The Driver, the Racetrack, and the Corvette

United States temples of speed and the Chevrolet Corvette have a unique bond. The sheer sound of a ’Vette engine and the lines of its chassis are a spectacle in themselves. And when family blood is naturally diluted with gasoline, it is only a matter of time before the trio of the driver, the car, and the racetrack bond into one. That happened to Matan Rosenberg, who is now taking huge steps into racing.

"My roots in Motorsports comes from my dad’s family who has a deep passion for equipment and machinery. We own a family scrap metal recycling business and at a very young age I was exposed to engines and heavy equipment. My dad had been into cars since he was 16 doing some auto-x and later he got into road course and eventually got the Corvette that I actually race today. When he started having kids he got us into riding dirtbikes as a family but eventually I wanted to race cars and started learning in a Miata that I also raced for a few years. "

Of course, starting a career with such a powerful and demanding car as a Corvette would be a bold choice, so the American began with a much smaller-scale car: a Mazda Miata. It provides really solid fundamentals for racing, but it also has a low ceiling for progressing further.

"I made the switch to the Corvette 3 years ago. The Miata was a great car to learn in but the chassis had a much lower capability ceiling compared to the Corvette. I’ve been able to continue to improve the Corvette drastically each year and with it being better from the start with beefier components than a Miata, it has been rewarding to work on and race. "

When upgrading a car, many components need to be improved, replaced, or custom- fabricated. Every fraction of a second that can be shaved off lap time, even the smallest one, really matters. There is a lot of shifting during a single lap – each shift takes a small amount of time, even a very short one, but multiplied by all the upshifts and downshifts in one lap, the effect can be very visible on the time sheets. Multiply that by the number of laps, and it can become the difference between winning and losing. That is where a sequential gearbox comes in.

"I’ve wanted to put a sequential in my car for years. It’s always been something that I’ve always felt makes a race car a “real” race car. The past couple years I’ve built up relationships with Eric Lavigne from Lavigne Motorsports and Link ECU. With these guys support a project like this was finally possible. So when the new class was announced that I’m racing in this year that didn’t penalize a sequential everything clicked. The Samsonas was a super nice package that has a team of people that were helpful and easy to work with. So far the transmission has been great. We’ve even been able to utilize different drop gears for different tracks we go to. "

So where can we see Matan’s Corvette clipping apexes and making spectators shiver at the sound of the Corvette engine accompanied by ultra-fast shifting?

The series I race in is Gridlife Grand-Touring. It’s a power-to-weight class with different modifiers for aero, drivetrain configuration, factory race cars, etc. In this class my C5 raced at approximately 370whp and 3400lbs with a 305-wide spec slick for the class. It’s supposed to allow for a mix of factory-built GT4 and TCR cars to race with home-brewed cars like my Corvette. So far the class has had some great racing and the car is very enjoyable to drive. 

"I would love to continue to grow in motorsports. This year between Gridlife and SRO TC Americas it feels like I have a lot on my plate. I have dreams of racing in other professional series. I enjoy driving just about anything and at some point would love to get into off-road racing as well. I hope to be able to continue to take opportunities within racing as they arise as I’ve been very fortunate thus far. "