Brian Wallace is lead vehicle dynamics engineer for Chevrolet performance cars, but that’s only part of his job. He’s also the chief performance driving instructor at General Motors, responsible for identifying promising employees and training them to become evaluation drivers – the folks who push prototype vehicles to the limit on secure test tracks to make sure they’ll behave flawlessly on the road.
Evaluation drivers receive graduated licenses, authorizing them for increasingly complex vehicle testing. At the very top are the drivers who get to test new Corvettes. On a certain day in October 2024, if you stood by the fence at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, you might have seen GM’s dean of driving as he bullwhipped the new Corvette ZR1 to a 2:08.6 lap time, obliterating the reigning production-car lap record at that track.
“I went in with a stretch goal, ‘cause that’s what racers do,” Wallace says. “I said, I know I can get a 2:10, but a 2:09 is completely different.”
An experienced amateur racer, Wallace hit a 2:10 lap while he was still warming up. On his third full-speed attempt, Wallace nailed that 2:08.6 - an unfathomable 5.2 seconds faster than the ultra-limited-production German sports car that had previously held the street-legal lap record at Road America.
Brian Wallace, lead vehicle dynamics engineer for Chevrolet performance cars, with the Corvette ZR1 at Virginia International Raceway.
Wallace is humble, a team player, and he’s reluctant to take too much credit for the record run. “I’m just one of the people in our group who can do all these things with these cars,” he says. “There’s a lot of fantastic drivers in our organization.”
Wallace is matter of fact about the challenge. “I hadn’t driven the car at Road America before, but I knew the track well. I knew where I wanted to place the car in every corner on the track. The challenge was dialing into the extra speed I had going into the corners compared to my previous trips to Road America. I had to back up my brake markers everywhere. In the ZR1, they come up on you so damn fast.”
Road America: 4.048 miles, 14 turns.
Road America is a horsepower track, with long uphill stretches and some blazingly fast corners. Turn 11, known to racers simply as “The Kink,” is notorious.
“As far as North American tracks go, The Kink is right at the very top for risk versus reward,” Wallace says. “It’s a sketchy corner. There’s no margin for error.” A high-speed right-hander, this sweeping turn demands smoothness and unshakable confidence from drivers. “When I looked at the data as I was warming up, that’s where I was leaving the most time on the table,” Wallace says. “I had to get really comfortable with how I was going to send the car through that corner.” On his record-setting run, Wallace’s minimum speed through The Kink was 117 mph.
I asked Wallace to name his favorite part of a lap at Road America. “Same corner,” he says.
Naturally, setting a production-car lap record at a legendary American racetrack is a fun day at the office for a die-hard racer like Wallace. As an engineer, he understands how this achievement impacts the Corvette customer.
“The overall integration of this car relies on track testing,” he says. “That’s where our team comes in. Without proper integration of our chassis controls, Magnetic Ride Control suspension, steering, electronic limited-slip differential, etc., we couldn’t make this performance potential possible. Without that, you wouldn’t have the confidence to do what we can do with this car.”
While this was the new ZR1’s first appearance at Road America, Wallace and the rest of the Corvette development drivers had banked thousands of miles driving this ‘Vette. They knew exactly what to expect from the muscular machine.
“I know this is weird to say about a thousand-plus-horsepower car, but it’s extremely approachable,” he says. “It’s a testament to how the ZR1 is set up.”
The ZR1 at Road America.
Engineers, designers, and development drivers all poured thousands of hours into this ZR1, making it the fastest, quickest-accelerating, most powerful Corvette ever. Five production-car lap records at tracks across the U.S. help to showcase the result of all that hard work. They also have a payoff for Corvette customers.
“Think about someone who takes their ZR1 to a track day,” Wallace says. “They’re looking at lap times. If we know we can get this lap time out of this car, we’re providing that benefit to the customer. They can hang their hat on it - ‘I own this car, and it kicks your car’s ass.’”
On timed-lap day, Wallace had three chances to beat the 2:09 target he set for himself. On the first two attempts, the track surface was too cold, reducing the ZR1’s traction. “I struggled mightily to get grip out of the car,” he says. “I ran a couple really low 2:09s, but I knew there was a 2:08 in the car, and I didn’t want to leave that on the table.”
Every full-speed lap brings risks – and not just for the driver. One small incident could put the car out of commission, wasting the efforts of hundreds of people. Wallace, like every Corvette development driver, is supported by a whole crew at the track, plus teams of engineers, designers, mechanics and more at GM facilities around the world. There comes a moment when danger outweighs the potential reward, when you have to settle for what you’ve already achieved.
Wallace decided he could run one more fast, clean lap before the track got too hot and the risk too high. When he crossed the finish line, he knew he’d notched a monumental victory for the Corvette ZR1.
“When I got out of the car, I was high-fiving, fist-bumping the entire team,” Wallace says. “The people there, this couldn’t have been achieved without them.”
1On a closed course. Based on initial vehicle movement.
