Tony Roma Admits The Decision Will Disappoint Corvette Fans, But Here’s What Pikes Peak Could Prove Instead
Tony Roma isn’t pretending the decision will go over well. The Executive Chief Engineer for Corvette and Performance Cars at General Motors told The Drive this week that his team has no plans to send a Corvette back to the Nurburgring to answer Ford’s latest Mustang GTD lap record, and he knows that’s going to sting for a lot of fans.
“I’m not planning on running back and tit-for-tat ‘look at what we can do’ to answer what they did,” Roma said on The Drivecast. Instead of chasing Ford around the Nordschleife again, Chevrolet is pointing the Corvette program at Pikes Peak, the Colorado hill climb with a Corvette connection that predates the Nurburgring rivalry by decades.
Roma Isn’t Dodging The Disappointment
Roma didn’t try to spin the decision as anything other than what it is. “I know that disappoints a lot of people; I hear about that at corrals and public events,” he said, referring to the owner meetups and shows where Corvette fans have clearly been asking him about a rematch. He stopped short of ruling out a future Nurburgring run entirely, saying the team would go back “when we have something that’s worthy and a story that’s worth telling,” but he was clear that a reactive lap time isn’t that story.
That candor matters because Chevrolet has real history to defend at the Nurburgring. The team’s own development drivers, rather than hired Ring specialists, took a Corvette under seven minutes around the circuit, a time that stood as the fastest lap by an American car when it happened. Roma still calls it an accomplishment “we’re super proud of,” and he gave Ford credit rather than sour grapes for pushing back into that territory. “Ford’s response was also, as a car fan, kind of epic,” he said. “We’ve got this crosstown rivalry thing going on.”
Why Pikes Peak Was Already The Plan
Part of Roma’s reasoning is simple timing. By the point Ford returned to the Nurburgring this year to reclaim the record, Chevrolet had already committed to running Pikes Peak instead. “So our event this year was again showcasing what our car is capable of in a truly American, iconic motorsports event that goes back almost a hundred years,” Roma said.
The hill climb isn’t just a convenient alternative stage. It’s tied directly into Corvette lore. Roma specifically cited photos of Zora Arkus-Duntov racing a prototype Corvette up Pikes Peak in the 1950s, a period when Duntov was personally setting speed records at the mountain while building the Corvette into the performance car GM needed it to be. Where the Nurburgring tests outright pace on a closed, familiar circuit, Pikes Peak throws in variables a flat-out Ring lap never has to answer for: thinning air near the 14,000-foot summit that saps engine output, and a surface that mixes tarmac with exposed, unguarded sections where a mistake has real consequences.
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