This left Corvette Racing to battle themselves throughout most of the season making for an easy ALMS Manufactures Championship win.

For the 2007 season, legendary Corvette Racing driver; Ron Fellows, announced he would be stepping down from full time driving duties of the #3 Corvette C6.R. Fellows would remain a part of the #3 team as the third driver for the endurance races. The open full time seat of the #3 C6.R would be filled by Jan Magnussen, pairing him with Johnny O’Connell.

As a celebration of Ron Fellows career with Corvette Racing, General Motors released a limited edition Corvette (C6) Z06. The limited edition Z06 named the Ron Fellows ALMS GT1 Champion edition featured a unique paint scheme of Artic White with Monterey Red Metallic fender stripes with integrated accomplishments Fellows had with Corvette Racing. The limited edition Z06 was produced in low numbers with only 399 made in total. Ron Fellows personally signed and numbered the inside of each glovebox of all 399 cars and he would personally purchase #001 for himself. Corvette Racing in conjunction to celebrate the career of Ron Fellows, used the Ron Fellows ALMS GT1 Champion paint scheme on the #3 C6.R at the 2007 Twelve Hours of Sebring.

Image used with authorization from Nigel S. Dobbie

Ron Fellows acted as the third driver for the #3 C6.R at the three endurance races of the 2007 season but wanted to run at his home race at Mosport. This created a unique situation where a third car from Pratt & Miller would be entered into the race at Mosport. Chassis C6R-003 would be entered as #33 wearing the Ron Fellows ALMS GT1 Champion paint scheme. Andy Pilgrim joined Ron Fellows for driving duties and the car would finish third in class behind the #4 and #3 C6.Rs.

Image used with authorization from Nigel S. Dobbie

Corvette Racing’s three year winning streak of the GT1/GTS class at Le Mans was broken by Prodrives Aston Martin DBR9 taking the GT1 class victory. The #63 C6.R would finish second in class behind the Prodrive Aston Martin DBR9. Unfortunately the #64 car retired due to the cylinder deactivation system used under safety car periods, created harmonics that delaminated the propshaft. This would be the first time Corvette Racing had to retire a car at Le Mans.

For the American Le Mans Series the #4 C6.R driven by Oliver Gavin and Olivier Berretta would win nine out of the twelve rounds. This would hand Corvette Racing their seventh straight ALMS Manufactures Championship and the duo of Oliver Gavin and Olivier Berretta would collect their third straight GT1 Drivers Championship.

2007 Corvette Racing Schedule & Results

#3 Chevrolet Corvette C6.R Drivers 2007 (#63 used for Le Mans)

Johnny O’Connell

2007 marked the seventh year for Johnny O’Connell as Corvette Racing driver. Due to Ron Fellows stepping down from full time driving duties, O’Connell would be paired with Jan Magnussen.

O’Connell is recognized as one of North America’s most talented race drivers. He began his racing career in single-seaters competing professionally in the Formula Atlantic series in 1987 where he won five races, the championship and Rookie of the Year. O’Connell moved to sports car racing where he would scored a class victory in the 1993 12 Hours of Sebring, an overall win in 1994 and another class victory in 1995 all driving a Nissan 300ZX Turbo for Clayton Cunningham Racing. At his first outing at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1994 he achieved a class victory.

O’Connell joined the Indycar series in 1996 where he competed in 4 races including the Indianapolis 500. In 1997 O’Connell made a return to sports car racing driving a Panoz GTR-1 in the IMSA GT race at Pikes Peak where he finished third. O’Connell competed in five races in a Hawk C-8 Chevrolet in the IMSA championship for the Mandeville Auto Tech team the same year before returning to full time sports car racing with Panoz Motorsports in 1998.

O’Connell joined Corvette Racing in 2001, scoring an overall victory at the Rolex 24 at Daytona in his first race for the team. In the same year he was part of the #63 crew helping Corvette Racing achieve their first class victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Whilst part of Corvette Racing he helped the team capture eight straight manufacturers titles and shared the drivers championship for the GTS class with teammate Ron Fellows in 2002, 2003 and 2004. In 2008, O’Connell and teammate Jan Magnussen dominated the GT1 class in the C6.R, scoring eight wins and the class championship. O’Connell is the all-time leader in Sebring victories with his eight career wins in 2009.

Jan Magnussen

Jan Magnussen was promoted from third driver role of the #4 C6.R, to his first full time seat with Corvette Racing. Magnussen was paired with Johnny O’Connell to fill the open seat left by Ron Fellow.

