Trip to Elkhart Lake, WI - Road America

[Panzer82]

Two weeks ago I made the 800 or so round trip to Elkhart Lake, WI, for the HAWK Vintage Race weekend at Road America, always a great weekend.

The convoy down was an interesting group of us... my 250SL, a 1960 Alfa Giulietta Spider, a 1965 Porsche 356 and a 1971 Dodge Challenger... in 'Plum Crazy Purple Metallic'.

The Pagoda looks like a Mack truck next to the Porsche and, especially, the Giulietta... but next to the Challenger... well, you know.

We all met in the town of Prescott, WI and headed out together at about 6:00am (most of us had been in the car almost an hour to get there by 6:00 to start!)... a fun day of two lane roads and vintage sports car races all weekend.

Here are some pics of the cars to and fro...

Here is a link to 170 photos of the weekend. Friday and Saturday night Concours events in downtown Elkhart Lake, vintage race cars in the paddock and various other scenes from the weekend.

From pre war cars to not so vintage cars that might have raced Le Mans just a few years ago... over 450 race cars this year in about 11 groups spanning about 80 or 90 years of automotive competition history... from the great Alfa Romeo 8C 2900 Zagato Longo that was there to Formula 5000 and Can-Am cars from the 70s to cars just a few years old.

Unfortunately, a truck going the opposite direction on a two lane road on the drive home kicked up a huge rock and put it right into my windshield... I'll be getting a replacement in the next couple of weeks. For a milli-second, I was sure the rock was going to come through the windshield and knock my teeth out...

 

[thelews]

I was up for the Saturday night "Concours."  I wouldn't really call it a concours, you pay your $100 and you're in.  I thought the selection was pretty weak, more like an exotic used car lot.  Couple of nice items though.  Might have lost some nice vintage entrants due to the threat of rain.  Didn't see your Pagoda anywhere on the streets.  I brought up may daily SL500 because it was raining in Milwaukee when we left, but what a beautiflul topless drive home.

[Panzer82]

Yeah, the word 'Concours' is used pretty loosely all over the place... it's more of a show and shine, but they call it a Concours... you can have a 1991 Toyota MR2 next to a 1958 Ferrari Tour de France, that's what I saw a couple of years ago. We basically paid to be in it ($75) to have a good parking place and have some fun downtown, that's really all you're paying for, a parking place and a nice place to set up your folding chairs.

It's basically just a big party. The judges ask you a couple of questions... but most of them are just picking 'their favorite' car I think... My friends won their class (we were in the same class) with their '71 Plum Crazy Challenger... and I think that 'win' was more about the fact that they were so enthusiastic, the lady wearing a purple and white dress and the guy wearing a purple and white Tommy Bahama kind of shirt, color coordinated with the car... than the car itself.... it's just a nice driver and they beat out a handful of Ferraris and Jags... how does that happen?

It was a great time and I was amazed at how many people were drawn to the Pagoda... including, interestingly enough, a guy from Mequon who owns a 280SL that's been off the road for 20+ years, we had a long talk about his car and where he might take it to be recommissioned.

One fun thing that happened... was the guy who organizes the invitational car show on the lawn of the Osthoff Resort during the Elkhart Lake Fall Festival came by, looked my car over and asked if I'd bring it to that event in the Fall to show it. It's the week after PUB... so I'll have a lot of driving those couple of weeks... but there are few places more fun than Elkhart Lake during a vintage race weekend.

[thelews]

That would be Bob, Gathering on the Green.  Nice event, saw him this last Sat. at our event.  I did see your car, in fact, saw you drive in.  Didn't realize it was you, would have introduced myself.

John