By Bob Sorokanich, editorial producer and writer, GM News
The Corvette ZR1 at Road America.
Brian Wallace is lead vehicle dynamics engineer for Chevrolet performance cars, but that’s only part of his job. He’s also the chief performance driving instructor at General Motors, responsible for identifying promising employees and training them to become evaluation drivers – the folks who push prototype vehicles to the limit on secure test tracks to make sure they’ll behave flawlessly on the road.
Evaluation drivers receive graduated licenses, authorizing them for increasingly complex vehicle testing. At the very top are the drivers who get to test new Corvettes. On a certain day in October 2024, if you stood by the fence at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, you might have seen GM’s dean of driving as he bullwhipped the new Corvette ZR1 to a 2:08.6 lap time, obliterating the reigning production-car lap record at that track.
“I went in with a stretch goal, ‘cause that’s what racers do,” Wallace says. “I said, I know I can get a 2:10, but a 2:09 is completely different.”
An experienced amateur racer, Wallace hit a 2:10 lap while he was still warming up. On his third full-speed attempt, Wallace nailed that 2:08.6 - an unfathomable 5.2 seconds faster than the ultra-limited-production German sports car that had previously held the street-legal lap record at Road America.
Brian Wallace, lead vehicle dynamics engineer for Chevrolet performance cars, with the Corvette ZR1 at Virginia International Raceway.
Wallace is humble, a team player, and he’s reluctant to take too much credit for the record run. “I’m just one of the people in our group who can do all these things with these cars,” he says. “There’s a lot of fantastic drivers in our organization.”
Wallace is matter of fact about the challenge. “I hadn’t driven the car at Road America before, but I knew the track well. I knew where I wanted to place the car in every corner on the track. The challenge was dialing into the extra speed I had going into the corners compared to my previous trips to Road America. I had to back up my brake markers everywhere. In the ZR1, they come up on you so damn fast.”
Road America: 4.048 miles, 14 turns.
Road America is a horsepower track, with long uphill stretches and some blazingly fast corners. Turn 11, known to racers simply as “The Kink,” is notorious.
“As far as North American tracks go, The Kink is right at the very top for risk versus reward,” Wallace says. “It’s a sketchy corner. There’s no margin for error.” A high-speed right-hander, this sweeping turn demands smoothness and unshakable confidence from drivers. “When I looked at the data as I was warming up, that’s where I was leaving the most time on the table,” Wallace says. “I had to get really comfortable with how I was going to send the car through that corner.” On his record-setting run, Wallace’s minimum speed through The Kink was 117 mph.
I asked Wallace to name his favorite part of a lap at Road America. “Same corner,” he says.
Naturally, setting a production-car lap record at a legendary American racetrack is a fun day at the office for a die-hard racer like Wallace. As an engineer, he understands how this achievement impacts the Corvette customer.
“The overall integration of this car relies on track testing,” he says. “That’s where our team comes in. Without proper integration of our chassis controls, Magnetic Ride Control suspension, steering, electronic limited-slip differential, etc., we couldn’t make this performance potential possible. Without that, you wouldn’t have the confidence to do what we can do with this car.”
While this was the new ZR1’s first appearance at Road America, Wallace and the rest of the Corvette development drivers had banked thousands of miles driving this ‘Vette. They knew exactly what to expect from the muscular machine.
“I know this is weird to say about a thousand-plus-horsepower car, but it’s extremely approachable,” he says. “It’s a testament to how the ZR1 is set up.”
The ZR1 at Road America.
Engineers, designers, and development drivers all poured thousands of hours into this ZR1, making it the fastest, quickest-accelerating, most powerful Corvette ever. Five production-car lap records at tracks across the U.S. help to showcase the result of all that hard work. They also have a payoff for Corvette customers.
“Think about someone who takes their ZR1 to a track day,” Wallace says. “They’re looking at lap times. If we know we can get this lap time out of this car, we’re providing that benefit to the customer. They can hang their hat on it - ‘I own this car, and it kicks your car’s ass.’”
On timed-lap day, Wallace had three chances to beat the 2:09 target he set for himself. On the first two attempts, the track surface was too cold, reducing the ZR1’s traction. “I struggled mightily to get grip out of the car,” he says. “I ran a couple really low 2:09s, but I knew there was a 2:08 in the car, and I didn’t want to leave that on the table.”
Every full-speed lap brings risks – and not just for the driver. One small incident could put the car out of commission, wasting the efforts of hundreds of people. Wallace, like every Corvette development driver, is supported by a whole crew at the track, plus teams of engineers, designers, mechanics and more at GM facilities around the world. There comes a moment when danger outweighs the potential reward, when you have to settle for what you’ve already achieved.
Wallace decided he could run one more fast, clean lap before the track got too hot and the risk too high. When he crossed the finish line, he knew he’d notched a monumental victory for the Corvette ZR1.
“When I got out of the car, I was high-fiving, fist-bumping the entire team,” Wallace says. “The people there, this couldn’t have been achieved without them.”
1On a closed course. Based on initial vehicle movement.
