Car-loving couple race into Corvette Hall of Fame. What got them in

The couple has owned 12 Corvettes, including a rare 2009 GT1 Championship coupe.
Charley Robertson runs the Corvette racing fan page on Facebook with 62,000 followers.

Charley Robertson remembers exactly where she was when she fell in love with Corvettes.

She was standing outside the forest science building at Texas A&M University in the mid-1970s. She was on her way to class when a loud sound caught her ear. She closed her eyes to listen.

“The noise of the engine just thrilled me,” Robertson told the Detroit Free Press, part of the USA TODAY Network. “But being in forestry, we had no choice but to buy trucks and use them in our business.”

The seed, however, had been planted. In 1988, Robertson’s husband, Jim Robertson, purchased a 1974 Corvette Coupe from a neighbor who had kept the vehicle under a tarp in his backyard. When he opened the door, cockroaches poured out of it.

“But it would run,” Jim Robertson said.

He did most of the restoration work, but they brought the car to a local paint shop to finish the job. Once the vehicle was finished, and the couple drove it back home through the streets of their small Florida town, they watched heads turn to follow their car down the street.

“When we got home, I turned to Jim and said, ‘this is now my car,’ ” Charley Robertson said. “No one else had Corvettes, so I became known as the Corvette lady of Blountstown.”

The two jumped headfirst into Corvette culture, joining their local club, Circle City Corvettes out of Alabama, becoming members of the National Corvette Museum in 1998 and attending every race within driving distance of their home. Decades of these efforts are why the Robertsons are among the 2025 inductees to the Corvette Hall of Fame under the enthusiast category.

“Their generosity and dedication have turned thousands of spectators into lifelong supporters of the brand and champions of the Museum’s mission,” the museum said in a statement. Established in 1998, the Corvette Hall of Fame is housed at the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky ― across the street from where General Motors assembled every Corvette since 1981 ― and it has honored 92 inductees since its inception.

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Love affair and cars

The Robertsons, both retired foresters, met on the job at a paper company.

“We had the same boss,” Jim Robertson said. “One day, I called the office and she answered the phone instead of the secretary. And I invited her to a John Denver concert.”

The two have been together ever since, spending most of their free time on their mutual hobby.

After fixing up their first Corvette, he decided she was lowering the investment value of the vehicle by driving it every day, so they sold it. As soon as the car was driving down the driveway, Charley Robertson said they looked at each other and said, “We have made a serious mistake.”

Their next, a 1990 Corvette, was found in Atlanta, about 4½ hours away from where they live in the Florida panhandle.

“They kept us there most of the day. Driving home, I started getting a terrible headache and pulled off to the side of the road. Jim said, ‘Why don’t you drive the Corvette, and I’ll take the Firebird?’ I can remember getting in the Corvette, turning on the engine, and within seconds, that headache was gone,” Charley Robertson said. “I knew I had found my car forever.”

Since then, the couple has owned 12 Corvettes. Currently, they own three — a 2009 GT1 Championship coupe with manual transmission, a 2018 C7 Grand Sport, and a 2022 C8 Stingray — and one 2019 Chevrolet Silverado SLT.

Life of enthusiasts

Keeping up to date on everything Corvette keeps the couple plenty busy in retirement. Charley Robertson co-operates the Corvette racing fan page on Facebook with 62,000 followers. Jim Robertson tends to take a back seat to his wife’s efforts, oftentimes describing himself as the guy who drives her to events, but she insists that they are a team.

“Without Jim, there’d be no Charley,” she said.

As to how Corvette will maintain its legacy, Charley Robertson said showing up for the fans and enthusiasts is pivotal. When decision-makers attending events hear from real customers about engine performance and coloring options to bring back to Detroit, she said it delivers the best results.

One of the major attractions to Corvettes for the Robertsons is the community itself, and Charley Robertson cautions new owners against purchasing one with the hopes of staying under the radar.

“Younger buyers feel Corvette as a status symbol, compared to an entry point to a community and a full social circle. If younger buyers started engaging with the community, they’d say, ‘Oh my goodness gracious, this is a lot of fun.’ It’s meeting new people through the car,” she said. “Keeping people in the community means they’ll want to stay with Corvette.”

Those community ties run deep. Gregg Prettman, a Corvette owner in their group and a home builder, drove two hours to help after Hurricane Michael touched down and damaged their property in 2018.

Fortunately, the Robertson’s Corvettes weren’t damaged, but the couple lost power and water for several days. One tree fell and a branch cut through their roof, stopping just above their bed.

When not attending the Rolex 24 at Daytona, the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring or the Petite La Mans or watching from home on one of Charley’s many monitors, the two run auctions to support the museum and local charities. Charley Robertson also runs a gift shop at their church.

The couple also fostered deep relationships with leaders at the automaker, including Corvette’s former product marketing manager Harlan Charles, who attended their induction ceremony on Aug. 29.

Despite their reputation, the Robertsons described entering into the Hall of Fame as “humbling.”

“There’s nothing special about Jim and I. We don’t look at ourselves as celebrities,” Charley Robertson said. “We just happened to embrace the hobby, the family, and gave it all that we could. We are fortunate to be recognized for it.”

Jackie Charniga covers General Motors for the Free Press. Reach her at [email protected].

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