Marion man named Vintage Grand Prix Grand Marshal

Tom Yea­ger has been named Grand Mar­shal of the Mechan­ics Bank Vin­tage Grand Prix of Mid-Ohio.

Mar­ion, Ohio-native Yea­ger raced at Mid-Ohio dur­ing its first sea­son in 1962 and is expected to get behind the wheel once again dur­ing the June 22–24 event this year. With a club and pro­fes­sional rac­ing career that spans five decades, Yea­ger has raced every­thing from Lotuses to Mus­tangs, Austin-Healeys and MGAs.

“It’s an honor to be named Grand Mar­shal at Mid-Ohio and feels like a home­com­ing for me as I grew up nearby the track. Mid-Ohio was instru­men­tal in get­ting me hooked on rac­ing as I start­ing dri­ving the same time the track was being built. I have turned more laps here than I can count and can’t wait to get behind the wheel for some more in June,” said Yeager

Yea­ger first fell in love with rac­ing watch­ing the 12 Hours of Sebring while in col­lege in Florida. Some years later, he raced in the renowned event him­self. Add that to a 2nd in class fin­ish in the 1967 24 Hours of Day­tona and he had him­self quite the pro career before retir­ing to become a dri­ver coach.

The Mechan­ics Bank Vin­tage Grand Prix of Mid-Ohio is the sec­ond race on the track’s cal­en­dar and fea­tures hun­dreds of clas­sic cars both on the track and in the infield. The Sports­car Vin­tage Rac­ing Asso­ci­a­tion (SVRA) sanc­tions the rac­ing for the thir­ti­eth straight sea­son at the Mor­row County track.

“Tom is a revered club racer and has been com­ing to Mid-Ohio since the first pave­ment was laid. The track was built with club rac­ing in mind and no one epit­o­mizes that more than Tom Yea­ger. We’re hon­ored to have him as Grand Mar­shal,” said Mid-Ohio Pres­i­dent Craig Rust.

Many of the cars on track and in the park­ing lot are expected to hail from the British Isles as the Fea­tured Mar­que has been expanded in 2012 as a British Inva­sion. Two car shows lead the off-track activ­ity, with the British Car Show­down on Sat­ur­day and the Con­cours d’Elegance on Sun­day. Eleven race groups with dozens of qual­i­fied cars in each make the weekend’s on-track sched­ule diverse.

Week­end tick­ets for the Mechan­ics Bank Vin­tage Grand Prix of Mid-Ohio start at $30. Gen­eral park­ing is free and chil­dren 12 and under are also admit­ted free. Visit midohio.com any­time or call 800-MID-OHIO (643‑6446) Mon­day through Fri­day from 8 a.m– 5 p.m. to order tick­ets or for more information.

Posted by Rob Hamilton on Jun 6 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.