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I'd never seen anything like it at Road America...and I've seen puh-lenty! Following discouraging weather forecasts during the preceding week (bumbershoots and maybe even Wellington boots might be appropriate for Sunday?), the skies cleared up beautifully and the IMSA spectator crowd was, well, STEW-PENDULOUS! Can't ever remember seeing that many folks meandering, prowling, feeding their faces and shopping their way through the paddock at RA. And there was lotsa stuff to grab their attention, too. Not to mention charge cards. There was team, track and manufacturer caps, gear, banners and wearables, the usual and singularly excellent Road America track food, friend/ace racer Kevin Buckler's get-sloshed-early ADOBE ROAD WINERY tasting trailer, friend/consummate artist Roger Warrick (of "The Last Open Bar" Siebkens' print fame) working alfresco out of the plaid-motif PFAFF RACING merch trailer, models, diecasts, artwork, fancy coffees and smoothies from our dear friend Bruce and on and on. Reminded me of a gearhead-oriented carnival midway...and everybody seemed to be enjoying themselves, from the folks spending money to the folks on the other side of the counter raking it in. And meanwhile, the racecars pounded relentlessly around Road America's famous, scenic and fabulous 4.048 miles of hills, valleys, sweeping corners and late-apex nineties. And the infamous, high-speed kink that always seems to put a little mileage on the tow trucks and safety vehicles on competitive race weekends. And IMSA racing is NOTHING if not competitive... Three small-sized flies in the otherwise sweet-smelling & salubrious ointment: 1) a rather hellacious thunderstorm blew and thundered its way through on Thursday evening. Lotsa wind in piston-like gusts, lightning crackling like the night Colin Clive and Dwight Frye brought The Frankenstein Monster to life (see evocative pic below) and assorted vendor canopies and team awnings were rent asunder:
As you can imagine, there was much anguish and hand-wringing in the storm's wake but, as old Mark Twain once noted: "Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does much of anything about it..." Truer words were never spake. We were of course fortunate to be set up in our usual spot inside the magnificent and wind- and weather-proof (not to mention air-conditioned!) ROAD AMERICA PADDOCK SHOP to once again sign books alongside Upper Boddington's own raconteur/racing hero and TV motorsports star David Hobbs. He's damn good company, BTW, and always has an appropriate story or memory on tap. Plus his book is a pretty damn good read. We like to tell prospective customers: "I write fiction peppered with true facts, and David writes, well, something that comes 'round the bend from the opposite direction..." 2) The repaved Road America racetrack looks absolutely fabulous, and if it's possible to love a thick layer of smooth-as-a-baby's-butt asphalt...well, this is the place to strum your heartstrings. But all was not sweetness and light with the new surface as, even after several race meetings, the rubbered-in "on line" ribbon had pretty good grip, whilst the not-so-rubbered-in sections off the racing line were, to borrow a fellow-racer's line: "slicker than eel snot." You have to realize here that the goal of ANY racetrack paving job is NOT to provide maximum grip. Far from it in fact. As friend/accomplished racetrack designer Alan Wilson always cautions: "If there's too much grip, it just chews up tires, leaves 'marbles' of rolled-up rubber off-line and, if the cars have wide, sticky tires and a lot of downforce, the track itself starts coming up in big, gnarly chunks." I'm thinking the new surface will "rubber-in" properly over time, but right now it's like a wet racetrack that's just starting to dry. The grip is decent on-line, but you take your chances if you venture into/onto the "No Mans' Land" off line... 3) The schedule was kinda goofy in order to accommodate the Powers That Be in the television world (are your ears buring, NBC?). Everybody in their right mind likes to see races L-I-V-E (or very close to it) as where's the damn drama and suspense if you already know how everything comes out? And NBC and its affiliate stations had a whole bunch of racing on tap that particular Sunday, what with IMSA at Road America and Indycars at Nashville and ranked-by-fan-base king-of-the-hill NASCAR at Michigan (although that race was postponed to Monday, very possibly by the same storm front that blew through Elkhart Lake?), and so IMSA's 2 hour 40 minute race was sqouzed into an unusual, Sunday morning time slot. Like starting at 10am local time. Hey, choices have to be made, right? But it felt odd to have the BIG show in the morning and the Usual Saturday Feature Michelin Pilot Series (which is UNBELIEVABLY competitive and entertaining) running on Sunday afternoon. And, as long as I'm grousing, why only a 2 hour/40 minute feature race at Road America when both the venue and the cars and teams are suited to much longer races? Just sayin'... But, all that said, it was a typically close, fraught and well-fought IMSA show, and the parity that the sanctioning body has both promoted and pursued is really bearing fruit. You can tell it's a level playing field when EVERYBODY' in the paddock is complaining... |
