Trans-Am

Bahama, Simo ready for Road America

ELKHART LAKE, Wis. (August 16, 2000) â€” In the first six races of the 2000 BFGoodrich Tires Trans-Am Series, Brian Simo took his Huffaker/Qvale Motorsports Tommy Bahama Qvale Mangusta to three wins, two other podiums, and a commanding points ...

Edited: Apr 15, 2002, 11:45 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

ELKHART LAKE, Wis. (August 16, 2000) — In the first six races of the 2000 BFGoodrich Tires Trans-Am Series, Brian Simo took his Huffaker/Qvale Motorsports Tommy Bahama Qvale Mangusta to three wins, two other podiums, and a commanding points lead. When the second half of the season kicks off at Road America, part of the Motorola 220 CART weekend on August 18-19, Simo hopes a similar performance will lead the Mangusta and himself to their first Trans-Am championships. "When you have this many people pulling for you, and working as hard as the Huffaker/Qvale Motorsports group does, it's a great feeling," says Simo.

In addition, the Huffaker/Qvale team will be fielding a second Qvale Mangusta at Elkhart Lake, the third time they have done that this season. As at Detroit and Cleveland, the second car will be driven by Huffaker/Qvale president, Bruce Qvale. Qvale, runner-up in the 1998 Trans-Am Rookie of the Year standings, ran a strong race at the last event in Cleveland, and very nearly put two Mangustas in the top five by the end.

"I'm really looking forward to getting back behind the wheel again," said Qvale. "Even though the demands of launching the Qvale Mangusta street car have kept me busy in Italy most of this year, I was really encouraged by my race at Cleveland. Hopefully, we'll do even a little better here."

"We're looking to keep Brian and the Tommy Bahama Mangusta at the front, and extend our championship lead," said Joe Huffaker, vice president and technical director of Huffaker/Qvale Motorsports. "But we also expect that Bruce will do well here. It was a rough return to the series for him at Detroit, but he did a great job at Cleveland. Now, at another wide-open track, I think he'll have a great run."

The association between the Qvale and Huffaker families is also a long and distinguished one, dating back to the 1950s. That association began when Bruce's father, Kjell Qvale, who had also been instrumental in establishing the West Coast Sports Car Club of America, joined forces with the father of Joe Huffaker. In 1960, the elder Huffaker and Qvale established the BMC Competition Department, which designed and developed competition engines and racecars like the Huffaker Genie. BMC Competition's success was highlighted by entries in the Indianapolis 500 in 1963-1965, with the MG Liquid Suspension Offenhauser Special. The pinnacle of the team's achievements was the qualifying of three cars for the famed Memorial Day race in 1964, with drivers Bob Veith, Walt Hansgen, and Pedro Rodriguez.

The scheduled 25-lap, 101.2-mile sprint around the 4.048-mile, 14-Turn Road America circuit is scheduled to start at 3:15 pm (CDT) on Saturday, August 19. Television coverage will be tape-delayed, on the Speedvision Network, with the telecast set to begin at 9:00 pm (EDT) on Saturday, August 26. The encore telecast will begin at 12:00 pm (EDT) on Friday, September first.

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article SWS: Woodside Pays First-Time Visit to Colorado National Speedway

Next article BUSCH: Homestead-Miami Speedway Select-A-Seat Sept. 17

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Franco Colapinto, George Russell to sit out FP1 at F1 Mexico GP

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

United States GP

5 min

Franco Colapinto, George Russell to sit out FP1 at F1 Mexico GP

Rally US reveals further details ahead of WRC 2027 return

WRC

WRC WRC 6 min

Rally US reveals further details ahead of WRC 2027 return

The mistakes that cost Lewis Hamilton a podium at F1’s US GP

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

United States GP

55 min

The mistakes that cost Lewis Hamilton a podium at F1’s US GP

HMD Motorsports confirms Leonardo Escorpioni to 2027 Indy NXT roster

Indy NXT

IndL Indy NXT 1 h

HMD Motorsports confirms Leonardo Escorpioni to 2027 Indy NXT roster

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts