BuckeyeZ06

OK, all, I have been asked about this a few times, and have always been too busy to really explain it all in this format, but here is shot at it...

I got a good friend of mine, Rob Piecarzyk, who I know through racing. At the time this all happened he was running either a SSC Mazda Protege or his RX8 T3 car. He just loves Mazda.

Rob, in a former life, was the number two guy in marketing for The Cleveland Grand Prix. I guess the people who "owned" that race also ran the Houston open wheel race as well.

Anyways, Trans Am was the support race for the first few years of the CGP, but the year (2006?) T/A went defunct Rob was tasked with finding a fill-in for that time spot. So he calls me...no kidding. Like I know sumptin!

He asks if I can gather the T1 gang together for an exhibition race. "Sure I can!" was my response.

Then I looked at the calendar and realized that the CGP ran opposite of The June Sprints. No T1 racer was going to be in Cleveland versus running The June Sprints. So that idea was shot all to hell.

Then I brain stormed and blurted out, "What about the TCC?" (yes, this is all in one telephone conversation)

Rob asks, "What the heck is a TCC?"

"An all Corvette series!" I inform him.

"Great! How do we get hold of them?"

So I look up the TCC website and find the contact info for Bill Lex and Danny Kellermeyer (sp). I don't know either, but everyone raves about Danny (what is it with that name and Corvette drivers?).

Rob ends up taking the bull by the proverbial horns and gets hold of one of those two, Bill Lex, I think, and the rest is history.

I had a small part in the whole thing, kinda like the guy who told Sonny to check our Cher...

Today me and Rob co-own a Mazda MX5 built to Koni Challenge specs; we ran a 24-hour race this past year with Jim Jordan as a co-driver. Jim runs Mazda's alternative marketing department and he is the one who started the "Zoom Zoom" ad campaign. Nice guy to know!

So there you have it, not much there. But some one you do owe me a beer because of my big mouth!

Axelrod

If you're that connected, sign them up again. Miatas suck.

eogel

Thank you Dave, it was a great event!
Ed Gelston

BuckeyeZ06

The Cleveland GP lost its weekend when IRL and Champ Car merged this year, so no one is filling in.

BTW: one of my stable mates, Mike Solley, ran BOTH the CGP and The June Sprints...he owns a jet or two and flew between Elkhart Lake and Cleveland. Now that's a dedicated racer!

AU N EGL

0Vector Vette

Dave,
Thanks for telling the story and for doing your part in getting us there. That was a great race, one of the highlites of my racing......hobby. 24 Corvettes on the track! Too bad I overheated and didn't finish the race. I didn't know Mike ran June Sprints as well that weekend.

Sure would be great to get that many Corvettes together more often. You could do your part and change brands! Look forward to meeting you someday, and I will buy you that beer.
Robert Finlayson
TCC 59

ScaryFast

Robert, you just missed him! David ran both the NASA August Mid-Ohio weekend and the Championship weekend, the two events after TCC ran with us in July.

That's another beer ruined by your daughter's wedding

0Vector Vette

Ahhhhh......the things we do for our children.

BuckeyeZ06

I can relate...I missed the 2008 SCCA Run Offs because my daughter's high school Homecoming dance was that night. Hence I attended the NASA Championships instead and won that, so all's well that ends well.