2018 was our third annual trip back home to Wisconsin to see the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race at Road America. And do some touristing. And hike the Ice Age Trail. And visit family. That too. 😁
Friday 8/3, after another wonderful breakfast at our B&B, The Inn on Hillwind, we headed out to Road America. After picking up our 2-seat golf cart rental at Gate 3, we spent the next four hours moseying around the track’s forested hills, scouting locations for me to shoot segments for my race video.
For my previous Road America videos, I’d shoot a couple corners of each race — Porsche GT3 Cup, Lamborghini Trofeo, Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge and IMSA — then string the segments together to look like a complete race like you’d see on television. (Or, these days, streaming online.) With only a single camera, and a golf cart with a top end of 10 mph, I could not get every corner for a given race.
This year I planned to visit every corner once, even the straightaways known as ‘Turn’ 2 and ‘Turn 4’. I’d do two corners in each 45-50 minute race, and 3-5 corners for the two hour CTSCC and 2h 40m IMSA races. Then string the segments together to present one complete ‘lap’ of Road America.
So, if you are wondering why the ‘race’ seems to change class every 10 seconds, that’s why. 🧐
Afterwards, it was off to the Sheboygan for VFW Post 9156’s awesome fish fry, with my cousins Philip and Eloise. I picked up my second t-shirt of the week — “Real superheroes don’t wear capes: They wear dog tags.” — to go with the t-shirt I’d acquired a few days earlier at the Circus World Museum in Baraboo.
Second Row: McLaren GT4, Mercedes-AMG GT4, BMW M4 GT4.
Third Row: Aston Martin Vantage, Porsche Cayman, Mini JCW.
Saturday 8/4, we were at the ‘inside’ of Turn 4 and outside of Turn 8, at the foot of the Hurry Downs, for the first Porsche GT3 Cup race. As the kart track is right next door, I did three sessions, all in the #33. (After discovering on Friday that it, and the #43, were two seconds faster per lap than the dog that was #37.)
For the first Lamborghini Trofeo race, it was up to the outside of Turn 6, then down to Kettle Bottoms, which is between The Kink and Canada Corner. I had just turned on my camera when a Lambo spun coming out of The Kink, throwing up a cloud of dirt, then crashing into the inside wall, before ricochetting into the outside fence. (Check out the race video below!) For some reason the corner worker continued to wave his green flag for 20 seconds after the accident, despite oncoming cars not being able to see through the dust. 🙄
After visiting the paddock for the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge open grid fan walk, we hit the inside of Turn 1, outside of Turn 5, and outside of Canada Corner for the actual CTSCC race. I love their wide variety of cars: Mercedes, Ford, McLaren, Audi, Porsche, Aston Martin and even Mini! And BMW. 🖕
Sunday 8/5, for the second Porsche GT3 Cup race, I filmed at Turn 10 (the exit of the Carousel) and Turn 13. I wanted to film the second Lamborghini Trofeo race from the ‘inside’ of Turn 2, but my wife had her heart set on getting Helio Castroneves autograph, so we spent an hour waiting in the Acura Team Penske line instead. While we waited, my wife enjoyed talking Dutch to Jeroen Bleekemolen at Penske’s less popular Mercedes neighbor, Riley Motorsports. 🇳🇱
I thought my filming plan would save time rushing about, but instead it seemed to make things worse. I once had to leave a sandwich order sitting, because it was taking too long. Another time I had to rush off with a sizzling pretzel in my hand to make it to a turn before the cars. (I would have taken the raw dough to be there quicker.) Overall, I ate much, much less track food than last year. Drank less beer too. (Though I made up for that on the flights home: First Class free booze FTW!) I did make sure to get a Walking Taco and Bloody Mary at Turn 1, though. 👍
The main event of the weekend, the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, saw us visit Turn 7, Turn 9, The Kink, Turn 14 and finally Turn 3. Watching prototypes pass GT cars heading into The Kink is a nailbiter. I missed a prototype crash right in front of me in Turn 14, when I clicked my camera off just as he got sideways. ARGH! But my good humor was restored watching a BMW run out of fuel at pit in, then roll back down hill. Just like last year. 😂
Racing Video
Road America (2018), Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin from Preston McMurry on Vimeo.
