The original Lake Garnett Grand Prix was a SCCA sanctioned race from 1959 to 1972. It is an historic 2.8 mile road course around a fishing lake in the small town of Garnett, KS which was about an hour south of Kansas City. Many sports car greats raced at Lake Garnett: Dave McDonald, Ken Miles,
Don Yenko, Jack Hinkle, Jim Hall, Bob Johnson, Bob Aylward, Toly Arutunoff and KC legends Bob Hindson, Tom Newcomer, Grace Harris, Joe Egle and Woody Woodward among others. Carroll Shelby brought his factory race team with Cobras 97, 98 and 99 to take on the new Corvettes in 1963. By 1972, cars had become too powerful and too fast for the road course. There were too many accidents, too many people were getting injured and killed, so it was discontinued.
Lake Garnett (www.LGGPR.org) was revived in 2014 as exhibition track event plus a road tour around the county, an autocross, a car show, rides for charity around the road course at speed, and numerous track events.
Due to Covid 19 protocol, our Friday evening driver’s dinner became an outdoor tailgate party complete with BBQ. It was a fun time to visit with old friends from the past years as well as new friends who were first timers.
Saturday morning had a slow start due to thick fog (see photo). As I drove my 1949 MG TC #13 to the lake to run in the Historic Group, visibility was only about 100 feet. This gave a new meaning to the term “Ghost Track.” We had our safety meeting and kicked tires as we waited for the fog to burn off.
We started our events with a new – Group R (rookie 16- and 17-year-olds with parent). I was excited and proud of how well they handled their powerful sports cars. Next up were the Heartland Vintage Racers with their older race cars that could have raced at Lake Garnett in the old days and one that did!
A 1963 Corvette #5 was raced in B Production by Phil Kneifel at Lake Garnett in 1972 (see old photo). Nearly half a century later Jason Woita of Wahoo, NE brought it back to Lake Garnett in 2020 with Heartland Vintage Racing. Jason has always loved cars, but it was 2017 when he fell in love with vintage racing at the Monterey Historics races at Leguna Seca (Pebble Beach Road Races) and later that year at the Weather Tech International Challenge with Brian Redman at Road America (Elkhart Lake Road Races). Jason was hooked on vintage racing, but he needed a car.
After Lake Garnett in ’72, the #5 Corvette continued racing through most of the next 32 years with the SCCA and NCCC. Jan Quast of Davenport, IA bought the ‘Vette and did the beautiful restoration on it in 2004 and raced it in the Midwest until 2008 when he sold it to Marc Sharen in New York who then raced it for another eleven years. Quast helped Jason find old #5 at Jim Glass Corvette in Kingston, NY in 2019. Now Jason had a vintage race car (see new photo) but needed a means to race it.
Jason looked around and found Heartland Vintage Racing out of Kansas City (www.HeartlandVintageRacing.com). He immediately joined HVR and signed up for Lake Garnett. Jason brought #5 and his wife, children, his parents and an old friend to Lake Garnett for the Grand Prix Revival. They all enjoyed the town of Garnett, all the events including the Hagerty Revival Showcase car show and racing with HVR on the historic road course – until his engine blew.
The engine is being rebuilt and Jason Woita expects to be back with the Red #5 Corvette and Heartland Vintage Racing for the races May 21-23 at the Heartland Motorsport Park in Topeka, KS.
Story by Russ Sifers
Fog photo by Bill Fisher
Old photo from Jason Woita
New photo by Russ Sifers
