Corvette Stingray Coupe

Make
Chevrolet
Segment
Coupe

Less than two weeks ago, a pair of GM engineers were arrested and jailed overnight in Bowling Green, Kentucky for illegal street racing. Each one was driving a new 2020 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray. The Kentucky State Police quickly pulled over the pair, Alexander Thim and Mark Derkatz. Both were driving separate C8s and were caught exceeding the 45 mph speed limit. Reckless driving and racing motor vehicles is also very illegal. GM was aware of the incident involving the two but refused to comment any further. Are Thim and Derkatz still working for the General? It doesn't appear so.

Both of their respective LinkedIn pages reveal they each stopped working for the automaker as of January 2020. The timing is not coincidental. Thim's page even specifically mentions he "previously worked at General Motors launching the new 2020 Corvette." Derkatz wrote on his page, in past tense, about his "multiple roles at General Motors."

Both are young, Thim is just 27 and Derkatz is 30, so they'll find new jobs sooner or later. They're also talented and highly-skilled engineers once assigned to work on perhaps the most important project the automaker has done in years. We can't confirm whether they were fired or chose instead to resign, but it's clear they're out of the job at the moment. This all could have ended far worse if either of them got into a serious accident either injuring themselves or someone else.

Neither of the Corvettes sustained any damage but they were hauled away to a local impound lot where they were claimed the next day by GM officials. There was also reportedly a third C8 Corvette involved but its driver, very wisely, did not participate in the racing.

Is there a moral to this story? Yes, and it's this: don't go street racing. It doesn't matter if you're employed by one of the biggest automakers in the world working on one of its coolest new projects or just a regular guy with a fast car. Street racing is dangerous, pure and simple.