One never knows what to expect as late summer trends to fall in Wisconsin. I had looked at some previous pictures and saw wool hats and gloves, but not this weekend. In all the years I have run this fall classic there has never been a more perfect weekend that this one. Absolutely gorgeous.
Our team this weekend included Joy Perry, and David and Sue Farrington who made the trip from Madison Township, PA. We had lots of company in the paddock. Four additional 1800s – Ray Freiwald, Alex Christopher, Tim Detwiler and Ramiro Malgioglio, plus the 122S of Joe Brabender.
This was only the second outing of the year for the Volvo. i have been consumed by running a Spec Racer Ford (SRF) in a real series with SCCA this year. And occupied dealing with life as it has been presented. First the Great Pandemic that we had hoped would be over by now, but still is taking the lives of too many people and then the abject sadness as our canid family left us, awaiting the day of our reunion at the rainbow Bridge.
The SRF is a purpose-built race car that I will write about at a more appropriate moment.
This is me in the SRF in June at Blackhawk (David Farrington photo)
In June Blackhawk Classic the Volvo had run well, turning excellent lap times, but also had a disconcerting issue with a small amount of water ending up in the oil vapor recovery tank. In the intervening months I did all sorts of shop tests to see if I might learn the source without pulling the head or motor. Compression test. Leak down test. Cooling system pressure test. Nothing stood out as abnormal so I put half a bottle of head gasket stop leak into the cooling system and hoped for the best, unable to find a place to test the motor on the track. The test ended up being the ELVF and I am please to say that it passed.
The Saturday Sprint Race was clearly the best outing of the weekend. We qualified in the morning a respectable P9 in Group 2 that list 66 cars in several different classes. Under ideal conditions we were able to finish P4. Here’s the video of the race that saw us best our Road America lap time down to 2:48.
Sunday was devoted to the Group Race. — Groups 2 and 3b). I was gridded 5th and had a pretty good run except for one late turn it at the Kink that resulted is a bit of a scary ride in the dirt along the wall. ‘The Kink will bite you.” The GULP lasted just about two seconds, but two seconds wondering if metal is going to meet concrete seems like an eternity. Enough time for me to tell myself to just keep the wheels straight. I lost a bit of time but no position.
Here’s a bit of footage (what do we say as we have given up film for 0s and 1s?) of that race.
And here are some pictures to give you a flavor of the weekend.
Race Engineer David Farrington
Data being collected
Saturday night, Gather on the Green Concours
Elkhart Lake, that made famous by Sally and Buddy (“The Last Open Road” by BS Levy)
Group 1 (Sue Farrington photo)
Those who help make it possible
As I finish this report we are on our way to Grantsville, Utah for the SVRA Speed Tour. This was planned to be the Volvo Nationals. What started with a ‘commitment’ from 14 vintage Volvo drivers has dwindled to 8. Not real encouraging, but the 8 of us will have fun I am sure.