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Corvette has a long history with racing and race events. Anyone with a passing familiarity with Corvette knows of the long association with the Indianapolis 500, as Corvette has paced the Memorial Day weekend event nine times, including the streak of four years from 2004 to 2007.

But Corvettes have long been associated with other races, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans, arguably the most storied, important, and indeed, sexiest race in the world.

The 24 Heures du Mans is not, nor has it ever been, a race where the fastest car finishes first; instead it is about endurance as well as performance. All cars are required to conform to rules set forth by the Automobile Club de l’Ouest, the race’s sanctioning body. Although the rules change from year to year, the race has been held annually (with a ten-year break surrounding WWII) since 1923 on public roads near the town of Sarthe, France.

While Corvettes, both close to stock and highly modified, have run the Le Mans circuit for years with various class wins and occasionally mixed results, the only domestic brand to have won overall at Le Mans is Ford with its GT40s.

A Safety Car serves many of the same functions in both Formula One and at Le Mans as a Pace Car does in domestic races. Similar to the F1 setup, the Corvette Safety Car has both yellow and green lights attached to the bar behind the T-tops. The green light allows the driver behind the Safety Car to pass. When the lead car is positioned behind the safety car, the yellow light is deployed and no passing is allowed. Le Mans also uses a Pace Car, but once the race is started, the Safety Cars are the ones to watch.