Midgets take over Road America!

The Road America Winner's Circle!

The Kohler tunnel under the track

You don't want no stinkin' ethanol?  The only gas station in Elkhart Lake sells 110 octane, leaded gas for only $6.79/gallon!!

Well, race fans, this is the day we've been waiting for.  We all left the hotel this morning for a group drive to Road America for our track time.  But, first, we took a tour of the original road course that was used around 1952.  This winds around Elkhart Lake and some of it is now residential and commercial areas of downtown Elkhart Lake.  The organizers did a great job and the local police had intersections blocked off for us so we could stay in a group without getting split up.  There were about 40 cars that toured the 3+ mile course around town and we all stayed together.     Around 1955 the racing was moved from the street to the Road America course a few miles outside of town.  After touring the road course, we continued out of town to the Road America complex.   After arriving, we parked and waited for our time on the track.  Today was "test and tune" day and several people had rented track time to prepare their race cars.  So, we got to watch some of the cars , both open wheel and closed wheel cars, go by at speed right by the front stretch.  At 12:00, the testing sessions were over for lunch and we took over.  There were a few rules, no passing in corners,and keep it under 70 MPH.  There was a Corvette pace car that we followed, but he went fast enough that only a couple of race prepared Midgets could keep up with him.  We were able to go about as fast as we wanted to push our cars,  some with older, "nice" cars just cruised, and some were a little more aggressive.  (Bill and Larry, I actually passed several cars and have proof on video!!)  My only problem was above 4500 RPM it kept cutting out.  I wonder if the auxiliary  fuel pump mounted under the bonnet and sucking fuel just wasn't delivering enough fuel.  Anyway, we got to drive about 5 laps, each of which took me about 5 minutes.  Hey, it's a long track!!  That averages to about 48 MPH.  After that, there was an autocross on a different part of the track, but I didn't participate because I didn't want to break the car this far from home!  It was still very hot.  Temp. today was 93 degrees.  I noticed in Atlanta in was only 78!  Everyone had a great day at the track.  Tomorrow will be a scenic drive and some other fun events and then the final banquet.

Here is a video of me on my warm-up lap.  The car looks darker due to optical shifting due to the speed.

Midgets stretching to the horizon on the way to Road America