In its second year, Northwood’s Motorsports Division doubled the number of participating companies, while a visit from two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Gordon Johncock brought a family racing legacy to campus.
A replica of the Honker, a No. 85 supermodified that helped launch Gordon Johncock’s racing career, brought several generations of racing history together at the 2026 Northwood University International Auto Show.
Two Northwood students made it possible: Charlie Baur and Ian Hart. Baur is a 19-year-old sprint car driver and chaired the show’s Motorsports Division. Hart is a senior whose great-grandfather, Michigan Motor Sports Hall of Famer Mace Thomas, built and owned the original Honker, which Johncock drove long before winning the Indianapolis 500 twice.
Thomas put Johncock behind the wheel of his car in 1955. With chief mechanic Duane Glasgow, the team went on to win nearly 150 supermodified feature races across the Midwest. Johncock also won the inaugural National Open at Pennsylvania’s Williams Grove Speedway in 1963. Thomas helped him secure his first rides in USAC sprint and championship cars, steps on the road to Indianapolis.
The Honker’s history goes beyond its wins: Its oversized top wing was an innovation from Thomas. He later built Mini-Champ cars and formed the North American Mini-Champ Racing Association, extending his influence to younger drivers.
Johncock won the Indianapolis 500 in 1973 and again in 1982, when he held off Rick Mears by just 0.16 second in a finish that was, at the time, the closest in the race’s history. At Northwood, the replica, which was built by Nashville, Michigan’s Paul Smith, recalled the earlier car and the partnership that helped him reach that stage.
This spring, the Honker replica served as the pace car for the Mace Thomas Classic at Butler Motor Speedway, a race in which Baur competed. Months later, Baur and Hart worked together to bring the car to Northwood. Hart’s father created posters and information about Thomas and Johncock for the display.
Then the students learned Johncock himself was coming to the show. It would be his first time seeing the Honker replica.
“They were best buds,” Hart said of his great-grandfather and Johncock. Meeting the driver brought back memories of Thomas, who died in 2015. “He reminded me of my great-grandpa so much,” Hart said, recalling their similar eyeglasses and mannerisms.
The experience carried special meaning for Hart, an automotive management and marketing major from Lake Orion, Michigan, who is completing his senior year at Northwood. He first visited the campus in Midland, Michigan, as a high school student at a prior Northwood University International Auto Show. That experience inspired him to attend Northwood and serve as the classic car chair for last year’s Auto Show.
“Seeing my grandpa’s name on a car that was in the show is pretty surreal,” Hart said. “The show means a lot to me.”
For Baur, the visit offered a chance to talk racing with a driver he had known by reputation since childhood. Johncock examined Baur’s sprint cars, compared them with the cars of his era and talked about tracks they had both raced. When Baur asked how to keep working toward his ambition of reaching Indianapolis, Johncock encouraged him to keep at it.
Another car at the display connected to Johncock’s Indianapolis years: a tribute Indy car honoring his former teammate Swede Savage stood beside the Honker. The car is owned by Ted Woerner, director of the M1 Concourse X Center, and was built with the help of Savage’s daughter, Angela. Together, the cars prompted conversations about racing history with visitors throughout the show.
Those conversations took place within a division that grew substantially from its inaugural year. Baur said the number of participating motorsports companies doubled, bringing a broader mix of sprint cars, Indy cars, NASCAR vehicles, Corvettes, parts and engines to campus. The division was sponsored by Stahl’s Motors and Music Experience.
Baur said exhibitors were already contacting him about returning in 2027 within days of this year’s show. He sees that interest as a chance to build connections between students and an industry that needs people in many roles beyond the driver’s seat.
The division also gives younger visitors a close look at what might be possible. Baur remembers sitting in a sprint car as a child, an experience that helped start his own racing journey. At Northwood, he welcomed children into the cars when they could safely fit and watched students answer visitors’ questions about the vehicles on display.
“That’s my goal with it every year,” Baur said. “If a little kid can fit in the car, we’ll put them in.”
Northwood’s new Motorsports Management concentration prepares students for the business of racing through work in areas such as sponsorship, event operations and team management. At the Auto Show, students put those skills to use: recruiting exhibitors, arranging displays, working with sponsors and introducing visitors to the people and stories behind the cars.
For Hart and Baur, the Honker’s appearance showed what that work can make possible. A car that led a race honoring Hart’s great-grandfather in the spring became a meeting place for Hart’s family, a racing champion, fellow students and a new generation of fans in the fall.
Johncock died peacefully at home Sept. 28, eight days after the Auto Show concluded. His family shared that they were grateful he had been able to attend, see the Honker replica and enjoy his time at Northwood.
