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Daniel Decker, National Corvette Museum’s Vehicle Maintenance and Preservation Tech, shared, “In order for Scot to break this record, someone had to certify the Corvette Burner was to drive was stock, and I was able to complete that step in the process.” In addition to the vehicle’s certification, Burner also had to have the NCM Motorsports Park track inspected by a land surveyor. The portion of track land used for the attempt had to be fairly flat since downhill slopes would have given Burner an unfair speed advantage. Dennis Smith of DDS Engineering said, “We worked the track backward in order to find Burner’s correct starting point to make sure that he wasn’t going downhill.” Smith added, “Although this was a routine job, it was the first time I have watched someone break a world record.”

Once the required protocols had been completed, it was time for Burner to step in. It’s important to note the current world record for the fastest mile driven in reverse was 97.02 seconds, set back in 2012.  On June 15, 2022, at the NCM Motorsports Park, and on his very first attempt, Scot Burner drove a stock C7 Corvette for one mile in reverse in just 83.19 seconds.  Burner tried a second time and ended with an even better time of 75.18 seconds, crushing the previous record by over 20 seconds, and will now hopefully be recorded in history as the world record time for the fastest mile in reverse!

After beating the previous record, Burner exclaimed “he chose the right car” and his “heart was still pumping” from the adrenaline of it all. He averaged about 45 miles per hour in reverse when he broke the record but hit a top speed of around 53 miles per hour.  Prior to June 15^th, the farthest Burner had driven in reverse was roughly a quarter mile. His mile at the NCM Motorsports Park was also the first time he has completed backward turns.

Burner chose to attempt to break the world record at the NCM Motorsports Park because it felt fitting not only because he was driving a C7 Corvette but also because the course worked perfectly in relation to the standards set by Guinness. “We at the NCM Motorsports Park are honored to have had Scot attempt the Guinness World Record for the fastest reverse mile at our track. There is no better place in the world to achieve that honor in a Corvette than at the home of the Corvette,” said Greg Waldron, NCM Motorsports Park Executive Director.

Scot and the team at the NCM and MSP waited patiently for the official confirmation from Guinness that he broke the world record.  After just a few weeks, the happy news was announced.  Scot now holds the world record for the “Fastest Mile Driven in Reverse!”

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Betsy Slauson and her son, Dennis Slauson

Betsy Slauson has considerately donated her family’s 2003 Corvette to the National Corvette Museum in partnership with the Traffic Safety Education Foundation (TSEF) Driver’s Training Program in memory of her late husband, Donald Slauson. The Slauson family had been in Bowling Green, KY back in 2002 for the introduction of the 50th Anniversary Corvette. As they were headed home from that trip, Betsy’s husband said, “Let’s buy a new one.” She agreed, which led them to purchase the 2003 Corvette Convertible that Betsy has now donated. The Museum’s Director of Collections/Curator, Derek Moore, shared that “any nonprofit cannot survive without grants or donations. To have vehicles like this donated to both the Museum and this program are what make this entire institution run the way it does.”

Not long after the Slauson’s got their new 2003 Corvette, Disney did a feature of “50 Years of Corvettes” in Downtown Disney. Donald was on the committee for this event and worked with Disney to get the Corvettes for the feature. The Slauson’s new 2003 Corvette was on display front and center. Betsy shared that the show was a “top-notch” experience. At the show, there was signage for each Corvette that had the owner’s name, a description, the year of the car, the price of gas that year, and even the base price of the car. There they met the editor of Vette Magazine who asked them if they wanted their 2003 50th Anniversary Corvette to be on the cover. They said yes and their son, Dennis Slauson, had the opportunity to take the car to the photo shoot.

Dennis was once asked by his father if he would like to drive the ’03 around the speedway in Fontana, California with a NASCAR driver. Dennis said yes but “had no idea who was going to hop in the car” and it ended up being John Andretti. This was a parade lap for the NASCAR drivers and each vehicle carrying the drivers was a Corvette Convertible. Dennis said that was “a pretty cool moment” in their 2003 Corvette.

Betsy, a member of the Museum who receives America’s Sports Car Magazine, saw an article that the Museum and Traffic Safety Education Foundation were looking for C5 and C6 Corvettes. She thought the idea of donating the car was something her late husband would like. When she posed the idea to her son, he said “I think that would make dad smile.” Dennis shared that maybe their donation would “plant the Corvette bug” in a child that was also planted in his father long ago.

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Greg Waldron, NCM Motorsports Park Executive Director

The NCM Motorsports Park has named Greg Waldron of Naperville, IL as incoming Executive Director. Originally a Florida native, Greg worked in a wide range of roles at Disney for nearly 30 years, following Walt Disney’s mantra of ‘if you can dream it, do it,’ which is the philosophy and vision he brings with him to the NCM Motorsports Park.

“My last eight years at Disney were spent in Corporate Experience Planning and Integration, leading a global team that focused on the continuous improvement of the end to end guest experience across Parks and Resorts,” shared Greg. “You have to constantly refresh your products by growing and protecting your brand with creativity, innovation, a culture of best in class teams servicing our guests, driving consistent standards, and maximizing the asset to provide a safe, world-class product. I’m excited to bring those same concepts to the NCM Motorsports Park.”

Greg stepped away from Disney for several years to serve in the United States Navy as a Search and Rescue Swimmer, deployed to operation Desert Storm. During deployments and when stateside he used his free time attending Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia majoring in Recreation and Hospitality Management.

