Most people celebrate birthdays with candles and cake and the Fourth of July with a parade and fireworks. Claudio Kaempf, of Portage, spent his birthday May 17 racing around the twisty Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio, in Porsche Club of America’s road racing competition. He planned to spend July Fourth in South Haven, racing at the 11-turn GingerMan Raceway, defending his GT4s class victory in his Porsche 911.
Kaempf, 53, will be defending victories at many road courses around the country this year, trying to top last season’s amazing run of winning every single road race he entered.
“It’s one of those one-in-a-lifetime type deals,” Kaempf said. “Something always goes wrong, or something breaks, or you crash. We entered about 10 races and won each one of them.”
One victory was very surprising. After qualifying fastest, to start ahead of all the other drivers, Kaempf fell asleep during a lunch break at Mid-Ohio last season. Arriving late, he had to start at the very back of the pack.
“It was an hour-and-a-half race, so we had plenty of time to make up lost ground,” he said. “By the end of the race we had lapped the entire field, coming from the back (to win). So that’s how the season went for us.”
At age 23, he began working at a Battle Creek Volkswagen dealership, following his parents’ move to the United States a few years earlier.
While working on cars, his passion for driving hasn’t dimmed. In 1995 Kaempf bought a 1970 Porsche 911T in rust-free San Diego to drive in Porsche Club of America racetrack events.
A few years later, he stripped the interior, added a rollcage and other safety equipment, adjustable suspension and full-race engine to transform the sports car into a dedicated road racer. He’s been racing it ever since.
“The only thing left from the street car days is the steering wheel,” he explains, “Everything else has been replaced.”
| Local Porsche racer wins every race |
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