Magnussen started his racing career in 1990 racing single-seaters. In 1994 Magnussen won the British Formula 3 Championship with Paul Stewart Racing breaking Ayrton Senna’s record of most wins in a single season, capturing 14 wins out of 18 races.

Magnussen would become a Formula 1 test driver for McLaren before competing in DTM and International Touring Car Championship between 1995 and 1996, where he finished second in the 1996 ITC Championship. Magnussen would become a full time Formula 1 driver for the Stewart Grand Prix team in 1997, where he would accomplish a career best sixth place finish at the Montreal Grand Prix in 1998.

Magnussen joined Panoz Motorsports in 1999 to compete in the ALMS where he captured six wins. He would become part of the Corvette- Ferrari rivalry in 2003, driving the Prodrive Ferrari and would join Corvette Racing the following year.

A legend in Denmark, his aggressive racing style and take-no-prisoners mentality made him very popular with the fans. Magnussen became a full time driver with Corvette Racing in 2007 and throughout his time with the team he accomplished 35 wins. In 2008 Magnussen became the ALMS GT1 Driver Champion with teammate Johnny O’connell and would win the IMSA GT Drivers Championship with Antonio Garcia in 2013.

Ron Fellows (Sebring, Le Mans and Petit Le Mans)

Ron Fellows started his eighth year with Corvette Racing however Fellows would step down from full time driving duties. He would remain with Corvette Racing as the third driver for the three endurance races the team entered in 2007. In celebration of Fellows career with Corvette Racing, General Motors released a limited Ron Fellows ALMS GT1 Champion edition Corvette (C6) Z06. Only 399 of these limited Corvettes were produced and featured Fellows signature inside the glovebox. Corvette Racing would run the #3 C6.R at the opening round of the 2007 American Le Mans Series season in the Ron Fellows ALMS GT1 Champion paint scheme.

Fellows was a fundamental part to the development and success of Corvette Racing. He was one of the original test drivers along with Andy Pilgrim during the two year testing and development period for the Corvette C5-R. Fellows would bring Corvette Racing’s first victory in September 2000 at Texas Motor Speedway and later in 2001 would help give Corvette Racing their first victories at Rolex 24 at Daytona and Le Mans 24 Hours.

Fellows drove for Corvette Racing for nine years winning the drivers championship three times and helping Corvette Racing win eight championships. In 2007 Chevrolet introduced a limited edition Corvette Z06 “Ron Fellows Championship Edition” to celebrate Fellows success with Corvette Racing.

He retired from Corvette Racing after the 2008 season and started the Ron Fellows racing school located in Nevada. In 2011 with partners Carlo Fidani and Allan Boughton, Fellows formed Canadian Motorsport Ventures Ltd., which purchased Mosport International Raceway and renamed it Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.

#4 Chevrolet Corvette C6.R Drivers 2007 (#64 used for Le Mans)

Oliver Gavin

The 2007 season for Oliver Gavin marked the third year as a full time driver with Corvette Racing and his fifth year with the team overall.

Gavin along with co-driver Olivier Berretta accomplished their third straight ALMS GT1 Drivers Championship in 2007, which also handed Corvette Racing their seventh straight ALMS Manufacturers Championship.

Oliver Gavin would become the most successful and longest-serving driver in Corvette Racing history. With 51 victories and five championships as part of the program, Gavin would rank as one of the most accomplished drivers in IMSA history. His Corvette Racing record included wins at Le Mans, Sebring, Daytona and Petit Le Mans. Gavin would win two championships with co-driver Tommy Milner (2012 and 2016) and would become the longest-running driver pairing in IMSA history at the time of the start of the 2020 season.

Olivier Berretta

Olivier Berretta made his fourth year appearance as a full time Corvette Racing factory driver during the 2007 season. He remained paired with co-driver Oliver Gavin and together accomplished nine GT1 class wins in the 2007 American Le Mans Series.

Berretta and Gavin would win the 12 Hours of Sebring for the second year in a row and would end the season winning the ALMS GT1 Drivers Championship for the third year in a row.

Beretta began his racing career in the 1989 French Formula 3 series. The following year he would finish third in the championship and accomplished a podium at the Monaco Grand Prix support race. Berretta started test driving for the Larrousse Grand Prix team in 1994 and would compete in 10 grand prix, where he finished three times in the top 10, with a career-best seventh in the German Grand Prix.

