Friday 9th September 1955
Zora Arkus-Duntov drove a Corvette to the summit of Pikes Peak (4,303 metre), Colorado in a record breaking time of 17 minutes, 24.05 seconds. Duntov had set a new sedan class record by more than 2 minutes. Chevrolet immediately launched an extensive advertising campaign around the Pikes Peak success. They used the opportunity to tout everything from Chevrolet’s superior handling to vehicle safety. Billboard ads and printed newspaper supplements appeared all over the U.S. in short order. Duntov’s record setting run up Pikes Peak brought him to the attention of others in GM and throughout the world of motor sports. He leveraged this success to create opportunities for him to make important contributions to many of GM’s motor sports programs and the Corvette in particular.