When Opportunity knocks, it’s usually wearing work clothes!

This story was first published in the June 2024 issue of Vette Vues Magazine.

It is hard to believe that it’s been nearly twenty-five years since the 1999 debut of the C5-R racing Corvette at the 24 Hours at Daytona race. The June 1999 issue of Vette magazine splashed the cover with the silver and black Goodwrench C5-R in for a pit stop. The cover story was titled, “Heartaches and Heroes, The new C5-Rs Run – And finish the 24 Hours at Daytona”. The author and photographer of the story and the cover was Richard Prince.

If you are new to all things Corvette, say, within the last twenty-four years, you no doubt have seen Richard Prince’s beautiful racing photography and his photo credit nearly everywhere. Richard has been the official Corvette Racing Photographer from the beginning when the very first C5-R mule car was being worked out in 1997. Richard has covered 276 Corvette races since then, missing only two because of schedule conflicts between IMSA and WEC that had Corvettes racing in the US and Europe on the same weekends.

“Lucky guy”, right? So, how does one get a gig like this? In success psychology, there’s an adage that goes, “Luck is what happens when preparedness meets opportunity”. If one is not prepared, the best opportunity will make you look silly. In 1997 when Richard got a call from Gary Claudio (National Corvette Museum 2012 Hall of Famer in the GM/Chevrolet category), the marketing manager for the newly-formed Corvette Racing Team, asking for a “favor”, Richard was prepared.

In life, everything leads to something else. After high school, Richard attended Columbia University and got degrees in English and American History. After Columbia, Richard went to law school University of Southern California Law School. Richard explains, “I got a good education, but had no burning desire to be a lawyer. I got a job working at a law firm in Los Angeles doing eminent domain litigation, but it was not very satisfying.”

Richard married his sweetheart, Carolyn, a graphic artist specializing in food packaging design. In 1988 they both agreed to quit their office jobs and follow their passion by launching a car restoration business. They went from air-conditioned, clean offices to the dirty work of taking apart old cars and restoring them. Richard and Carolyn each had a long passion for cars and working with their hands on mechanical things and while their business restored a wide array of different cars they both had a particular love for Corvettes.

On an otherwise ordinary day in March 1992, Richard got a call from D. Randy Riggs, the editor at Vette Magazine asking if he would like to write a monthly column for the magazine about any aspect of Corvettes he liked. As Richard had a degree in English and writing was easy for him, he agreed to the offer. It was a case of “preparedness meeting with opportunity”.

Looking for a great gift for your favorite Corvette person?

Shirts, Mugs, Caps, Hoodies & More

Shop CarGuyMerch.Etsy.com

It wasn’t long before Richard started writing feature stories for Vette magazine and then “Classic Auto Restorer” magazine, covering the full spectrum of old car restoration. Classic Auto Restorer wasn’t a high-end, glossy publication; just a nuts-and-bolts magazine with lots of tech and “How-To” stories. Richard wrote the stories from his experience restoring cars and started doing his own documentation photography.

When you start doing car magazine stories, it’s not unusual to branch out to other car publications. Richard’s documentation photography was fine for how-to stories, but feature stories need pretty pictures. If a writer is not able to also create the photography, they’ll have to partner with photographers.

Richard comments, “I found too many photographers with too many excuses for why their images were just okay. The work was a labor of love, but I had to give it up or shoot my own photos. Finally, I decided to invest in a DSLR camera (Digital Single Lens Reflex) and teach myself composition and lighting for great shots for my feature articles. D. Randy Riggs was an excellent mentor and helped me master the technical and creative aspects of photography.”

Looking for great art for a Corvette Cave or Room?

Posters and Canvas Wraps from K. Scott Teeters.

Shop ManCaveCarArt.Etsy.com

In 1995 Richard and Carolyn sold their restoration shop, but Richard stayed on as a consultant to the new owners and to finish a personal project; the restoration of the 1961 Gulf Oil Corvette race car that he and his wife owned.

Richard explains, “I went from running my shop to coming into work and only working on my project car.” Once the car was completed, Richard and Carolyn found themselves in a sweet position. They had no student loans, no debt, money in the bank, and no children. So, they bought a motorhome and traveled around America, with Richard photographing cars and writing stories as they went.

Richard explains, “We both thought about going back to our former professions, but decided not to. Photographing cars, getting people’s stories, and writing while traveling around America was great, but we knew it would never be a full-time thing. We had the opportunity and did it, just for the fun of it!”

Then in 1997 “Opportunity” knocked again. One day Richard got a call from Gary Claudio, Chevrolet Racing’s marketing manager, asking for a favor. Their conversation started with Gary asking Richard, “Can I trust you?” Briefly, Richard wondered, “Ahh, what’s this all about?” Gary then dropped the bombshell. “We are launching a Chevrolet/GM-sponsored Corvette Racing team and we’d like to borrow your 1967 Sunray DX Corvette to display at the formal public announcement of the C5-R Corvette Racing Team Program.” But how did Claudio know that Richard and Carolyn owned this Sebring and Daytona-winning 1967 L88 Corvette?