A wee update is in order on THE LAST OPEN ROAD audio RIG DRIVER GIVEAWAY RAFFLE we did at Road America in concert with our friends at IMSA (especially IMSA prez John Doonan, who personally pulled the team names/car numbers out of a brand-new RaceQuip crash helmet) and, although the upstate vote isn't in yet, the response from the winning rig drivers was extremely enthusiastic. FYI, the blurb below is the OFFICIAL announcement/press release on the deal. So read it if you're interested, or scroll down to the next color block for more exciting news, entertaining insights & extraneous effluvia... IMSA/ROAD AMERICA RIG-DRIVER RAFFLE GIVEAWAY GIVING BACK TO SOME UNSUNG HEROES!
Team haulers have come a long way since the old days. But there are still thousands of miles to cover from one race to the next—or back to the shop to pick up parts or even a whole spare car if things turn sour—and countless behind-the-wheel hours to endure. And the folks who put in those long stints behind the wheel, in every possible kind of weather and road conditions, rarely get any special recognition for the vital service they provide bringing the show from one track to the next. Burt “BS” Levy knows all about it. He’s been racing, wrenching, covering races and writing about it for more than half a century. His feature stories, columns and race reports have won multiple journalism awards, and his highly entertaining The Last Open Road series of novels, which trace the evolution of American road racing from the early 1950s, have garnered exemplary reviews, have been used in schools and have become genuine cult classics on the motorsports and collector-car scenes. You have probably seen The Last Open Road decals on race cars, haulers, sports cars and beer coolers. Over the past several years, Burt re-wrote and produced a truly unique audio book version of THE LAST OPEN ROAD. Done in the style of an old-time radio play, it features professional Hollywood voice actors in the major roles, authentic sound effects, period fifties music and Mystery Celebrity Guest Voices in many of the smaller parts. Including IMSA president John Doonan, racing school founder/track owner Skip Barber, NASCAR Hall of Fame crew chief Ray Evernham, famous IMSA racers David Hobbs, Brian Redman, Patrick Long, Tommy Kendall, John Morton, Spence Pumpelly, PD Cunningham, Marino Franchitti, Amelia Island Concours founder Bill Warner, racecar builder Bob McKee, track announcers Greg Rickes and Joe Bradley and many more. They all agreed to participate simply because they enjoy Burt’s books and wanted to be a part of the project. THE LAST OPEN ROAD audio book has already won a pair of awards as “Best Audio Book of the Year.” It’s incredibly entertaining…and 25 lucky teams will be winning FREE copies this weekend for their rig drivers and team members to listen to on their long-haul journey to the next event. Or back in the shop. All teams participating in either the WeatherTech or Michelin Pilot Challenge races this weekend at Road America are AUTOMATICALLY entered in the raffle! All eligible car numbers will be put in an appropriate crash hat and 25 lucky winners will be drawn—15 from the WeatherTech series and 10 from the Michelin Pilot Challenge, plus 5 more from IMSA's own squadron of rig drivers and long haulers. The winning teams will be notified, and each team will have their choice of a CD set or a USB flash drive of the entire THE LAST OPEN ROAD audio, and both formats include a bonus video and a couple of our decals. If you enjoy the audio—and we think you will—we’d sure like to see some of those THE LAST OPEN ROAD decals on your racecars, haulers, etc. |
We'll see what the response is as the miles, hours and chapters unfold. Watch this space. Which reminds me: the online response/reviews on THE LAST OPEN ROAD audio has been, well, frankly unbelievable. I'm almost embarrassed by it. Almost... But if you want to check it out, please follow this hot-button link (below) and scroll down to the reviewer comments.
