 Its almost time.
The fine folks at Don Hoevel Racing took on what we could not to finish the restoration of Chip Mead's former 1981 All American Racers Eagle #8101, and its nearly time for its first track test since November, 1983.  @schindel_media caught our resident Eaglet on approach to turn 5 today enroute to Group 2 FF/CF/PCF win.
On the way to the checkered flag, the Eaglet pulled a set of laps quicker than it ever has before, but we are still hungry for more. Dan Gurney was always tinkering for more speed, and we fly that way of thinking every time we roll out the Eagle DGF. Special thanks to RB MotorSports Engineering, Werth Racing, Scott Young Enterprises , UEMSI/HTV and Reid Hazelton for steering it betwixt the Kettle Moraine countryside.  There are people you meet in your life who make you instantly think - that person is one in a billion. John Higgins was that person.
We first met at the 2011 Dayton Concours d'Elegance, an event he helped sponsor. He wanted a moment as we were loading up to talk about our 1981 AAR Eagle, and its original driver, Chip Mead. Chip and John went back decades- they were close friends, and had a tight racing circle in Dayton, Ohio. To call their racing squad a merry bunch (the stories are legendary) would be deluding the fact they were absolutely serious about besting everyone else on the track. While Chip initially went the open wheel route, John raced mainly Porsche production cars well into the 1980s. They teamed up for the IMSA Lite "Baby Fabcar Porsche" effort and put many other squads to shame. Then there was his car dealership, his vintage racing efforts, his sense of community pride, his brand of humor and his tremendous love of his family and friends... that last part, it was everything to him. In the few times we met, John wanted to know all about Chip's Eagle, how it was progressing, how our family was doing and if we needed anything for Chip's car. Anything. Ever. Just call. A tremendous person. Cheers, John.  On the week that marked fifty-eight years since his passing, I found an ultra-rare Mike Spence Limited Ford Kent valve cover on eBay.
Its likely that this piece was made long after Spence's passing, but it is neat to know that the shop he ran in Maidenhead, which his family sold in 1970, carried on his name until it closed in the late 1980s. During the period from 1966-1968 when Mike was alive and running things, he used his connection with BRM to make upgrades to the Lotus Twin Cam engines and install them in upgraded Lotus Elans, as well as updating Ford Kent motors for Formula Ford competition. The gent we purchased this piece from worked for the Spence dealership from 1981-1988 when it stocked Lotus and Rover cars. He had it on a 1968 Ford Cortina 1600E that he bought from the shop in 1985. We felt it would be a perfect fit for our 1968 Ford Cortina 1600GT, the engine in which is time stamped to the very month of Spence's passing- May, 1968. In a way, opening the hood and seeing this valve cover atop a Ford Kent engine will serve as a constant reminder of the man who was coming into his own that fateful year before it all ended so abruptly at Indianapolis. Oh, one more thing... The shop that installed the second fuel tank (7.5 gallons only got you so far) in our late friend Michael Argetsinger's brand new 1970 Lotus Europa? You guessed it, Mike Spence Limited.  We picked rims for the '68 Eagle today. The orange Mergard Racing Eagle wheels didn't make the cut and will be saved for another project...
We've been looking for one for nearly five years. Thus, we are thrilled to welcome 1953 Austin J40 #11013 to KMPR!
It'll require a bit of fixing up to be in pedaling condition again, but what a superb presentation piece!  A photo I took at the 2005 Monterey Historics, an event I just-so-happened to be in town for as I had to fly in to Sacramento to pick up a 1982 El Camino and drive it back to Milwaukee.
Little did I know, but Chris Gruys owned this rather famous Sunbeam. Chris Gruys, on the other hand, was a bit infamous. Google that fella, if you get a chance. I didn't know his name until 2024, when I was tracking down the Cicada Mk. I. I knew who owned it in 2011, so I called that chap, and he told me Gruys purchased it from him, but it was delivered to another fellow in Sonoma, California. And there it sat. Until it didn't. It seems Mr. Gruys owed a bit of money to several people, which court records show in the sum of more digits than I'm comfortable mentioning. So it was that the Cicada and a few other cars went to one of the parties who Gruys owed money to, with the assumption that the Formula B Cicada was actually a world conquering IndyCar worth a large bit. It was not. (Insert laughter here.) So one phone call turned into another and that party was found. A deal for a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of what the would-be world-conquering IndyCar was made, and it came our way thanks to Don Hoevel Racing, who picked it up outside Atlanta. Amazing how a photo of one thing somehow ties itself to something completely different.  Khyro hard at work on a special item we'll be giving away at the track this year- The Little Racer Coloring Book 2026, featuring the cars and sights of Kettle Moraine Preservation & Restoration !
Bill Nesius lent his photographic and artistic talents to this endeavor, for which we're endlessly grateful. We'll have them, free of charge, wherever we go this year for kids of all ages. Bring your creativity!  Mike Hartgraves gave me a quart of oil today.
But not just any oil, the kind that sponsored AAR in 1978. Good man! |
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[email protected] Hubertus, Wisconsin 'Where History and Integrity Meet' |