On Thursday morning, we headed out for the 3-hour drive to Ozark International Raceway in Gravois Mills, Missouri. This would be our final racing weekend of the year and no better place to end than season than at one of the most exciting road courses in the entire USA. Four miles of track, 19 turns, 1200 feet of elevation change, esses, switchbacks, 9 blind turns and more! It’s just a fun track to drive on.
We arrived at the track in plenty of time to go through tech, getting our annual tech inspection, set up our paddock in the large garage, and then went around seeing old friends. We then headed out to an Italian Trattoria and then to our VRBO on the lake.
My crew for this event consisted of Richard Schwartz, Mark Shapland, Starr Taxman, Ken Glover, and Floyd and Rita Allyn. The VRBO was really nice, 5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, a boat dock, and a great view of the Lake of the Ozarks!
We had three 20-minute practice sessions and 1 qualifying session scheduled for Friday. That’s a lot of track time and it can wear you down, especially when the temperature is >80 and sunny skies. I’ve race on this track for the past 5 years, so it didn’t take me long to settle in. On the first practice, I was reacquainting myself with the track and seeing how the XKE was performing and had a best lap time of 3:38. On the second practice, I picked up the speed and really thought I was doing well, however, only improved to a best lap time of 3:35. In previous years, my best times had been 3:16 to 3:22, so I was a little concerned with being so much slower. I decided to focus on increasing my speed in the straights and quit using the brakes, which improved my best time to 3:28 in the third practice. I still wasn’t happy with my times and decided that I had to increase my speed in 4 specific turns and slightly change my path thru those turns. This helped as I had a best lap time of 3:27 in qualifying, which placed me fourth on the grid. VSCDA had a catered dinner in the garage and we all enjoyed the wonderful BBQ, cocktails, and comradery.
Saturday was a perfect racing day, weather wise. In our 2nd Qualifying race at 10:30 am, I improved significantly, turning a best lap time of 3.20 and was very pleased with the way the Jag was handling. We changed the spark plugs and it made a difference. We had our first Sprint race at 1:45 pm and I was running great, improving to a best lap time of 3:18 and finishing 4th overall and 1st in class. Our Heat Race was at 4:30 pm and I didn’t improve on my best lap time, but was consistently turning laps of 3:20. I decided that I was still not doing my best in turns 4, 11, 14, and 18. Those were the spots where I was losing time. It our team ritual to go to Big Dick’s Half Way Inn on Saturday night, located on the lake in the middle of nowhere. Lots of people and loads of fun!
The weather on Sunday was even more perfect than the previous two days. Our Feature Race was at 11:20. I decided I’m going to really pick it up, especially in my problem turns. This worked as I had my best lap ever, a 3:12, and finished 3rd overall and 1st in class. Thus ends our 2026 racing season. It was a really good year and I think I did my best race driving ever in 2026. I’ll announce our racing schedule around the first of the year. Here is my wish list of racing venues to visit in 2027:
Lime Rock Park, Lakeville, CT
Watkins Glen International, Watkins Glen, NY
Hedge Hollow Raceway, Adrian, MO
Ozark International Raceway, Gravois Mills, MO
Blackhawk Farms Raceway, S. Beloit, Il
Road America Intl Challenge w/ Brian Redman, Elkhart Lake, WI
Hallett Motor Racing Circuit, Jennings, OK
ALWAYS LOOKING FOR A COUPLE OF NEW PEOPLE TO HELP PIT CREW, LOTS OF FUN, NO REAL MECHANICAL KNOWLEDGE REQUIRED! Send me an email or call me if you want to join us at one event or more.
Thanks to all those who helped crew during the year and those JAGSL members who came out to support us. We are usually the only Jaguar racing at these events and take pride in defending and representing our Marque.
Philip Taxman