In 1996 Berretta became involved in the development of the Chrysler Viper of Team Oreca. He would finish third in the FIA GT drivers championship the following year. Beretta would win the 1998 FIA GT drivers championship with teammate Pedro Lamy, where they accomplished eight wins out of 10 races.

In 1999, Berretta would win the FIA GT Championship, the ALMS GTS class championship and the Le Mans 24 hours GTS class, scoring 13 of the 16 race wins for Team Oreca. The following year in 1999 Berretta would win the Rolex 24 at Daytona overall, a class victory at the 12 Hours of Sebring, a class win at Le Mans and a ALMS class championship.

Once joining Corvette Racing in 2004, Berretta scored five victories, including class wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and Petit Le Mans.

After leaving Corvette Racing, Berretta became a factory Ferrari driver for various privateer Ferrari customers.

Max Papis (Sebring, Le Mans and Petit Le Mans)

For the 2007 season, Ron Fellows stepping down into a third driver role but wanted to remain part of the #3 crew. This would move Papis into the third driver role of the #4 C6.R and Jan Magnussen promoted to a full time seat in the #3 C6.R.

After a successful start of his racing career in Italy, Papis started to race in the International Formula 3000 and began testing Formula 1 cars for Lotus and Honda. The Arrows Formula 1 team signed Papis for seven grands prix in 1995, where he recorded his best finish of seventh at his home circuit of Monza.

The following year Papis made his debut in sports cars and selected CART events. Papis finished as a runner-up in the IMSA World Sports Car championship, where he accomplished three victories. He generated more success in the CART series whilst he developed his skills in sports car events such as the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Rolex 24 at Daytona, where he achieved an overall win in 2002.

In addition to driving for Corvette Racing in the endurance events, Papis competed in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series. In 2008, he drove a Pontiac GXP.R ran by Autohaus in the season-opening Rolex 24 at Daytona. He went on to drive the same year a Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS for Rusty Wallace Racing in the three NASCAR Nationwide Series road course events.

When not racing professionally, Papis operates a sports marketing company, manages a kart racing team, and keeps active with an intense physical fitness program.

#33 Chevrolet Corvette C6.R Drivers 2007

Ron Fellows

As a Canadian, the ALMS round at Mosport was always close to heart of Ron Fellows. Mosport was his local track and he would eventually become a partner of the circuit in 2011.

For round nine of the 2007 ALMS season at Mosport, Pratt & Miller would run chassis C6R-003 for a final time wearing the Ron Fellows ALMS GT1 Champion paint scheme. He would be paired with Andy Pilgrim for the first time since the Las Vegas race in the 2000 American Le Mans Series.

Fellows and Pilgrim finished third in class behind the other two Corvette C6.Rs, creating a GT1 podium sweep for the Corvette brand.

Andy Pilgrim

Andy Pilgrim joined Corvette Racing for one race with Ron Fellows for round nine of the 2007 American Le Mans Series at Mosport.

Pilgrim was one of the integral people involved in the development of the Corvette Racing program being the first to drive the Corvette C5-R as a test driver in its first two years of development. He would go on to race for Corvette Racing from 1999 to 2003 giving the teams first win at Texas Motor Speedway in September 2000. He became famous for the ‘Pilgrim pass’ at the 2000 Petit Le Mans where he made a difficult move to steal the win from the Team Oreca Viper in the last minutes of the race, giving Corvette Racing their first endurance race victory.

Pilgrim born in England moved to the USA in 1982 and had his first professional race in 1984. Pilgrim received his first professional victory in the IMSA Firestone Firehawk Endurance Championship in 1986 at Sears Point driving a Pontiac Firebird. Between July 1992 to September 1998, Pilgrim won 25 races and three IMSA championships, finishing a record 116 consecutive IMSA races without a DNF (did not finish). He took titles in the 1995 and 1998 IMSA Speedvision Cup championships, the 1997 IMSA GT1 championship and the 1996 Brazilian GT2 title. Pilgrim has two Rolex 24 at Daytona victories, including an overall win in 2004.

Away from the race track Andy Pilgrim is the CEO of Electronic Computer Services, a successful computer consulting and management company that employs more than 200 information technology professionals. Pilgrim also works with high school students, teaching them safe driving skills. In 2005, he created an instructional DVD on safe driving, “The Driving Zone: Essential Techniques For New Drivers,” in cooperation with Chevrolet NASCAR Nextel Cup driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the Dale Earnhardt Foundation.