National Corvette Museum Hall of Fame Announces 2015 Inductees
The National Corvette Museum
The National Corvette Museum Hall of Fame has announced three new inductees for 2015. Herb Fishel, Rick Hendrick, and Russ McLean will join the Hall this fall for their contributions to the Corvette brand.
Herb Fishel, a former Chevy Racing Director and Executive Director of GM Racing, guided Chevrolet to 12 Indy 500 victories and class wins in the Baja 1000, Pikes Peak Hill Climb, 24 Hours of Le Mans, and Daytona 500. For his efforts, Fishel will be inducted into the Corvette Hall of Fame’s Racing category.
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“I didn’t want to just coast through a career. I wanted to leave something substantial behind me that was significant and noteworthy,” said Fishel, according to GM Authority. “The Corvette’s success in racing was a key chapter in the story of Corvette. I had the vision and provided the leadership to make it happen, but I didn’t do it alone. It took a team of people to do that. To be inducted into the Corvette Hall of Fame now for that contribution and to be placed in the same framework as people like Zora Arkus Duntov, who I’d looked up to as a kid, is humbling. I’m very grateful.”
Legendary NASCAR team owner Rick Hendrick is not a surprising pick for the HoF honor, as the man behind Hendrick Motorsports, a race team that has won multiple Sprint Cup championships for Chevrolet. Hendrick is also a noted Vette enthusiast, having purchased the very first 2015 Corvette Z06 Stingray for charity last April.
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“I can’t tell you how excited I am to be selected for the Corvette Hall of Fame. My love for Corvettes goes back to when I was a teenager, and it was the love for the car that got me into racing and the automobile business,” said Hendrick. “To be honored at a place where so many of the Corvette greats are honored — it’s just humbling. I never dreamed that I’d be recognized in such a way.”
GM’s Russ McLean is a hero in the Corvette world for being asked by executives to kill the car, but instead keeping the program alive and helping create the C5 model.
“This honor is really for the Corvette people working with me who did their jobs extremely well; who interphased and cooperated with each other; who were so dedicated and supportive of each other,” McLean said. “My job was to kill the Corvette, but together we did all we could do to improve the C4 and keep the C5 viable. I’m very happy to be representing all of those people in the Corvette Hall of Fame.”
The National Corvette Museum Hall of Fame was established in 1998 to recognize those who “reflect the highest standards of integrity and character to positively enhance the prestige of the Corvette and the National Corvette Museum.”
News Source: GM Authority
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