The 2016 Spring Vintage Festival at Road America

The spring race at Road America is always a little early for the local weater pattern. In the past SVRA racers have experienced snow, torrential rain and hurricane force winds. This year it was extreme cold mixed with a light dusting of snow.

Qualifying went about as expected with Clair Schwendeman taking pole position by two seconds over the Camaro of local veteran racer Ray Mulacek. In the Saturday feature, Clair went to sleep on the first lap and let Ray get by in Turn 6. That got Clair’s attention and he got around Mulacek and went on to win by 7.6 seconds, with the Group 12 Corvette driven by Kirk Blaha third overall.

L-R, Proud Trump supporter Ray Mulacek, Clair Schwendeman and Rick Mooney

Clair Schwendeman being interviewed for local TV after the race.

Road America with its long straights is the worst possible track for the underpowered Devin MG, and SVRA moved Susie from her normal Group 4 into the slower Group 1 where she was still thirty-eight seconds off the fastest lap of the Group winner. Susie never made a mistake and drove the car as fast as it could go. It just doesn’t have enough power to mix it up at a long and fast track like Road America.

Susie ready to rumble in her 1952 Devin-MG

Susie Patterson at Turn 5 in her 1952 Devin MG Special

Alan and Clair hoped to erase their only enduro loss in 2015. At Road America last year, the team chose not to stop for a second mandatory pit stop during an extended yellow flag period, which caused them to finish third behind a Porsche and a Camaro who both stopped twice under yellow. This year Alan found a new way to lose a Road America Enduro when he started the pit stop timer almost 10 seconds before the official pit entrance timing cone. The result was a pit stop several seconds short of five minutes and a black flag.

In the Sunday Group 6 race, Clair did not give Mulacek another chance and was on the ball from the green flag. He won by 10 seconds with Mulacek again second and Rick Mooney finishing third this time.

This time the politically correct asked Mulecek to lose the Trump hat.

Tony Parella never got a chance to run a lap in his Group 4 1958 Corvette. Sometimes that is the way it goes in the racing life of the SVRA owner and CEO.