American muscle was popular at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in July for the NASA Great Lakes regional race. Under the American Iron banner, 13 drivers showed up in all three classes, along with nine entries in CMC.
The typically unpredictable weather at Mid-Ohio was predicted at 40 percent chance of rain on Saturday — and ended up raining 100 percent of the day. Sunday dried up early for all three sessions.
NASA’s newest class had a respectable showing of three Spec Iron Mustangs. Dean Martin dominated both days in his Rehagen Racing machine. Team Dominy, with drivers Brent Dominy and Aaron Saez drove cautiously in the rain to place second on Saturday and third on Sunday. Audrey Zavodsky in her Beautiful Poe Motorsports S197 continued to dial in the setup and finished a strong second place on Sunday on a dry track.
American Iron Extreme has a couple of fresh drivers in the Midwest that have proven their abilities in their new, high-horsepower SN95 Mustangs. John Jung and John Miksula are a welcome addition to AIX. Saturday Jung took third place and Miksula took third. Todd Rogers in his AI, Baker Construction Mustang decided to change classes on Saturday and shod his pony in Hoosier H20 tires and brought home the AIX win. Miksula had the win in Sunday’s race with Jung in a close second. Chris Griswold was on the roster for the weekend but stayed home to finish rebuilding his National Championship beasts for September National race in Utah.
American Iron only had three of the seven cars compete on the very slippery, wet pavement on Saturday. Ex-Ice Racer Erik Sjoblom dominated Saturday’s rain race by 10 seconds a lap followed in second place by Robin Burnett and Jeff Wood in third.
During Sunday’s race, mayhem reared its ugly head at the beginning when a Super Unlimited car near the front of the pack spun going over Madness, causing cars to spin off the track in all directions. The 35-minute race saw two full-course yellow flags as drivers pushed beyond their limits on the dry pavement after the frustrations of the previous day’s rain. As the checkered flag waved, the victory was captured by Dave Willoughby for his first ever American Iron win in his Sunoco Mustang. Nipping at Willoughby’s heels for second place was Todd Rogers with Jeff Wood in third.
