Featured Racer: Frank "Mr. Mojo" Schear

Frank Schear, better known as "Mr Mojo" comes from a very diversified background.   His father being Irish/German from Elizabeth, NJ and his mom from Japan, married in 1964, gave birth to their first son on 10/12/65 in Ancon, Canal Zone (on the isthmus of Panama).

Frank grew up loving automobiles of all sorts and was exposed to "Hot Rods" at a very early age. His first interest in racing was watching Grand Prix racing.   As a kid in Panama, there wasn't much choice with the television offering only three stations, one American and two Spanish. His family moved back to New Jersey in 1975.   They settled in Lakewood.   At this point there were 13 channels available and Frank started watching NASCAR and became a Richard Petty fan early on.   When NASCAR wasn't on, Drag Racing was.   With Old Bridge Township Raceway Park only being 20 miles away, it was easy to go watch the races.     Having friends whose father's worked for GM and being drag racers themselves, it wasn't to hard for Frank to learn how to drive.

Getting his drivers license in 1982, he learned to drive a manual transmission car and even took the road test with a 4 speed.   A great admirer of Ronnie Sox, Frank swore he would never drive an automatic car. Well of course that didn't happen, but he tries to stay with a manual car whenever possible.

Frank had admired the Corvette since the early 70's but never gave much thought to owning one.   It wasn't until the 1978 Silver Anniversary Edition came out that he really started liking Corvettes and thought about owning one someday. One day while driving down the Garden State Parkway with his mother(hey he was only 14 at the time), a 58 Red Vette went whizzing by, and he swore someday that he would have one. Then High School came and Frank got into the MOPAR hobby.   His first car was a 1968 Dodge Coronet 500 which he still owns.   He went to Raceway Park just about every chance he got.   Always a spectator with many visits to the pits to talk to racers, he picked up on how to race a car.   It wasn't until he bought his first Corvette that he met John Panuzzo and John Mackey who got him into finally drag racing. With the three of them all having Torch Red C4 coupe, they were referred to as "The Red Crew" With Dennis Kazimir in his C5, they traveled to the track together every weekend.  

Frank honed his driving skills every weekend in 2000 earning his first Eliminator win on the final day of the season. In his second season(2001)he earned his second eliminator win at Beech Bend Raceway in Bowling Green, KY at the second annual Corvetteforum Cruise In.   On the same day he also won the Burnout contest with so much smoke his car disappeared from sight. Currently 14th in the Cartek Corvette Challenge Series, he's looking to get another Eliminator win before the season is out. Also he is looking to back up his 12.995 run he got last year in his stock LT1.   Almost getting it last week at the Trophy Marathon, he is sure to do it before the year is up. One of his greatest achievements to date other than his Eliminator wins was Runner up to John Panuzzo in the SLP Customer Appreciation day.   In one of the closest races, John eeked out the win by .027 seconds. You can see the results in the August issue of GM High Tech magazine. When Frank isn't at the track, you can find him on the Corvetteforum under the name Mr Mojo.

You can email Frank at mrmojo@optonline.net.  
Also, please visit The Land of Mojo web page at http://www.corvetteforum.net/c4/mrmojorisin/.