About Sport and Specialty

Take a video tour of the shop!

We are dedicated to preserving the art and fun of vintage sports cars and believe that people should enjoy driving their cars more. We specialize in Austin Healey and Jaguar cars, but have experience in many other marques, including most British cars, Alfa Romeo, Corvette, Aston Martin, Ferrari, and early Lotus.

Our work includes all levels of restoration services, (full, mechanical, cosmetic, etc.,) simple repairs, ongoing maintenance, and vintage race preparation. In addition, we also offer rebuild services for our customers who prefer to do some of their own work. We also can rebuild your engine, transmission, overdrive, differential and many other individual components.

Our shop is a 10,000 plus sq. ft. facility in Northern Illinois in which we can do everything on premises except heavy machine work or sew interiors and tops. We use exclusive partners for those specialties and work very closely with them during our projects, at both their facilities, and ours.

With more than seventy years of automotive experience, our staff each has their own mechanical and restoration specialties. We are all car people here, and provide not only technical expertise, but true craftsmanship in every job we do.

For any sized repair job, or long-term restoration project, we strive to provide our customers with the most value for their investment possible. We are a “hands on” working shop and always looking at new ways of offering more value to our customers.

We maintain a low overhead, which in turn provides a reasonable shop rate. Our many awards and finished cars speak volumes as to the high quality of our work. We also stand behind all work and can provide references upon request.

Please take a look at the many photos provided on our site, and feel free to call or contact us with any questions.

John Saccameno

Proprietor

John is a life long car guy. All of his favorite toys had wheels. Growing up on the north side of Chicago, two of his favorite early memories includes drives down Lake Shore Dr. in an MGA with the top down, (which really started his love of British Sports Cars) and when the orange pedal car was brought downstairs for a sidewalk drive. That was officially his first car. His second was a fairly ratty, but still loved red 1960 TR3. There were a variety of cars in the early days, foreign and domestic. A 1969 Road Runner, a 1973 Grand Am with a four speed, and a 1972 MGB were among a few early cars. Later came a long string of practical and sporty BMW 3 and 5 Series cars. Somewhere in the late 80 and early nineties was a 944 Turbo.

In 1996 John bought a 1963 Austin Healey BJ7 3000. He met his long time friend Mark Baker when Sport and Specialty did some much needed maintenance on the car. Re-bitten by the British Car bug, and deciding it was “now or never” John found a 1960 Bugeye race car and brought it back to racing duty. Next he joined North Suburban Sports Car Club and went to his first driving school in 1998 and received his Novice Competition License. He has held a competition and instructors license since 1998. He also holds a Chief and Operating Steward’s license from Midwestern Council, and serves as the Vintage / Historic Racing Chair and Vintage Motorsport Council delegate. He campaigns his lovely yellow 1969 Alfa Romeo GTV and BMW 2002 with MCSCC and the Vintage Sports Car Drivers Association (VSCDA) in general vintage races and the B Sedan Trans Am series. He also runs his track and street ready1983 Caterham Super Seven when the occasion arrises.

After a long and successful career in sales and marketing and general management, John knew it was time to do something he truly loved. After the passing of his friend Mark, the business that he knew so well through his friendship with Mark was in danger of shutting down. The business had a talented and dedicated crew and good business basics in place, so after helping the family operate the business in 2012, he began discussing some purchase options to keep the business alive and growing. At the end of 2012 he purchased the business and hasn’t looked back. He couldn’t be happier, he works with a talented crew, gets to go racing when he can, and has successfully turned his passion into his livelihood! What could be better?

Ryan Vetter

Body and Fabrication Manager
Ryan can look down the fender line of an Austin Healey 3000 and within seconds tell you if it runs too high, too low, or just where it should be. Because Austin Healey’s individually pressed doors were hand-crafted in England, very few of them follow the same exacting lines that Ryan is accustomed to in the Sport and Specialty body shop.
Eyeing up lines like that took years of mentoring from former shop owner Mark Baker who hired Ryan from a Craigslist ad and decided to take a chance on the kid. Now, with thousands of hours of fabricating, welding, pounding, and block-sanding behind him, Ryan is responsible for making sure everything comes out of the body shop looking better than they came out of the factory.

Kathy Baker

Shop Administrator
Kathy was introduced to Austin Healeys when she met Mark Baker in 1985. They were married in 1987 and moved outside of Rockford, IL in 1990 to a farm with enough space to build a shop to restore antique autos. Mark opened Sport and Specialty, which has won multiple awards for the excellence of its restorations.
When Mark unexpectedly passed away in 2011, Kathy, Steve and long-time friend John Saccameno teamed up to help run the business, which John subsequently purchased in 2012.
Kathy continues to do the general business administration and accounting for Sport and Specialty. She is an important member of the S & S team, making sure the wheels are greased with the outside world, and still gets excited when new projects come in. In addition, Kathy puts her degree in fine arts to use pursuing many photographic and local community art projects and competitions.

George Cichon Jr.

Mechanical Repair and Fabrication Manager
George got his first taste of import cars when he was only 16. His father said he’d buy him his first car, but it had to be a project. So, the two of them found a 1969 Opel Cadet Fastback for $50, rebuilt the motor, got it on the road, and George has had his hands on imports ever since. His 40+ year of experience include working as a BMW technician (Master Status,) Field Service Engineer, and as a race shop technician working on competition vehicles and vintage restorations.

