The ‘(lug) nuts and bolts’ of professional car racing can be, not only tremendously multi-dimensional, but the whole thing can be somewhat grueling as well. Pandora’s Ted Schumacher raced cars for 30 long years. He raced on a Pro-Series Circuit, averaging between 12 to 24 races a year. This entailed traveling thousands of miles a year, with a pit crew of up to 30 people at times. To maintain this for 30 years means that the driver has to be more than somewhat successful. Ted was…

It’s a simple marketing equation. The more successful you are as a race car driver, the more sponsors you end up with.

Among some of Ted’s sponsors were Marathon Oil, Champion Spark Plug, Good Year Tire. And speaking of tires…

Ted said that during an average race, he did a lot of long-distance “endurance” races, the team would have as many as 40 mounted tires ready to be changed out at various pit stops.

What’s more, there were tires with various tread even, depending on the racing surface, on weather conditions (rain, etc.), and so on.

Ted’s racing took him to tracks at Daytona Speedway, Sebring, Charlotte… And in his particular classes, he’d get cars up to 160 mph, which, “…back in the day,” was pretty fast.

And at those speeds, there were the inevitable accidents at times.

“You’re often running three feet apart at those speeds,” he said.

In Ted’s case, while there were some accidents, there were no fiery crashes, and such.

He said during the “Endurance Series” races, the cars would run up to 24 hours, and a team could include up to four drivers.

Ted said that besides the races, sponsors set up public relations stops, and so on, for the drivers as well. He said, for instance, Marathon set up a stop for him at one of their plants in southern Illinois, to show off the car, meet with the employees, and so on.

Likewise, he once stopped at a high school shop class in Louisiana to let the students see, first hand, the workings of the car – as he also explained about the actual racing.

And while other local couples might take, say, a weekend trip to the beaches of Port Clinton, Ted and his wife (and racing team side-kick) Doris, have gone on vacations to places like the famous Lemond Raceway in France.

Ted, 80, is now retired from racing, but he still keeps his hand, or metaphoric wrench, in foreign cars, so to speak. He sells “British Car Parts (New, Used, Rebuilt) out of an office in Pandora. He also sells “pre-motored” British cars.

He actually had one of these on display at Bluffton’s recent Festival of Wheels.

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