Here's a little bit of insight on Mark Schwein and also Wilton "Rusty" Jowett and his father Wilton Jowett, Sr.
This comes courtesy of Bill Lange, who used to work for Mark. Mark's shop was in Brandywine, MD.
"Mark and his brother owned a very large Exxon Station that in older days was
a Chrysler dealership. Very rural. They gave up the Chrysler dealership and
opened a Yamaha / BSA motorcycle dealership. Back then, motorcycles were
hot tickets and they sold them like hotcakes, all summer long. My dad
was a farmer and I was pretty comfortable driving trucks, so when they needed
motorcycles from New Jersey or New York, I would drive the truck up and
pick up a load. I also picked up trailers in Dallas and boats in Jacksonville.
Just riding around the countryside. Mark and Harvey also had a fuel oil
business and I drove the oil truck some, too. I sprayed many a German Shepard
with Number 2 heating oil.
Working all these odd jobs gave me the cash to buy that yellow Z-28 Camaro
in 1967. I just stumbled across that car. I went to Heishmans to gawk at the
new 911S, with two 3 barreled Weber Carbs. The Camaro was on or near
the used car lot, I asked about it, it was for sale, I left a deposit. Bought it the
next day, cash deal. I was driving a 1961 Corvair....automatic......oil leaker.
Anyway, Mr. Jowett and Rusty were racing Corvettes (actually what they were
doing was chasing Cobras). Mr. J had a '61 and Rusty had a '63 split-window
coupe. The '63 car had the optional 36 gallon fuel tank, was handy at Sebring.
In 1967 I think Rusty decided he wanted to go Trans Am Racing and that fall
I got my orders to report (draft notice). I sold Mr. Jowett my Z28 (instead of putting
it in a barn....not the brightest move, huh?). Mark and his brother had had a parting
of the ways, so Mr J hired Mark to be his full time Trans Am mechanic. That pretty
well set things up. Mark had a three-car garage at his house. He hired a drag racer
named Hank Heilmier to do the grunt work. I was just hanging around, watching,
lending a hand. Thinking about the Army, I guess.
The Camaro had been undercoated with some nasty old tar-like goop. Hank and
I spent a month with a propane torch removing that stuff. Mark was going to Penske,
building engines, buying trailers and trucks, going to Upper Marlboro and watching
Donahue test cars while Hank and I scraped undercoating. Follow me?? Roger
would rent the Marlboro track for days at a time. I was there once and they were
pushing the '67 Blue Sunoco car on the Hauler. A guy came over and explained
there were only certain places you could push on that car; it had spent a lot of time
in the acid dip I guess."
