LEXINGTON — Michael Pinney used to mow the lawn at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course back in the early 1970s.
He won his first race at Mid-Ohio in 1976 and won the Sports Car Club of America Runoffs F Production class national championship at the 2.4 mile, 15 turn permanent road course in 2003.
The 1975 Lexington High School graduate returned to his racing roots for this weekend’s Mechanics Bank Vintage Grand Prix of Mid-Ohio.
“It’s always nice to come home,” Pinney said Saturday afternoon as he and his team hurriedly shielded the 1965 Austin Mini Cooper he will pilot in today’s MINI Anniversary Challenge Race from an approaching storm. “My first job was at the track. I started here when I was in junior high school.
“I used to cut the grass and paint the guard rails. It wasn’t anything near as nice as it is now and it wasn’t because of my mowing or my painting.”
Now a Phoenix resident, Pinney works for Penske Automotive. He fondly recalls his humble beginnings in north central Ohio.
“I worked in the maintenance department at Snow Trails,” he said, “and I worked at Weidner Pontiac.”
Wearing a Superman tee-shirt, shorts and loud orange Nikes, Pinney doesn’t necessarily look like sports car racing royalty. His resume suggests otherwise. He followed his 1976 win at Mid-Ohio with victories in 1977 and ’78. He won a runoffs national title in 1978 at Road Atlanta.
Pinney is still getting to know the purple No. 51 car he will drive in today’s MINI Challenge (the Mini Cooper is the featured marque for the 2014 Mechanics Bank Vintage Grand Prix). The car is owned by Robert Hoemke.
“I’ve never even driven this car until (Friday) morning,” Pinney sad. “I’m still learning the car and that’s the bottom line. I know the track, but the turn-in and where you apex in these front-wheel drives is completely different. In the rear-wheel drive, you apex later and the car powers off with the rear end. These, you earlier apex and the car powers off with the front.”
Hoemke will drive the 61A, a 1965 Mini Cooper in today’s featured race.
“Robert owns my car. They are sister cars and the car that Robert drives won the national championship three years in a row in the sixties and this car finished second behind it those three years.”
The competition is sure to be fierce for the MINI Challenge, which goes green shortly after 11 p.m. Sunday, weather permitting.
“These guys all run day-in and day-out,” Pinney said. “That’s all they do is travel around and race.”
Pinney will start from the fifth row today.
“We qualified third in our class and 10th overall,” he said. “We should be in the hunt.”
Racing resumes today at 8:15 a.m., with sprint races. The GT/GTP Enduro, a 90 minute feature, begins at 9:25 a.m., followed by the MINI Challenge at 11:10 a.m. There will be several sprint races throughout the afternoon.
Follow Curt Conrad on Twitter @curtjconrad.
