A Road America “Sunset Cruise”

[Paul Gohde Photo]

by Paul Gohde

Elkhart Lake’s Road America – To the two of us it felt a bit more like a qualifying run in our Can Am racer with John Surtees just ahead of us and Dan Gurney on our rear bumper. In reality, our four-lap cruise around the full Road America circuit was really a “Sunset Cruise” with 65 other road vehicles including our newly washed 2017 Ford Escape along with pickup trucks, vans and other daily drivers.

I’ve been to many, many races at the historic 4.06-mile internationally renowned circuit, but this was our long-awaited chance to do some laps with many other drivers who arrived in with their Mercedes, Ferraris, Corvettes and Mustangs as well.

Having seen an advertisement on RA’s web site that for $20 we could take a three lap (that turned out to be four laps) “Sunset Cruise” on a glorious, golden late summer afternoon.

The convivial group of drivers and passengers gathered at 6:00pm for a “drivers meeting” chat with the pace car driver, noting the 45mph speed limit we were to obey, with no passing allowed and no driver changes. After a few jokes we belted up tightly and entered the track near Turn One single file.

My wife and I have walked the track during its annual fund raising charity Run/Walk, and I’ve been able to be a writer/ photographer for several racing publications and have traversed most of the track’s hills and valleys, but perhaps the most surprising impression of this day’s drive was how steep the main straight climb is to the start/finish line, how challenging the curves are on the back stretch and at Turn Five, and how rough some of the rumble strips are when you stray from the prescribed “line” through tight turns.

Before long some drivers caught on that if they slowed their “racers” and created a gap ahead of themselves, they could perhaps speed up a bit and see where the limit might be entering certain corners. Don’t tell the pace car boss.

Our enjoyable four laps (16+miles) went by quickly and after taking some photos thru the windshield on our final laps while we still had a bit of that golden light left, we pulled off the course and found our way back home at higher speeds than the race pace we had just enjoyed at Road America. Great fun at a bargain price. We highly recommend it.

The track offers a variety of events and experiences on non-race days throughout the season including a high-speed lap in the pace car driven by track personnel. Check the RA website for details.

Paul Gohde

Paul Gohde heard the sound of race cars early in his life.

Growing up in suburban Milwaukee, just north of Wisconsin State Fair Park in the 1950’s, Paul had no idea what “that noise” was all about that he heard several times a year. Finally, through prodding by friends of his parents, he was taken to several Thursday night modified stock car races on the old quarter-mile dirt track that was in the infield of the one-mile oval -and he was hooked.

The first Milwaukee Mile event that he attended was the 1959 Rex Mays Classic won by Johnny Thomson in the pink Racing Associates lay-down Offy built by the legendary Lujie Lesovsky. After the 100-miler Gohde got the winner’s autograph in the pits, something he couldn’t do when he saw Hank Aaron hit a home run at County Stadium, and, again, he was hooked.

Paul began attending the Indianapolis 500 in 1961, and saw A. J. Foyt’s first Indy win. He began covering races in 1965 for Racing Wheels newspaper in Vancouver, WA as a reporter/photographer and his first credentialed race was Jim Clark’s historic Indy win.Paul has also done reporting, columns and photography for Midwest Racing News since the mid-sixties, with the 1967 Hoosier 100 being his first big race to report for them.

He is a retired middle-grade teacher, an avid collector of vintage racing memorabilia, and a tour guide at Miller Park. Paul loves to explore abandoned race tracks both here and in Europe, with the Brooklands track in Weybridge England being his favorite. Married to Paula, they have three adult children and two cats.

Paul loves the diversity of all types of racing, “a factor that got me hooked in the first place.”

racingnation.com

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