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WRITING UPDATE: Yes, I have been working on the new book(s). Honest I have. But I've had a couple small side jobs as well, a book excerpt that will be coming out in OPEN ROAD magazine thanks to friend/editor Bill Hall, and the first part of what will be I think a two- or three-part story-come-remembrance of late Chicago enthusiast, restaurateur (do you remember The Como Inn on Milwaukee Avenue?), impresario, Ferrari trader, founder of the blowout/nonparial International Challenge July historic races at Road America and one of the key guys who really got the ball rolling for Vintage Racing in North America, Joe Marchetti. Not to mention the guy who sponsored my own racing efforts for several years and who, more than anyone, got me launched in my writing/ride-mooching career. You can find it in Pete Vack's excellent and informative VELOCE TODAY e-newsletter. Click below & scroll down to the July 31st entry to check it out: Here's a pic of Joe in his Ferrari 250LM at RA (think he was "every other owner" of that car for a couple years as it was bought/sold/traded back-and-forth in an ever-ascending market). Below is me getting in the same car during a pitstop during that weekend's enduro (I'd never driven it before and it was right-hand drive/left-hand-shift with a wonky linkage to a crash box!) and, finally, me "at speed" in the brilliant red steed! Need I add: "WOO HOO!!!"? And, finally, a page and a poem I wrote from the inside cover of Joe's 1986 Chicago Historic Race program.
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MORE SCRIBBLING STUFF: Like I said, I have been working on the new books projects, and the second POTSIDE COMPANION compendium of short stories, fond remembrances, trials, tribulations and crap I should never have let myself become involved in is slowly but surely coming into shape. Christmastime is the launch goal and, as of now, I think and believe I can make it. As long as I don't keep adding stories, that is... The next and last (I'm not kidding this time!) book in the Last Open Road/Steamroller series is also coming along, and I feel compelled to share something I re-discovered whilst poring over old race reports and magazine stories on the real-life races that are part of the tale. I do do a lot of research (not to be confused with doo-doo, which is another thing entirely), and along the way, I've had the humbling and yet elevating pleasure of reading, once again, the great Henry N. Manney's race reports from Le Mans in ROAD & TRACK magazine. Gawd, what a talent! What a stylist! What a fantastic storyteller! At the risk of getting sued by all sorts of people, I'd like to include this brief clip from his unbelievably creative, entertaining & evocative, 5-freaking page (!!!) report on Le Mans 1961:
As many of you already know, I named my "motoring scribe" character/sometimes narrator Henry ("Hank") Lyons in honor of my own two favorite motorsports reporters, Henry N. Manney and my friend Pete Lyons. They came at the sport from completely opposite directions (Pete put all the great drivers, designers and team principals on elevated pedestals, while Manney seemed more at home knocking them off...and then smashing the pedestals!), but their love of it all, their "eye," their gift, the hard work you never saw or felt and their insights made them, like the centerfold in Playboy, the first thing I'd flip to when I opened the cover. Respect! |
