Ebben Races Through Downpour To Win At Road America

Cliff Ebben beat the field and the rain for his Trans Am Series win at Road America.  [John Wiedemann Photo]

Race 1: TA, TA3, TA4 Class

There was a whole lot of water on Road America’s four-mile, natural road course Saturday morning as Race 1 of the Trans Am Series saw home-state veteran Cliff Ebben slosh away from the combined TA, TA3 and TA4 classes of SCCA GT and Production cars.

Ebben, from near-by Appleton, led the combined-class 28-car field from pole in his TA-class Stumpf Ford Mustang, stretching his lead over second-place Mark Boden in his production-based TA 3-class Porsche 997 to 7.3 seconds at the rain-soaked checkered flag for his third Trans Am win at RA.

Trans Am 100 TA/TA3/TA4 race Round 7 podium. 2nd place #57 David Pintaric (Cadillac CTS-V), winner #36 Cliff Ebben (Mustang) and 3rd place #50 Paul Fix (Corvette). [Dave Jensen Photo]

#36 Cliff Ebben (Mustang) and #50 Paul Fix (Corvette) race through turn 3 at Road America at the start of the race. [Dave Jensen Photo]

#7 Claudio Burtin and #82 Joseph Freda in Corvettes. [Roy Schmidt Photo]

#47 Mark Boden Porsche 997. [Roy Schmidt Photo]

#7 Claudio Burtin Corvette. [Roy Schmidt Photo]

#36 Cliff Ebben Mustang. [Roy Schmidt Photo]

#54 Tommy Archer and #5 Lawrence Loshak in Camaros underneath the Corvette Bridge. [Roy Schmidt Photo]

#0 Randy Mueller BMW and #47 Mark Boden Porsche 997. [Roy Schmidt Photo]

“The track was kinda rough. You really couldn’t see much in the rain,” noted the 64-year-old winner. “It was hard lapping cars with the spray hitting you.

“I almost went off the track on the first lap and the last lap was bad; there was heavy rain on the back side of the track.”

And when did the veteran first begin running here at Road America? “I started here in 1971 at a drivers’ school. I started racing a Camaro in ’99 and I keep racing because I have good cars to drive now,” said Ebben who moved to within 11 points of leader Amy Ruman who finished 15^th.

True race fans enjoying the Trans Am Series action at Road America despite rain. [Roy Schmidt Photo]

Series’ point leader Tony Buffomante drove his Mike Cope Racing Ford Mustang to victory in Race 2 of the SCCA Trans Am Series ETE Reman Transmission Muscle Car 100 for TA2 “Pony Cars”, holding off pole-winner Justin Haley’s Mustang by two-seconds.

Hurley, Wis.’s Tony Ave, who started 10^th, pressured both leaders late in the 100-mile event, broadsliding around the damp RA corners, but settled for third in his Chevrolet Camaro.

“This was a good race for us. The fields are just too tight to have a bad race. I’m proud to be here with some of the best drivers in the country,” said the Ford driver from Naperville, Illinois who held off Indiana’s Haley by 3.2 seconds for the win despite changing track conditions.

“We didn’t make any drastic changes in the set-up because we thought the track might dry out. Near the end we were searching for water to cool off our rain tires. It was great to see the white flag.”

Paul Gohde

Paul Gohde heard the sound of race cars early in his life.

Growing up in suburban Milwaukee, just north of Wisconsin State Fair Park in the 1950’s, Paul had no idea what “that noise” was all about that he heard several times a year. Finally, through prodding by friends of his parents, he was taken to several Thursday night modified stock car races on the old quarter-mile dirt track that was in the infield of the one-mile oval -and he was hooked.

The first Milwaukee Mile event that he attended was the 1959 Rex Mays Classic won by Johnny Thomson in the pink Racing Associates lay-down Offy built by the legendary Lujie Lesovsky. After the 100-miler Gohde got the winner’s autograph in the pits, something he couldn’t do when he saw Hank Aaron hit a home run at County Stadium, and, again, he was hooked.

Paul began attending the Indianapolis 500 in 1961, and saw A. J. Foyt’s first Indy win. He began covering races in 1965 for Racing Wheels newspaper in Vancouver, WA as a reporter/photographer and his first credentialed race was Jim Clark’s historic Indy win.Paul has also done reporting, columns and photography for Midwest Racing News since the mid-sixties, with the 1967 Hoosier 100 being his first big race to report for them.

He is a retired middle-grade teacher, an avid collector of vintage racing memorabilia, and a tour guide at Miller Park. Paul loves to explore abandoned race tracks both here and in Europe, with the Brooklands track in Weybridge England being his favorite. Married to Paula, they have three adult children and two cats.

Paul loves the diversity of all types of racing, “a factor that got me hooked in the first place.”

racingnation.com

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