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A&S
Racing History
The history of A&S Racing started at Mid-Ohio during the Run-offs in 2005 as a
conversation between Terry Aasen and Doug 'Bunky' Shippert. They were
hosting Cape Motorsports's Dominic and Nicolas Cape for dinner at Terry's motor home
(Terry's son Eric was working for them at the time), and were wondering what it
would take to have a successful professional race team like Cape
Motorsports. Doug, or Bunky as he's affectionately known, already had a
team that ran Formula Vees for his son Ethan in the SCCA as an amateur.
That team was known as Shippert Racing, and had been competing in the SCCA for
the past 10 seasons.
Aasen met Shippert in the fall of 1963 when Terry moved into the
upper-classmen's dorm at North Central College in Naperville, IL. Terry
and his roommate lived next to Bunky and his roommate. This friendship has
lasted over 40 years. In fact Terry
and Bunky are so close that Terry was responsible for introducing Bunky to his wife
Mary-Ann, Ethan's mother.
Terry grew up in the Midwest, splitting his
time between Wisconsin and Illinois, and in 1967 started attending the June Sprints at
Road America, one of the largest amateur races in the country. His
interest in racing grew over the years and soon, he started going to races other
than the June Sprints.
Doug grew up on a farm just outside Dixon,
IL. He was a drag racer and still holds a national record, mainly because
the class doesn't exist any more. He wasn't into road racing until Terry
convinced him to come along to the June Sprints in 1969. Since then he became a fan of road racing and left his drag racing days behind him.
Terry and Doug both did some of their
own racing. Doug won a few championships in the Midwestern Council of
Sports Car Clubs. Although Terry never won a championship, he raced in a variety
of cars and even bounced his Datsun 510 off of the top of the
pit wall at Blackhawk Farms Raceway. Both worked corners and both spent
much of their time at the race track, which of course had an affect on
their children (particularly Eric and Ethan) who were basically indoctrinated into
becoming race
fans.
As Doug's children got older he hung up his
helmet and gave up racing until his son Ethan was old enough to start driving. In 1996 Shippert Racing began as a father and son effort with the
help of friends and family. They bought an old Formula Vee, which is basically the suspension and
drive train of an old Volkswagen Beetle
without the body. It is a single seat, open wheel racecar and a very
affordable way to go racing. For the first couple of seasons they ran
mostly regional level races in the SCCA.
In 1999, Ethan started making a name for
himself. He attended the Winfield Driving School at the Paul Ricard
Circuit in France, the same school that graduated 4-time Formula 1 World
Champion Alain Prost. Doug also rented a Formula Vee run by DRE
Enterprises. Ethan quickly proved that he could run up front and win
races. In 2000, Shippert Racing bought a newer and faster Formula Vee and
Ethan qualified for his first Run-offs in 2001. The Run-offs are
the national championship of amateur racing.
In 2002, Eric and Ethan attended the Jim
Russell Racing Driver's School Mechanics Training Program. After
graduation Eric came back to Chicago while Ethan got a job in California and
continued racing. Ethan once again qualified for the Run-offs in 2004.
In 2006, Ethan sold the Formula Vee and
bought a Formula Ford and plans on racing it on the west coast in the SCCA.
2006 was also the year where Terry and Doug
decided to get serious about racing at a professional level. They
decided to hire Eric as a mechanic and Ethan as a driver and start their own
team, called A&S Racing.
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