[Lee Stewart]

The 1959 Corvette Sting Ray racer used a spare chassis from the ill-fated, one-off, factory-entered Corvette SS, which appeared at Sebring in 1957. Mitchell took the Corvette SS chassis and re-bodied it into the Sting Ray racer and raced it privately on his own dime, with famous Corvette driver Dick Thompson, "The Flying Dentist" at the wheel. The Sting Ray racer made its debut at Road America in 1959, painted in its original red. Once the development of the 1963 Corvette Sting Ray production car program started taking shape, Mitchell "retired" the Sting Ray racer and painted it in gleaming metallic silver, which was reminiscent of the Mercedes Grand Prix machines from the 50s, his favorite racing cars.