Community called Corvette
A little rain can’t wipe away the bond felt by Stingray owners
In the heart of the Fraser Valley, the B.C. Corvette club members show up to put their machines through the paces.
As luck would have it, they’re getting the lone spot of sunshine in an otherwise soaking day, and soon the pavement is mostly dry.
The club is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, having recently trekked to Bowling Green, Kentucky — Corvette Mecca — and with any number of cruises and show-and-shines lined up over the course of the year. Such you would expect from most classic car clubs, but these are ‘Vette owners and that means an obsession with speed.
“How you doin’, cookie?” Pat Watson asks husband Gary, who’s sitting at the wheel of the pair’s triple-black 2014 Stingray convertible. She makes sure the course is clear. “You can go when you’re ready.”
“You can grip here and here,” Gary says, grinning like a mako shark and pointing out the passenger seat amenities. Then he hammers it.
The autocross committee is a semi-separate subdivision of B.C.’s Corvette Club with their own lengthy history. Talk to some of the longtime members here and most have been at this game 30 years or so. Gary and Pat Watson, who is herself an accomplished racer with a full trophy case, also have a 1967 droptop ‘Vette to match their new version. They were both fast then, and they’re fast now.
Watson hustles the modern Stingray through the cones but shakes his head at his time — it seems fast enough to me, but there’s a certain rivalry among a few of the fastest club members.
“Oh, not Robert,” he says when I point out an older C4-generation Corvette ZR-1, “No, he’s just the best.”
Robert Lu is an affable gent who’s here along with his son, Marcus. Both are switching out duties riding shotgun and coaching some of the novice drivers. There are plenty of newbies here, something the club welcomes.
“We get lots of novices,” says Eva Staley. Both she and husband Lorne, the current B.C. Corvette Club vice-president whom everyone calls Spike, have been doing this for years, along with their two sons. David Staley is out now in Brian Dudra’s supercharged Grand Sport convertible, looking very fast through the slalom. So, who’s faster? Spike Staley chuckles. “Oh, usually the old man is ahead,” he grins.
“He beat me last time, but I won last season.” The Staley family ride is a C6 convertible with about 640 h.p.
Michelle Champion is learning to drive her father’s 2009 Z06.
“She’s starting to get faster, getting a bit tail-happy out there,” Jeff Champion says from the sidelines.
Last year, Michelle competed and won her novice class in the family four-cylinder Altima. Now, having learned stick-shift at the wheel of a factory track-special with a hand-built 500-plus h.p. V8, she’s got the usual complaint.
“Not good enough — I need to go faster!”
Robert Lu comes out of the gate not with hammering fury, but with the smooth hands of an old pro.
Son Marcus Lu has notched up a solid time already, but with an easy, self-deprecating familiarity, his father zips the ZR-1 though the cones and undercuts his son by a few tenths, despite having just 375 h.p. compared to the modern car’s 650 h.p.
If the course were more open then the ultra-Stingray’s longer legs might have room to gallop away, but here in the tight twisties, a little finesse goes a long way.
Some of the non-Vette participants — everyone is welcome at this event — are able to punch above their horsepower, too.
When everyone breaks for lunch, the day’s winners have yet to be declared. In the competition over who’s got the biggest smile at the end of the day, it’s an even closer race.
You might even call it a 40-way tie.