You’d think that having your name on the first and only signature Corvette in the model’s history would be cause enough to drive it around at every opportunity and bask in the glory.
But when you’re a low key guy named Ron Fellows, that kind of thing just isn’t your style. Besides, the veteran road racer insists that people always gawk at his shiny white 2007 Ron Fellows GT1 Champion Z06 Corvette, but they rarely recognize the guy behind the wheel.
“I think the colour of the car is pretty striking so people tend to notice it, but I don’t know if anybody knows what the significance is,” he says. “It is really cool to have a car named after you. General Motors has never done that before in the history of the Corvette and for them to do that for me as recognition of my tenure with Corvette Racing was pretty special.”
In his time behind the wheel of Chevy’s flagship sports car, Fellows scored Corvette Racing’s maiden win, took two class victories at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, three American Le Mans Series (ALMS) driver titles, and 27 chequered flags in ALMS. He also has four NASCAR Nationwide wins to his credit in Chevrolets, with the most recent coming in the 2008 NAPA 200 at Montreal's Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
Three years ago, Chevrolet produced 399 of the special Z06s to reward Fellows for his contribution to General Motors’ racing efforts and also handed him the keys to the first car to roll off the line. While exceedingly proud of the honour, he rarely takes his #001 Ron Fellows Corvette out of the garage and has put less than 1,000 kilometres on the car in three years.
Part of the reason he keeps the car sheltered from the mean streets of Toronto is that he worries about the way others handle their rides, something that has been magnified since he started his Ron Fellows Performance Driving School last year at the Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch, about 65 kilometres west of Las Vegas.
“When I’m at home and I drive around the Queen Elizabeth Way, the 401, the Gardiner Expressway and the 404, I wish that we had better driver training — it’s amazing there are not more accidents,” he insists.
“The driving habits of the majority of the people out there are horrible. We need to make some big changes in our driver training and we need to have a lot more pride in the quality of our drivers.”
Getting drivers to raise their game is close to Fellows’ heart after he lost his father, and his newlywed brother lost a wife and mother-in-law to traffic accidents.
Fellows feels there needs to be a culture change in the way drivers are being taught. As sees it, new drivers are not shown how to be better behind the wheel; instead, the training simply teaches students how to pass the driver’s test.
“That’s wrong: You’re taught how to pass the test and then you are on your own and you’re a crappy driver for the rest of your life,” he says.
“It’s on my list of things to consider how to effect some change.”
So, when his kids needed to learn how to handle a car, Fellows searched for the best training he could find. And even though their dad is more than proficient behind the wheel, he left the driver training to the experts.
The training he chose had in-depth classroom and practical learning and incorporated simulators to help his kids be prepared for the challenges of Toronto's streets.
