Ray Anton purchased the
Corvette in 1972. Anton replaced the bolt-in roll cage with a welded roll cage and
completely rebuilt the car. It was maintained and housed at John Fuller’s Viper
Racing in Glastonbury, Connecticut. Other cars housed there included:
- John Fuller’s ZL-1 A/Production
Corvette.
- Len Greehalgh/ Jim Crittenden’s
1969 A/Sedan Penske Camaro. (In 1975, Crittenden was the SCCA A/Sedan National
Champion)
- Bill Prout’s Formula/B March 705
- Gil Reed’s D/Production TR4
- Miles Collier’s E/Production 356
Porsche Speedster
Anton campaigned the car from 1973 to
1975 and then donated it to PBS for an auction in the spring of 1976. At the time it was
the largest gift to PBS for an auction. Sylvan Cornblatt of Baltimore, Maryland purchased
it. He campaigned the Corvette through 1985 at which time Cornblatt had a fiery crash at
Summit Point, West Virginia. It was then hauled to a field behind Tim Sprinkle’s
Mechanicsberg Sports Car Shop in Pennsylvania and forgotten for ten years.
Anton had been searching for Cornblatt and
the Corvette for five years. Cornblatt who had retired to the British Virgin Islands
maintained a telephone listing in Baltimore where his son lived. Previous attempts at
reaching Cornblatt had been unsuccessful, but on one fateful day in January, 1995, Anton
found him home in Baltimore. The Corvette was within two weeks of being hauled to the dump
as Mechanicsberg had lost its lease on the property. Anton arranged a quick trip to
Pennsylvania and found the skeleton-remains of his award-winning car with weeds growing
through it. |