In 1995 Indianapolis Motor Speedway Corporation built ‘The Mickyard’ at Walt Disney World where Greg served as Regional Manager of the motorsports and recreation operations. The facility hosted the Indy Racing League Series and Craftsman Truck races in the early years, and later when the track was no longer used for spectator racing, it offered the Petty Driving Experience.

“Growing up in Central Florida with Daytona, Sebring, and numerous small dirt tracks around it was hard not to fall in love with racing. To this day I still attend races throughout the year,” added Greg.

Prior to accepting the position with the NCM Motorsports Park Greg worked for Great Wolf Lodge Corporate, having been recruited to join their team in 2017. In his role at Great Wolf he provided leadership to 19 water parks operating in the U.S. and Canada, driving continuous improvement of the business. Greg’s ideas and leadership yielded $5 million in incremental profit in the first year through the day pass program. Additionally, his role supported the design, development, and construction of additional properties each year, designing new water parks that would yield long term profitability while ensuring the logistics of the project were on-schedule.

“We are excited to welcome Greg to the NCM family,” shared Dr. Sean Preston, President & CEO of the National Corvette Museum. “Many of our enthusiasts refer to the Museum, Motorsports Park and Corvette Plant as the ‘Disney’ of the Corvette world, and Greg will bring a lot of new ‘magical’ ideas and knowledge to our organization.”

As new Executive Director of the NCM Motorsports Park, Greg is ready to hit the ground running January 4, his official start date. “There’s so many possibilities here, I look at it like a blank canvas.”

Greg and his wife Jennifer have three daughters, two who are teachers in Florida and one who will start college next Spring.

“Jennifer and I feel so blessed to be joining the NCM family and becoming a part of the Bowling Green community.”

In addition to Greg joining the team, Matt Busby, currently Track Operations Manager, was promoted to General Manager of Track Operations. Matt joined the NCM Motorsports Park in March of 2014, prior to the facility’s grand opening that August. Under his management of the track operations, programs including King of the Heap, High Performance Drivers’ Introduction and Corvette Experience have grown and flourished.

“Matt has years of proven leadership at the track. His new role will help elevate the track experiences we are able to offer,” shared Sean.

The NCM Motorsports Park is located at I-65 exit 28 in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Learn more about programs, offerings and events at motorsportspark.org and follow them on social media for the latest updates.

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Andy Pilgrim, an inductee of the Corvette Hall of Fame and former factory team driver for Corvette and Cadillac, serves as track pro and driving coach at the NCM Motorsports Park and has developed a new drivers’ learning area.

“1995 is when I started this give-back project known as the Traffic Safety Education Foundation where I essentially just try and educate young people, parents and drivers’ education teachers,” shared Andy. “Coming to Bowling Green I have worked to develop a community-centered project, a drivers’ safety driving area. Essentially, most parents don’t spend the amount of time they should working with their children on supervised driving time. This area will hopefully encourage parents to come spend some of that supervised driving time here at the NCM Motorsports Park. And if you drive your own car, it’s free to use.”

Picture left to right: Mark Heusinkveld, Jan Rue, Dr. Sean Preston and Andy Pilgrim

Andy took the drivers’ learning area idea one step further, proposing to have Corvettes available for student drivers to utilize for a small fee. Jan Rue and Mark Heusinkveld of Cincinnati, OH were the first supporters to come forward and answer the call for help.

“When we put out a call to our enthusiast following, Jan and Mark answered,” said Dr. Sean Preston, President and CEO of the Museum. “I know I would have loved to do my practice driving at a cool racetrack like this and in a Corvette instead of an empty school parking lot in a 1979 Mazda RX7.”

Jan and Mark, members of the Museum, were happy to support a worthwhile project with their donation. The 1999 Arctic White Coupe Corvette was a 60^th birthday gift to Jan from Mark.

“We saw the call-out for cars and talked about it,” said Jan. “With COVID, we’ve both recently retired. We used to go to club meetings and things. There are no meetings this year, no events because of COVID. And so, she’s just not getting the driving and the attention that she should be getting. What a perfect thing for youth to be able to learn some safety in such a cool car or group of cars.”

“The gentleman we purchase this from, he was an ex-Air Force mechanic,” shared Jan. “He was so proud of this car. He sent every scrap of paper with this car, memorabilia, every receipt, and he was the third owner of the car. He put an extra coat of wax on it before it would get on the transport truck and then sent us a video of a walk-around of the car before it left Clearwater. He was very proud of his baby and we were very grateful to get it.”

Mark shared that his first Corvette he purchased about 20 years ago – a ’69 Big Block Convertible that he still has. They have also owned a 2013 Grand Sport that they traded in towards a 2019 Corvette (which they drove to Bowling Green for the donation ceremony). Jan is looking forward to ordering a C8 in the next few weeks.

The couple also enjoy other marques including Jan’s daily driver of a 2016 Mustang GT, and Mark has a long history of Camaros before Corvette – including a ’68 Camaro that he still owns. Their involvement with Camaro is what introduced them to the Museum by attending an F-Body event. “I remember one year there was a couples membership offer and I got presented my membership on Valentine’s Day,” shared Jan. The couple have also participated in Kentucky Club Day and the National Corvette Caravan.

The new drivers’ learning area will be available for public use in the coming weeks with the Corvette driving option being added soon thereafter.

“We want to thank Jan and Mark for their donation and hope this inspires other enthusiasts to come forward and support our program designed to create safer drivers on the road and a new generation of Corvette enthusiasts,” added Sean.

Additional details about the offering will be shared on the Motorsports Park’s website as they become available at motorsportspark.org.

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