The American Le Mans Series (ALMS) opens each season with its granddaddy of events, the 12 Hours of Sebring. Sebring alone has the history, the panache, and the importance to lend the series credibility. With an early March date, teams from all over the world use the opportunity to begin serious tuning for the Le Mans 24-hour race scheduled in June. The bumpy surface and crotchety twists and turns are the perfect proving ground to test car and driver. Indeed, 12 hours on the tortuous Sebring circuit are equivalent to 24 hours of abuse at La Sarthe. After a winter of tweaking, taking a car to Sebring determines whether those adjustments will stand the demands of endurance racing.

After a slow start, the Cor-vette quickly established its reputation as a formidable competition machine. In fact, by 1957 there were few production cars that could challenge it on a road course. The roster of drivers who piloted Corvettes in competition in the ensuing years reads like a who's who of racing history and includes some of the finest drivers the world has ever seen. Many have become legends.

The National Corvette Restorers Society (NCRS) is a nonprofit group dedicated to the restoration and preservation of Corvettes that are at least 15 years old. The society utilizes strict guidelines and uses highly trained judges to determine if a Corvette is authentic. If it meets the society's criteria, it's awarded a "Top Flight" certificate. This certification enhances the car's value and is sought after by many vintage owners.

Laguna Seca, one of the series favorite destinations, has a new place in the American Le Mans Series schedule and a new race format. The ALMS has elected to move the date for the Laguna track and its world famous setting on the idyllic Monterey, California peninsula from the season ending October time to late in May - following Sebring in March and Long Beach in April. Additionally, for the first time, the race is now a 6-hour enduro offering more series championship points than the typical 2+ hour race format seen in most of the schedule. This made the Laguna race an important event to attend if you were...

Exxonmobil and Corvette Racing have extended their partnership, in which the former provides Mobil 1 lubricant technology and engineering support to the C6.R racing program. Formally announced before the ALMS season kickoff at Sebring, the renewed collaboration will mark the 14th consecutive year in which the Mobil 1 brand has been a major associate sponsor for Corvette Racing and the "Official Lubricant of Corvette Racing." In this multi-year agreement, Mobil 1 branding will continue to appear on Corvette Racing's C6.R cars, uniforms, and vehicles.

Callaway Competition in Leingarten, Germany, has now won three major sports-car championships in three consecutive years with its Corvette Z06.R racers. The company began its remarkable championship journey in 2005, when the FIA introduced the GT3 series. The series pits the world's top supercars against each other, including Ferrari, Aston Martin, Maserati, Porsche, Lamborghini, Jaguar, Ascari, and the Corvette Z06.

Hawaii is one of the top tourist destinations in the world and includes seven closely spaced islands or counties. The island chain sits in the middle of the Pacific Ocean almost 3,000 miles west of California. The best way to tour these islands is by car, and the touring car of choice for Corvette fans is, of course, a hot-looking Vette convertible. Fortunately for us, the Hertz Corporation added 875 ZHZ Corvettes to its "Fun Collection" in 2008 and 2009. The fleet includes 500 '08 coupes and 375 '09 convertibles. The company placed them in the top getaway destinations, including Oahu and Maui, Hawaii. You can probably sense where this is going.

The Australian Corvette Community is composed of a very wide cross section of personalities. Enthusiasts come from all walks of life and social backgrounds, from corporate high flyers to working-class families to small-business operators. In this way, the Corvette is directly responsible for bringing together types of people who would otherwise rarely cross paths. This melting pot of Corvette owners brings with it its own unique flavor of comradeship.

Thirty-two years ago, a privately entered, showroom stock '69 Corvette finished Fourth overall and First in GT at Sebring. The thundering red L88 completed 221 laps and 1,149 miles around the old 5.2-mile circuit. The English Racing Corvette, driven by Dave Heinz and Bob Johnson, finished behind three factory prototypes (two Ferraris 312s and one Alfa T-33). Mario Andretti and Jackie Ickx drove the winning Ferrari. Fast-forward to Sebring 2004. The No. 3 factory Corvette driven by Fellows/O'Connell/Papis matched the Heinz/Johnson 1972 performance by finishing Fourth overall and First in GTS. The C5-R completed 329 laps and 1,217 miles on the new 3.7-mile course. The Corvette Racing entry also finished behind three Audi R8 prototypes. The similarities are amazing! The...

Corvette Racing's misfortune at Sebring continued into the eighth hour, when Oliver Gavin in the No. 4 C6.R was hit by a flying tire that came loose from the Falken Porsche. The incident happened between Turns 6 and 7 as Gavin passed under the vehicle bridge. Fortunately it was a glancing blow and did no noticeable damage to the car. The tire marks on the Corvette's nose came from an earlier incident.

The final round of the 2009 ALMS season was held at California's beautiful Laguna Seca circuit-2.238 miles of twisting, elevation-changing, glass-smooth pavement. Many of the teams arrived at Laguna with their championship hopes still in place. LMP1's Highcroft's Acura team had been scrambling to make enough points to keep its lead in the prototype category. In GT2 the Risi Ferrari team finished well in the rain-soaked Petit race and was right on the Porsche Flying Lizard team's coattails. The Corvette Racing program was finishing out a five-race development program in GT2 and was not in the championship hunt. However, the Corvette team had progressed well, with podium finishes at almost every race, including its first win at Mosport.

Remember 2004? Homes were still viewed as smart investments, and you didn't wince when your 401(k) statement arrived in the mail. Heck, the Dow Jones average was above 10,000 for all but a couple of brief periods that year.

Open-road racing-also known as "regularity rallying" or "time, distance, and speed rallying"-is a sport in which the object is to maintain an average speed over a predetermined course. In essence, it combines the elements of road racing-where power, speed, and handling are king-and rallying, which demands a superior degree of precision. Events are typically held in areas of the country that offer some seclusion, as races are generally 60-120 miles in length and take place on closed public highways. With classes that accommodate average speeds of 85 to 160 mph and an unlimited class that throws timing out the window, you'd better be able to ensure that "Farmer Joe" doesn't wander onto the road and scuttle the race. Safety...

AMYLOIDOSIS can kill in as little as three months. Does that get your attention? It should. This insidious killer is still relatively unheard of, despite its ability to strike so quickly and mimic other diseases with similar symptoms. The Corvette world found that out all too well in March 2004, when Chip Miller, co-founder of Carlisle Events, succumbed to this rare malady.

The american le mans Series Petit Le Mans event is an important race for the competitors. The 10-hour enduro over the spectacular Road Atlanta course in Braselton, Georgia, offers major bragging rights in the series and an automatic invite to the 24-Hour Le Mans race in July. This year, Corvette Racing arrived early to take advantage of a test day on Wednesday. The new GT2 chassis is still in the sorting-out stage, and the GM program needs to capitalize on all of the testing time it can get. Engineering simulations are pretty good these days, but there's no replacement for real-world track time when it comes to proving the validity of a suspension setup or tire compound.