Cornell`s Number

[El Joe]

Does anyone knows why Cornell`s polo has the 27 number?

[El Joe]

Does anyone knows why Cornell`s polo has the 27 number?

[CMURacing - Prometheus]

yes, we asked some alums when they showed up in our hotel room, its a gilles villeneuve thing.

[B.K.]

Yeah, back in the day, like 1992 or so, a bunch of guys on the Cornell team were Gilles Villeneuve fans. Since he ran the number 27 for a while, and since Cornell's color is red, they picked 27 for the car. Cornell won that year, and the number stuck.

By the time I joined the team it didn't mean anything about Gilles or Ferrari anymore and was just Cornell tradition. They stopped letting teams choose their numbers around 2001, but "Red 27" remains a Cornell Racing rallying cry. The team keeps the number on their shirts and there's usually a little 27 decal somewhere on the car.

[Michael Jones]

Being old enough and Canadian enough to remember Gilles Villeneuve, I always liked that tradition.