Chevrolet Engineer Wins Back-to-Back National Championships at SCCA Runoffs

DETROIT – At the SCCA National Championship Runoffs, John M. Buttermore, Chevrolet Sonic Lead Development Engineer, won the Touring 1 Class gold medal in a Chevrolet Corvette in Elkhart, Wis. on Sept. 21. This is Buttermore’s sixth year earning a medal in Touring 1 at the Runoffs.

Buttermore races a current generation Corvette C6 updated with the Grand Sport body work. The car is powered by a stock 6.2L LS3 V-8 engine mated to a production six-speed transmission and differential.

“This was a big effort. The Touring 1 class is the playground for street car-based, extremely high performance vehicles,” said Buttermore. “The Corvette is the best car on and off the track. Even the exhaust manifolds are stock; we just put on an unmuffled exhaust, recalibrated the engine for racing fuel, added some auxiliary coolers and it was race ready."

As lead development engineer for the Chevrolet Sonic, the only subcompact made in America, Buttermore amped up the 2013 Chevrolet Sonic RS with a performance-oriented driving experience and aggressive exterior and interior features matched with a 1.4L turbo engine that delivers 138 horsepower (103 kW) and 148 lb.-ft. of torque (200 Nm).

“My passion is racing and I put that same drive into tuning Sonic, especially with our new RS variant,” said Buttermore. "With the RS, we updated the suspension tune, brakes, final-drive ratio, manual trans-mission gear ratios and ride height to create a sporty ride."

Racing became a serious pursuit for Buttermore at Waterford Hills Raceway in suburban Detroit during college. In 2004, he joined the SCCA National Circuit with a new Cadillac CTS-V in the Touring 2 class. Ten years after entering racing school at Road America, he returned with his CTS-V, broke the track record and eventually moved to the Touring 1 Class racing a Corvette.

To learn more about the all-new Sonic, visit the Chevy Sonic Facebook page; follow on Twitter at@ChevyLife or check out letsdothis.com.
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