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Corvette Challenge Story |
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Mid
America Designs (Motorworks) Rises to the Challenge! Twenty two years ago, when Mike Yager’s Mid America Motorworks had a different name, a whole lot less business and a budget to match, he got romanced into buying a $100,000 sponsorship in a race car. It was 1986. The car was a high-dollar tube frame creation Chevrolet’s race group had commissioned from Protofab. It was headed for IMSA’s premium GTO class, a venue Mike didn’t think would mean much to his customers. But it came with a bonus. He got Mid America signage on the cars Kim Baker would run in SCCA’s 1987 Escort Endurance series. So it came to pass that Baker’s Mid America team won five races and the championship in ‘87, along with an SCCA invitation to go race somewhere else next year. Mike immediately found himself on the front row in the rush to get the Corvette Challenge off the ground. “There was this meeting at the Powell shop in Canada,” Mike remembers. “It was January ‘88. John convinced us there would be three sponsors - Exxon at half a million dollars, Goodyear and us at a quarter each. I found out later he really didn’t have the other two. We were the first to commit.” “Our objective was pretty simple. We were in it to learn what performance parts ought to be available to our customers and frankly, to one-up our competitors. We were the little kid on the block. Everybody was bigger. We decided being in there with Exxon and Goodyear would put us in pretty good company.” “Anyway, we were set to handle track-side parts distribution. But then things got messy. John and GM had a tough time deciding how we would be supplied. If you recall, the cars were delivered to the first race without race wheels. That’s because Dymag wouldn’t ship them on credit. They were finally air-freighted from Europe to Dallas just a day before the event. That was close. And it was just the tip of the iceberg.” Mike assigned Steve Wiedman to manage the parts operation. Hardly anybody was accustomed to Steve’s accounting discipline. “Doug Robinson explained it to me this way. ‘Usually, we just put a lot of parts on a truck and go to the races. If the stuff is there when we need it, that’s fine. If it’s not, we’ll get some more. And at the end of the season, we sign off based on the difference between what we started with and what’s left. “We’re not used to inventory control.” When the series ended, Mike and the late Chip Miller teamed up to acquire several Challenge cars. Mike still has the cars Randy Ruhlman raced in both ‘88 and ‘89. “Chip and I were friends since we met in 1974,” Mike remembers. “But the experience with those Challenge cars brought us even closer.” “When we die it won’t matter how many possessions we’ve got or how many cars we’ve seen come and go. But the friends we’ve made, the relationships we’ve formed - they will matter.” |
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