It wasn’t easy. After all, 100 years is a long time. Especially with an international motorsports heritage as storied as ours. So, after much thought. And much discussion. And maybe a spirited fistfight or two, we finally whittled down an encyclopedia’s worth of success to the top 10 defining moments in Chevrolet racing history. The hard, fast proof that Chevy Runs Deep.
#10 | Zora’s wild ride
1956: To publicize the ’56 Chevy’s new V8, Zora-Arkus Duntov, father of the Corvette, agreed to race an as-yet-unrevealed preproduction model in the annual Pikes Peak Hill Climb. Assaulting the treacherous course in full camouflage without a roll bar, he not only won his class, he set a new record and catapulted Chevy into the postwar performance spotlight.
#9 | The Chaparral Can Ams
1964-70: In 1964, Jim Hall, with covert assistance from Chevrolet Research and Development, shocked race-sanctioning bodies and forever changed the motorsports world. His incredibly innovative designs, incorporating high mounted wings, movable aero packages, underbody suction fans and more, dominated the Can Am circuit, snatching victory at the USRRC Championships in ’64, the 12 Hours of Sebring in ’65, and the Nurburgring 1,000-kilometer in ’66. Following a stunning 1-2 finish at Laguna Seca, race officials finally caught up to the Chaparrals, spelling the beginning of the end for the program. Gone, but not forgotten, the Chaparral spirit lives on in every Cruze Eco we build.
#8 | Victory is electric
1997-99: Echoing Zora Arkus-Duntov’s dramatic test run in ’56, Larry Ragland made history driving a special Chevy S-10 to victory at the 1997 Pikes Peak Hill Climb. This time, without using a single drop of gas. Not content with taking the Electric Vehicle Class, sounding the death knell for oil and changing the world, Larry went on to prove the viability of electric power − and lay the groundwork for the Chevy Volt − with wins in the 1998-99 Super Stock Truck Class and overall victory in the 2000 High Tech Truck Class.
#7 | Cruze crushes WTCC
2010: In a shocking departure from Chevy’s signature large displacement V8s, the Cruze made its presence known at the World Touring Car Championship in 2010. After a season dominating BMWs around the globe, Chevrolet scored a devastating one-two punch − seizing both the Driver’s Championship and the Manufacturer’s Championship. Proving that, yes, there just might be a replacement for displacement.
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