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Elkhart Lake

Rolex

08/07/2001

Race Preview

From Mid-Ohio to Mid-Wisconsin

There is always something paradoxical about being a city folk in the rural farmland. I awake refreshed and early, slowly coming up to speed, enjoying the slow pace. Meanwhile, all the hard working farmers have long since been out doing the chores. The short 20 minutes run from the cottage to track finds all the teams emulating the locals, having been beavering away since the early morn'. There certainly are many of them here.

The Grand-Am season is in the midst of a particularly feverish period. Le Mans did not provide much of a break between the Mid-Ohio and Road America rounds. Just before that was the Lime Rock Regatta and the Watkins Glen race. This will be a 500 mile event, effectively the third true endurance race for the series, the Daytona 24 Hours and Watkins Glen 6 Hours being the others. The turn out looks good all around. Forty-two cars are on the entry and nearly all seem to be here. One unfortunate no-show is the Schumacher Porsche 911 GT1. The owner seems to be a bit under the weather. The no. 80 G & W GT3R is also not planning to run, although the car is here.

Judging from the fact that I had to wait behind a line of spectators at the gate, and it’s only Friday morning, the crowd should be better than last year. The weather certainly looks more favorable. It’s an almost picture perfect summer’s day.

There are quite a few additional events, the biggest draw being a round the NASCAR Re/Max Challenge. This is a regional stock car series (formerly known as the ARTGO Challenge). Although I’m famous for not being a NASCAR fan, the cars are doing their practice laps as a I write and I must admit that the thundering V-8s sound impressive coming up the long uphill straight.

Other support races include the popular Grand-Am Cup, which along with PSCR’s Speedvision Championship represents showroom stock racing at its best. The U.S. F2000 is also on tap, an important forum for rising stars in single seater racing. However, we’re perhaps a bit too inundated with stock cars as there is also a race for the Mid-Am, a lower level regional series.

As to the Grand-Am entry there have been some significant additions to the field, effectively the return of some welcome regulars. The Mosler is here after having had the car damaged in a transporter fire in Connecticut. The Miracle Motorsports Riley & Scott that was damaged in its Watkins Glen crash with Kim Hiskey’s Porsche has been rebuilt. Jim Downing is back with the venerable Kudzu, taking a break from the now brisk business of producing the HANS device. Rick Fairbanks has two of his Genesis Motorsports BMW M3s. Finally there is the Pilbeam that had last run at Daytona.

While these additions may not be candidates for even class wins they do make for a good diversity within the field from top to bottom. Frankly, the entries for the forthcoming ALMS and ELMS events lack this quality. The Grand-Am cars may not be as interesting from a technical perspective as the PSCR entries, but the racing has been close and furious all season long.

For those not familiar with this wonderful circuit, here’s a quick primer. The 4.0-mile track is located directly adjacent to the Village of Elkhart Lake. We’re about 20 miles west of the larger town of Sheboygan, which itself is located on Lake Michigan, southernmost of the Great Lakes. We’re more or less in east central Wisconsin, about 60 miles north of the city of Milwaukee and about 150 miles northwest of Chicago.

Racing began here on the village streets in the early 1950s. Luminaries such as Phil Hill were among the stars. As with other such venues (Watkins Glen, Bridgehampton, Pebble Beach), within a few years conditions became too dangerous and a nearby purpose-built course was established. Other than the addition of safety barriers, the character and length of Road America has stayed the same.

Cutting through the verdant countryside, a lap begins with a long uphill straight ending with a right-hander that is somewhere between being sharp and being sweeping. A slight kink leads to a quite sharp Turn 3. The following section is called Moraine Sweep, named after the hilly glacial features of the area. This is a mostly straight portion, punctuated by two very slight kinks. Since it is downhill, it is actually a bit faster than the main straight, with the SRPs approaching about 200 mph. The left-handed Turn 5 tests one’s brakes as it makes a 90-degree bend to begin an uphill burst under a pedestrian bridge. Then begins the rather flat sweeping right-hander called Hurry Downs. Another sharp left requires a dash of brakes before entering the right-handed Carousel, taken under constant acceleration. Turns 10-11A represent a set of slight bends through a heavily wooded downhill section. At the bottom is the very tricky Canada Corner. This is one of the better spots to attempt to nip inside of an opponent. Thunder Valley and Turns 13-13A begin the ascent and consists of a set of fairly quick esses. The final Turn, 14, pints the cars back onto the steep climb to start / finish. Sunday’s race will require this trip to be taken 125 times.

Janos Wimpffen