In early May, the NCM Motorsports Park hosted The Tire Rack One Lap of America challenge, an endurance activity that puts drivers through 15 different events over 8 days, in 8 different locations, spanning more than 3,000 miles across the country. To make the stakes even higher, teams are self-managed, have no support crews and must finish on the same set of tires they started with at the beginning.
Among this year’s participants was Brian Wallace, a familiar face to the Corvette community. He currently works as a Vehicle Performance Engineer for Chevrolet Performance Cars, and his father, Tom Wallace, was a 2018 Inductee into the Corvette Museum Hall of Fame. With a rich heritage in design and strong passion for motorsports, Wallace says the Tire Rack One Lap of America challenge was a must do event for him.
“It’s a group of people that eats, sleeps, and breaths cars,” he says. “Everybody is always pitching in to help, and it’s amazing to be a part of that. I’m kind of living off of adrenaline right now. It’s amazing how everyone works as a team.”
From the onset of this year’s competition, Wallace has looked forward to bringing his C8 Z06 back home to Corvette Campus. “This track means a lot to the Corvette Community. It’s nice to have one of the most iconic and special cars throughout the whole Corvette heritage.”
Getting that special car on track proved to be a bit of a challenge as he travelled more than 700 miles from the previous track stop in South Bend, Indiana, hitting a two-by-four piece of wood on his way, having repair parts shipped to his hotel overnight.
“Everyone just jumped in to help us. I was up until about 3:00 in the morning, but we made it.”
When it was finally time to put his Michelin wrapped Z06 on one of the toughest road courses in the nation, the team had to battle heavy downpours, scheduling delays and 3.2 miles of wet asphalt. As he came off the MSP track, he had one thing to say, “This flat plane crank that can rev 8600, makes 670 horses, and sounds amazing is a very special car!”