After the completion of the restoration of their race car and the car’s appearance in the 1992 Bloomington Gold Special Collection, Richard and Carolyn commissioned a painting of their car. Claudio was a big Corvette guy and after seeing the painting displayed by the artist, Charles Maher, at an art show in Detroit, he wanted to buy it. The artist explained that he couldn’t sell it because it was a commissioned work. Claudio asked if he could possibly buy it from the person who had it commissioned and the artist said not likely because the couple who hired him to do the painting owned the actual car it depicted.

Five years later, when Claudio was planning the reveal for the C5-R Corvette program, he remembered the beautiful red, white, and blue L88 Corvette in the painting and contacted the artist to get Richard and Carolyn’s phone number.

Smelling an opportunity, which he was definitely prepared for, Richard asked Gary if he could embed with the team wherever they went; test sessions, public appearances, and races for a period of three years, with unlimited permission to photograph whatever the team was doing, and then he would write a book about his experiences on the road with the Corvette Racing Team. Claudio said, “Great idea! You got it!” From start to finish, it was a three-minute phone call and the deal was done.

The three-year program kept getting extended and life began to get more complicated for Richard and Carolyn. The couple bought a house, had a child, and suddenly had all of the responsibilities that go with family life. But wait, there’s more. In addition to his duties with the Corvette Racing Team, along the way, Richard continued photographing and writing feature stories for magazines.

Eventually, Richard became Technical & Motorsports editor with Corvette Magazine. Does Richard ever sleep? Admittingly, not much. If you read any of the several hundred different car magazines where his work has appeared over the past thirty-plus years and it seems like “Richard Prince” is everywhere, he is!

In the first few years of the Corvette Racing program, Richard’s year-by-year agreement compensated him well, but there were a lot of travel expenses. After his son was born and he had all of the additional responsibilities and expenses which came with that Richard had to come up with a way to make it work better for him, or move on to something else. Then it became apparent to him; compensation from corporate sponsors. Perhaps it was Richard’s lawyer background that led him to write a letter to Chevrolet.

His opening argument was why Chevrolet needed a full-time, dedicated photographer, and if they were inclined to hire one, Richard let them know that he was available. That led to him being contracted to cover Corvette Racing for GM on a full-time basis. Once he committed himself to photographing and writing about racing on a full-time, long-term basis he found ways to expand his work.

Richard will be following the Chevrolet-supported privateers who will be campaigning these Corvettes, as well as the 2024 Cadillac Prototype Program. From Richard’s vantage point, his work will remain pretty much the same.

Now there’s another layer of accomplishment to share with you about Richard Prince. In 2022 Motorbooks International published a book authored by Richard, titled, “Corvette 70 years: The One and Only”. This 256-page hardcover book chronicles the Corvette from its inception in 1951 at Watkins Glen up to the introduction of the 2023 70^th Anniversary C8 Corvette.

Richard sourced several hundred photographs and documents from his own archive, spent over three weeks in the GM Heritage Center Archives researching historic images and documents, and devoted countless hours to writing the highly detailed text.

The book covers pre-production and production Corvettes, as well as experimental Corvettes, show car Corvettes, and Corvette race cars. Of course, Richard’s photos begin in the narrative starting in 1997 when he was first hired to follow the Corvette Racing Team. The archive photographs and Richard’s images are beautiful.

When I interviewed Richard for this story, the first thing I asked him was, “With everything you do, how did you find the time to write a book?” Richard explained, “When several dozen car magazines were shuddered at the end of 2019, it created a huge hole in my schedule. I had an offer to shoot IndyCar in 2020 and that filled the gap, but it was only a one-year deal.

Then toward the end of 2020, Motorbooks International asked if I’d do a 70^th Anniversary Corvette book. I had already done three books before, so I knew how much work was involved. Creating automotive books is not lucrative so it has to be a labor of love. I said “no” three times. After negotiating some royalty and advance details, I finally said, “Yes”.

“I spent twenty-six days at the GM Heritage Center going through their photographic archive. My goal was to find as many never seen or rarely seen images as I could to help illustrate the book. I began writing on January 1, 2021, and completed the manuscript on December 31, 2021. Fortunately for me, I’m a fast writer, and in addition to all of the time put in while I was at home between races and new car photo shoots, I was also able to do some of the writing while I was traveling.” All total, the book contains about 440 photos and 55,000 words and is available anywhere books are sold or directly from Richard if you want a personally signed copy (email him at richard@rprincephoto.com).

Richard’s closing comment to us was, “A lot of things had to happen first before I got to my Corvette Racing years.” So, when it seems that you keep seeing “Photos & Words by Richard Prince”, remember that at every step along his journey, he was always prepared for his next opportunity. It was clearly a case of that old expression, “The harder I work, the luckier I get”. And Richard is far from done. – Scott

This story was first published in the June 2024 issue of Vette Vues Magazine.