The Merrill Lynch Jones Group Tour continued on Tuesday morning with a visit to the Mid-Ohio Race Course in Lexington, Ohio north of Columbus. The drive across the rural areas of Ohio's farm country was beautiful with corn as high as an elephant's eye. It is beautiful time of year in the Buckeye State. We arrived at Mid-Ohio about 10:30 as planned and were greeted by Kendall Reed from the public relations department at the track. She gave us a brief tour of the facilities and we then enjoyed a box lunch under sunny skies as a high performance driving school was being conducted on the track.
With much anticipation it soon was time for the Road Tourians to take a few laps of the road course. With Kendall leading the way in the Road Tour Chevy everyone had fun negotiating the twists and turns of the beautiful facility. Thanks to everyone for the hospitality extended to us at Mid-Ohio Race Course. It was a great way to start our Tuesday.
From Mid-Ohio it was a two hour drive from Mid-Ohio to the Youngstown area of Northeastern Ohio. Next on our agenda on a very busy day was the incredible auto collection of Don Snyder Jr. Don and I had become friends many years ago when his father, my father and several others started the Model T Club of Mahoning County in 1958. We spent many summer weekends years ago attending antique car functions. Don went on to take over the reigns at Synder's Antique Auto Parts which is now run by his son. Snyder's specializes in Model T and Model A parts. He also became a successful farmer and operates a trucking company. Don's passion was always high performance cars and his collection was started many years ago. To say he has amassed an incredible group of vehicles would be an understatement. Don owns the first and last Ford Thunderbolts and three more in between. His collection includes some of the most significant race cars of the 60's and 70's. It was great to have Don welcome us and give us the details on many of the cars in his fantastic collection.
We had to keep moving on Tuesday as we were the special guests at the Austintown Quaker Steak and Lube Tuesday evening. Check back here and see our welcome at the Lube and the rest of our trip as we go to the Syracuse Nationals of the Merrill Lynch Jones Group AMSOIL Road Tour.