Chevrolet’s
GTS class Corvette racing team came off its 1999 development year and into
the 2000 season with a lot of improvements and valuable experience under the
belt. They also started their second year of racing with a full appreciation
of just how good the competition, especially the factory-supported Oreca Team
Dodge Vipers, really is. The Vipers began racing more than four years earlier
and all of their experience, in conjunction with their inherently strong design,
enabled them to dominate GTS class production sports car racing until this
year.
The
continuously closing gap between the well-seasoned Vipers and newly-formed
Corvette team resulted in the closest finish in Daytona history at the 2000
running of the 24 Hours. It also led to one of the most unusual finishes.
For a variety of reasons, the prototype class was particularly weak this year
and toward the end of the
