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Four Amigos Love the Pace of the Race
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By Leonard Shapiro
hey are fast friends, to say the least. And teammates, too.
Every month or so, these four Middleburg area neighbors pack their bags, their tools and most of all, their powerful Porsche race car, for a trip to a motorsport track, where they compete both behind the wheel and as a well-oiled pit crew in a series of races on the American Endurance Racing (AER) circuit. Mark Wyatt, who owns a specialized construction business, got them all started a decade ago when he organized a couples go-kart race at the Summit Point track in West Virginia. He was joined that day by Brian Wilson, Peter Pejacsevich and Alex Vogel and their families on what each man described as both a fun and transformative outing. Not long after that initial outing, they entered a 14-hour go-kart race, and had another fabulous experience. They clearly loved endurance racing, but wanted to move from go-karts into real cars. In 2015, they purchased their first car, a 1985 Porsche 944—price tag $1,200— that wasn’t even running when it arrived. That was soon fixed, and they entered a “24 Hours of Lemons” race, over the next three years they would compete in five Lemons races. In 2019, they decided to move into the more competitive AER series. After totaling their beloved 944 at the New Jersey Motor Speedway, the team took a serious plunge into the sport in 2020, purchasing two ISMA Porsche Caymans. The rest of the 2020 season was a great learning experience, racing against factory cars and some pro drivers. The 2021 season has been a rollicking success, with RSC currently leading the AER team championship with two races to go. Why RSC? It stands for Raising Seventeen Children, their total number of offspring. “People say racing, and especially endurance racing, is addictive,” said Vogel, CEO of the Vogel Group, a highly-regarded Washington-based lobbying firm. “It tests you emotionally, physically and mentally. It’s all consuming, in a good way.” His three pals echoed that same theme. All had some experience in different racing formats, but endurance competition offered far more time behind the wheel, even divided four ways.
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Go Green Middleburg | Fall 2021