SUNDAY! SUNDAY! SUNDAY! We did a very nice FUELFED CARS and COFFEE yesterday in nearby Hinsdale. Sold a few books to folks who'd never heard of them, which is, of course, the whole idea. Although it's hard trying to become a millionaire (hardly a big thing nowadays) at 30 bucks a pop. Sigh. But that's why I'm attaching, at the very bottom, an utterly shameless pitch for sponsors/advertisers for both of the upcoming tomes. And I promise not to use the proceeds for legal defense...not even for that frickin' fifty-buck parking ticket I got last Thursday--in front of my own freakin' house!--on account of I forgot to move my van across the street for STREET CLEANING on our side before I biked off to fitness class. Shame on me, right. But, as Jack Nicholson might have said as The Joker in that Batman movie: "It still rubs my rhubarb the wrong way..." Carol and I will once again be shamelessly hawking books/audiobooks and our wonderful logo clothing, accessories, prints & whatnot at the following venues/events (all bets off on the outdoor ones if the heavens decide to open): Friday, August 18 (from late morning through 4pm): Once again comfortably ensconced in the magnificent Road America Paddock Shop during the Fanatec GT Race weekend. Saturday, August 19, 8am-high noon: We try something new & different: Hawking and signing books to the non-Car Crowd local inhabitants at the Elkhart Lake Farmers & Artisans market on Rhine Street in downtown Elkhart Lake. Not sure at all how this might go, but there is a lot of "Local Content" in the first book, and we're eager to "spread the word" to new people. We plan to return to the Paddock Shop afterwards for the balance of Saturday, but have to head home for some family stuff on Sunday. Sunday, August 27: Thanks to serial supporter & local SCCA kingpin Steve Laske and his cohorts, we will once again be set up at the SCCA display on Campbell Street at this year's Geneva Concours in Geneva, IL. 9am-3pm. If you have never attended the Geneva show, I urge you to give it a whirl. They have everything from spindly old brass cars to flamboyant "rides of the rich" from the roaring twenties (Packards, Duesenbergs, Auburns, Stutzes...you get the idea) to sporty roadsters & GTs from the postwar era to puh-lenty of pristine Porsches, some Italian exotica, Jaguars of course, LOTSA motorcycles, Rolls-Royces...I could go on. But check it out at GENEVACONCOURS.NET. Great stuff on display and a wonderful venue, too. See you there? More anon. Garfield and Washington Streets along the north side of Burlington Park (just across the tracks from the Hinsdale train station. See you there? |
| THE NEXT THING YOU FEEL WILL BE ME TUGGING AT YOUR SLEEVE, GIVING YOU MY BEST-EVER, BEAGLE PUPPY EYES AND THRUSTING ONE OF THESE SELF-SERVING MISSIVES IN YOUR FACE: |
TRIVIA!!! Longtime friend/sometimes ride-mooch enabler JR Mitchell of GMT Racing in Connecticut was, quite typically, first across the line in recognizing the odd-looking V8 shown below as a Tatra, and this particular unit is in the engine bay of the nifty but never-raced Tatra Grand Prix car that is part of the amazing and HIGHLY eclectic (go ahead, you can call it "weird") collection at THE LANE MOTOR MUSEUM in Nashville, TN. Now people go to Nashville for lots of reasons--music's gotta be way up there on that list!--but this place is definitely worth a stop and a half-day wander/gander. I urge you to check it out. Click the link at the bottom. As for Tatra, you should check them out, too. Thanks to clever and inventive 20s-30s designer/engineer Hans Ledwinka, Tatra was building air-cooled, rear-engined, platform-framed cars in Czechoslovakia long before Dr. Porsche ever designed The Fuhrer's famous Volkswagen "Peoples' Car" in Germany. In fact, Ledwinka and Porsche swapped ideas and looked over each others' shoulders "back in the day" (to the point that VW/Porsche willingly paid Tatra for "borrowed" design concepts after the war). And, as noted in my books, Tatras were used as taxicabs in Mexico City during the 1950s. Look them up...it's quite an amazing story. And The Lane has a bunch of them.
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AND NOW, DEAR READER, WHAT THE HECK IS THIS THING (Bob Allen...your table is waiting
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Catch the latest poop & pictures, the Jay Leno interview, Last Open Road swag & highly inappropriate attire from Finzio's Store and the lurid & occasionally embarrassing "ride with Burt" in-car racing videos on the hopefully now fully operational website at: |
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