Pirate Racing
It was in late 1997 that the idea of racing a Corvette in international competition grew from an internet group of Corvette owner’s and their enthusiasm about their cars. First with just a few, then a few more, momentum began to build with this concept of racing a Corvette in international competition against the world’s best. This group of grassroots Corvette enthusiasts, led by California Corvette tuner (and Life NCM member) Jim Van Dorn, soon began a journey into the wild and unpredictable world of auto racing...
The first item on the agenda was finding both a name and a car for their group. Because the ZR-1 was out of production and certainly GM would have no interest in racing a non-production car, the group of privateers sought interest from others within the Corvette community. When a call came in from Corvette Fever’s editor Paul Zazarine, the idea was discussed from a journalistic view and the topic about the name came up. Zazarine agreed that the team would receive little if any corporate support from GM, thus they were on their own. “Do you know who the most famous privateers in all of history were?” Zazarine asked Van Dorn. “They were the Pirates!”. Pirate Racing was born.
Because most of it’s supporters were ZR-1 enthusiasts, the search narrowed for a ZR-1 race car. These cars were few and far between and only a handful of races had entered into the arena with the ZR-1; namely, Tommy Morrison and Kim Baker. A check of the internet provided a shocking discovery. Kim Baker was selling the shell of an old ZR-1 race car…
Although SCCA rules had a 3 year age restriction, it was unknown at the time just how old the #75 chassis actually was so the team presumed it could be the final year, a 1995, therefore legal for ‘98. After approval from SCCA, the Pirates purchased the stripped-out car and went about the task of building a modern race car. After several months, the car emerged ready for battle once again among the world’s best in SCCA’s World Challenge competition. In fact, on it’s very first outing, the ZR-1 (with a rookie driver) earned a 4th place starting position in a field of over 30 entries. At the season’s second stop, the Pirate’s fate appeared questionable when an engine failure caused a massive fire with driver Kim Baker at the season’s second race at Lime Rock Park.
After competing in only a handful of races in the ’98 season, SCCA made a mandate to let the #75 continue in the series until the team’s new C-5 was completed. In the ’99 season opener at Mosport Park Canada, veteran Bill Cooper (1989 Corvette Challenge Champion) piloted the #75 to a Corvette ZR-1’s first pole position in SCCA World Challenge competition at the season debut at Mosport Park, beating the next closest competitor by over a full second. As Bill exited the car immediately following the qualifying session, he looked at the car and told the entire team, “Now that’s a race car!!”. Battling the Viper of Bobby Archer, Cooper led the first 22 laps of the 26 lap battle until a clutch problem stuck the trans in 4th gear, resulting in a 4th place finish. But the team nor Cooper would be discouraged as the very next weekend saw Cooper and his mighty Corvette steed sitting on the outside pole, and after a heated battle again with Archer’s Viper, finished second at Lime Rock Park. Throughout it’s exciting history, the Pirate ZR-1 earned the most successful record of any ZR-1 in international competition with one pole and a 4th or better finish in four of it’s 6 races in 1999. Midway through the ’99 World Challenge season, the #75 was retired as a backup car for the new C-5, and eventually donated by team owner Jim Van Dorn to the National Corvette Museum.
Enter the new C5.
In 1999, with newly acquired interest from GM Motorsports and GM Performance Parts, the Pirate’s obtained and built race car chassis kit #1 out of 20 built. Adorned with the Pirate’s purple and flames paint scheme, the state of the art race car soon took to the tracks and racked up an impressive resume which included numerous poles, wins and even a Porsche or two now and then. “We worked very closely with GM Engineering while racing the C5” Van Dorn recalls, “We actually helped develop many of the parts that would eventually find their way into the new ’01 Z06 production car.” All this involvement with the C5 gave Jim and his company, Auto Masters, invaluable ground up knowledge of the C5 Corvette.
The Pirates raced into 2001 when SCCA changed the GT format to drastically handicap the Corvette. “We were racing for forth or fifth place and that’s not why we race.” Van Dorn recalls. In addition, the new “Speed Channel” dropped the series air time by over 80%. When asked about the future of the Pirates Van Dorn smiled. “Well, we always kept the competition guessing about our next move. Who knows what we might do in the future…”