By Bill Thorpe
In the 1989 motion picture “Field of Dreams,” the famous tagline was “If you build it, he will come.” Well that’s exactly what’s happened in the town of Parump, Nev., 60 miles west of Las Vegas.
Ron Fellows, who is close friends with Dale Earnhardt Jr., has three championship wins in the American LeMans Series, two wins at the prestigious French 24 Hours of LeMans and another win at the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona. In the SCCA Trans Am Series he has notched 20 wins over the years. He has been the professional race driver for General Motors’ Corvette division for most of the last decade.
He and several business partners purchased 560 acres out west in 2004 and have expanded it into the Spring Mountain Motor Resort and Performance Driving School, which boasts one of the best road courses in the United States for road racing.
I recently traveled there with my wife to participate in the two-day Corvette Owners Driving School. The program is designed for drivers of all abilities and experience levels on a 2.1-mile road course complete with hairpin turns, S-curves and straightaways.
Emphasis on proper apex cornering at high speeds, braking under control, paddle shifting to the rev limiter and knowledge of all the available performance enhancements built into the current C7 Corvette were taught with classroom and track time. The school provided the cars, maintenance and fuel.
I came away from this experience realizing that the C7 Corvette is, in reality, a race car built from the factory for racing experiences on road courses ... but it has been modified for legal street use!
Until next time, happy cruising!
In the 1989 motion picture “Field of Dreams,” the famous tagline was “If you build it, he will come.” Well that’s exactly what’s happened in the town of Parump, Nev., 60 miles west of Las Vegas.
Ron Fellows, who is close friends with Dale Earnhardt Jr., has three championship wins in the American LeMans Series, two wins at the prestigious French 24 Hours of LeMans and another win at the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona. In the SCCA Trans Am Series he has notched 20 wins over the years. He has been the professional race driver for General Motors’ Corvette division for most of the last decade.
He and several business partners purchased 560 acres out west in 2004 and have expanded it into the Spring Mountain Motor Resort and Performance Driving School, which boasts one of the best road courses in the United States for road racing.
I recently traveled there with my wife to participate in the two-day Corvette Owners Driving School. The program is designed for drivers of all abilities and experience levels on a 2.1-mile road course complete with hairpin turns, S-curves and straightaways.
Emphasis on proper apex cornering at high speeds, braking under control, paddle shifting to the rev limiter and knowledge of all the available performance enhancements built into the current C7 Corvette were taught with classroom and track time. The school provided the cars, maintenance and fuel.
I came away from this experience realizing that the C7 Corvette is, in reality, a race car built from the factory for racing experiences on road courses ... but it has been modified for legal street use!
Until next time, happy cruising!
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