People have finally realized that the 1990 R9G Corvettes are really a part of the Corvette Challenge history. A lot of people assumed that these Corvettes were actually designed for the SCCA World Challenge. They drank the GM Kool-Aid and never looked back. It’s not a real good idea to believe everything that GM tells you.
There’s no small amount of irony that one of the key figures in unearthing the true history of the R9G Corvettes was Lance Miller’s father Chip Miller. Chip was a huge supporter of the Corvette Challenge series. He was also very knowledgeable when it came to the history of the Corvette Challenge series.
The R9G was slated for the 1990 Corvette Challenge series. At the very last minute GM pulled the plug on the series. It’s not easy to go back up the chain of command and tell people that you no longer need that special production run you fought so hard for. It’s far better to simply let the production run take place and then exclaim to the public that you have a brand new and exciting project. Even if it isn’t the one you planned on.
People at GM will privately tell you this is what happened in 1989. Some collectors of the Corvette Challenge cars still don’t want to believe this. This may be a case where the spin became fact. Keep in mind though not only did GM put out a lot of nonsense to the media during this era but the automotive media went and printed it all as truth. The writers of that era didn’t want to give up their free media junkets by telling magazine readers the truth.
Today the bottom line is that only twenty-three of these cars exist. Most are still streetcars. They were never converted to racecars. Remember, the 1988 and 1989 were converted before they arrived to the dealers. Because there was no race series Chevrolet never bothered with a conversion for these R9G Corvettes.Tommy Morrison converted lance Miller’s car to World challenge specifications. Tommy was the Pratt and Miller of the C4 era. He just never had the success of Pratt and Miller. I suspect that he spent almost as much money though.
Lance brought his R9G down to play at Sebring during the cold months in Pennsylvania. He could run the Historic Sports Racing event at Sebring and then run the Sportscar Vintage Racing Association event a few weeks later. He never planned on making a trip home to Pennsylvania to pick up another motor but hey it’s all part of the fun. Here’s the story as Lance tells it.
I found out that our practice session was a practice and qualifying session. Needless to say I was a little bummed because I was breaking the car in and didn't realize it was really a timed session. Oh well! I learned a new lesson. Always check the schedule of events closely before going out. Needless to say I didn't qualify well at all. Actually I qualified in last place!
The weather had been beautiful here in Florida for the HSR Sebring event. I decided to take advantage of the test day on Thursday to help refresh me with the course. The car handled incredibly well, power felt good and of course the driver (me) needed a little more work.
Friday morning we had two more test sessions and the car felt really good. Even the driver improved a bit. Next up was the qualifying and we were ready to roll. I went out for 3 laps and didn't get a clean lap, however a full course black flag came out due to a competitor going into the wall. Once in the pits we went right back out.
I used the downtime at the track as an opportunity to clean and wax the car. Then it was time to get back to Pennsylvania and locate the new motor. Then I had to get the back onto the track for the SVRA race. This was going to be one quick plane flight and then a long drive. Not to mention we only had 2 days to put the engine in prior to the first SVRA session.
It all actually worked. We got the new engine in the car just in time for the practice session. I went out and took it easy for two laps as the cockpit filled up with smoke. I watched out my rear view mirror as smoke hazed out the rear of my car. No big deal I kept telling myself. It was simply the oil and lubricants burning off.
On the third lap I decided to take it a little bit harder and the smoke went away. Unfortunately once the car was shifted to 5th gear on the longer straights there was a slight vibration. I decided to push it a little harder on the next lap to see where the vibration was coming from. This old Tommy Morrison Corvette vibrated even worse when I pushed it a bit. I decided to bring the car in and call it a day. We pulled the wheels and tires off and replaced them with new ones. We took the drive shaft out of the car and turned it 180 degrees. We bolted it back up hoping for the best.
Thursday came along and we had our one-hour endurance race, of course I didn't know if my car was going to vibrate or not so it was kind of nice to start off at the back of the pack. There were 72 cars that started the 1-hour race (with a mandatory 3 minute pit stop). Yours truly was at the back of the pack.
The green came out and I powered past a few cars and played it cautious due to the lack of confidence that the car was completely fixed. I got around to turn 17 and was going full tilt in 5th gear and got to turn 17 with no vibration. Needless to say I was thrilled! Long story short I ended up locking in 18th position overall and 1st in class. All in all it was a great race and the car felt exceptional. The new engine didn't have near the rpm's as my old engine but it was certainly crisp! It also got the job done.