Dakota Jessen

Mechanical and Assembly Tech
Dakota has been around classic cars most of his life, growing up with a garage full of “toys” in the family, from Mustangs to Camaros, along with trucks and even snowmobiles. After working in a few other car shops, he wanted to focus his talents working on the really special classics. He’s one of our mechanical techs here at the shop working with George.

Blake Carlson

Fabrication and Body Tech
Blake has had the car-bug ever since his grandpa introduced him to his classic Mustang. His first car, an early Camaro, owned before he had his license, had an engine and transmission transplant by Blake. The Camaro is now gone, but his passion for cars stayed. Previously working jobs in auto detailing and construction, he is now learning the fine art of restoration metal fabrication while grinding, sanding, and prepping classic body work for high quality final paint.

Bill Oakes and Mark Atkinson

Creative Team
Bringing Sport and Specialty to life in graphics and digital, Mark Atkinson and Bill Oakes are the creative team that produce what you see on SportAndSpecialty.com, they’re also part of the racing team that Sport and Specialty sponsors. Mark is responsible for the new logo, graphics, and advertising you’ll see around the Internet and in magazine ads. Bill is our content strategist and website manager

Glade Snodgrass - RIP 2019

Mechanical Repair and Maintenance
Since Junior High in Rockford Illinois, when Glade got his hands on his first copy of Sports Car Graphic, he has had an affection for small cars that handled. That first car love was a Triumph Spitfire. While there were Spitfires in his future, his first car was a Renault Dauphine. He will proudly tell you he learned how to slide a sports car with that Dauphine. While he owned more that a few Chevy’s and Jeeps, he realized his dream of a Spitfire in 1973 when he bought a used 1969. He blew up the engine in 1979, and after a trip to Blackhawk Farms Raceway to watch some road racing, he decided to rebuild the car for the track.

Starting out in the small engine repair business in the 70s, Glade eventually built up a small fleet of trucks which he maintained until he sold his business in 2003. Since then he remained a truck mechanic until 2015, when we were lucky enough to him join us here at Sport and Specialty. His affection for sports cars remains. He still races that Spitfire today!

Our History

Sport and Specialty - Mark Baker and John Saccameno Sport and Specialty was founded by Mark and Kathy Baker in 1991 as a British car restoration and repair business primarily focused on the Austin Healey and Jaguar marques. They left the graphic design industry to pursue a livelihood in maintaining and preserving the cars Mark was so passionate about. The Bakers moved to Durand Illinois from the western Chicago suburbs and began the process of restoring an old farm into their home and place of business. A new Sport and Specialty building was constructed on the farm property behind the barns.

Over the years the entire property was reconstructed and became the Baker family home and work place. The business grew within the new building to take up additional functional space. Mark designed this space to be able to do all mechanical, fabrication, paint, and interior assembly within the four walls over time. In the next twenty years, Mark and his crew maintained countless British and European cars, and performed a wide array of total restorations. Many of them award winning and one of a kind designs.

Mark’s sense of design and mechanical skills allowed him to engineer and innovate modern conveniences such as air conditioning and cruise control, as well as high performance mechanical upgrades using currently available technologies to boost drivability and owner satisfaction. Mark was also a noted expert within the Austin Healey community and became a go to person for many people when simple troubleshooting wasn’t enough.

Sadly, Mark passed away unexpectedly from a heart attack at 55-years-old while jogging. In addition to a devastated family, he left a legacy of respect from many grieving industry friends and customers. He also left behind a respected business, a shop full of cars, and an extremely knowledgeable crew in Steve, Ryan, and Bill.

John Saccameno, a long time friend of Mark’s and the Baker family volunteered to help keep the business moving forward as options were considered for what to do with the operation. John worked closely with the shop crew to keep the business moving forward, ultimately making the Baker family an offer to buy the entire business. As a close confidant of Mark’s, John was very familiar with both shop operations and the customer base, which made the decision much easier.

Sport and Specialty was ultimately purchased at the end of 2012, keeping alive the legacy Mark had begun. Since then, there have been substantial investments in facilities, tools, and technology, with a sharp focus on building a team of highly talented craftsmen, and expending the base of business past mostly British cars into multiple European brands.

Sport and Specialty will remain a shop that prides itself on high quality work of all types, and looks to build on the decades of success that have been enjoyed. Our future remains very bright!

Marque and Enthusiast Memberships

We are dedicated to the support of the collector car hobby and industry. Without the support of the industry, the ongoing enjoyment by enthusiasts of the vintage and historic cars we support would be in jeopardy. In addition, the various marque clubs offer most owners the direction and support to truly enjoy their ownership.

We believe in supporting these clubs and belong to the following:

AHCA – Austin Healey Club of America
JCNA – Jaguar Clubs of North America
AROC – Alfa Romeo Owners Club
BMWCCA – BMW Car Club of America
VSCDA – Vintage Sports Car Driver’s Association
NSSCC – North Suburban Sports Car Club
MCSCC – Midwestern Council of Sports Car Clubs
VSC – Vintage Sportscar Club
ACM – LeMay-America’s Car Museum
BCU – British Car Union
356 Registry
PCA – Porsche Club of America
Fuelfed

Open Houses Shop Tours

We have been hosting shop tours at Sport and Specialty for years. Sometimes they are simply layovers for long distance driving tours, or a single destination for the morning. We also host annual events for some clubs as a social event.