Phil Randall, our own Wing General, made his first trip to see the Vintage cars at Road America this year.  Our trip began with an “end run” around Chicago that didn’t save any time and added two hours to our travel time.  We were still able to manage a stop at Kopp’s Custard, a major tradition of the trip.  We arrived in camp in time to set up and have our traditional Friday night Popeyes Chicken on the grill.

We set up our DVD player for some racing action we recorded from the Speed Channel, then settled in for some movies.  Upon retiring, we broke out some new sleeping bags and experienced the ultimate comfortable sleeping experience.

With adrenaline flowing, we bounced out Saturday morning and raced down to the Gearbox for omelets and muffins and hash browns with lots of ketchup.  Powered by the breakfast, we stormed around the paddock taking pictures of the feature event, Historic Formula One.  I can’t show you the pictures yet, as I’m having difficulty uploading the pictures with Microsoft Frontpage.  I need someone to help me understand using FTP – that may be the long-term solution.

Saturday’s lunch was the now-traditional grilled bratwurst and fresh roasted corn at the Gearbox.  There’s a lot to be said for tradition, and this is one we’d like to see continue for many years to come.

Saturday afternoon’s main objective was to get Brian Redman’s autograph.  I had a couple of 8x10’s of him from 1973, and it was quite a thrill to wait for 45 minutes at the front of the line to have him stop and admire my work before so graciously signing.  I hope to get the pictures online at some point in the not-to-distant-future.

Saturday night’s tradition was Wingazette® Chili, and this year was extra special because I used Angus beef in the mixture.  Another tradition, giving away the leftover, rewarded the fine group of campers to our left with an unexpected surprise.  I offered them hot sauce to “spike it up”, but they declined, saying, “We’re way to Swedish for that.”

Sunday saw 10 races on the schedule, featuring many different classes of cars.  We were slightly disappointed by the lack of Can-Am cars in the field, and the total number of cars was down from about 600 to about 400.  There was still plenty of action, including an open wheel formula car event featuring recent F1, Champcar and IndyCar vehicles.  It was a 10 lap event that had four lead changes, all happening in the corner where we were sitting!

After the races, we headed back to Kopp’s Custard for dinner.  We both experimented with new products, Phil with a gigantic fish sandwich and me with a Buffalo Chicken sandwich.  We also tried the fries.  We agreed that next time we would return to the traditional cheeseburger and onion rings as the finishing touch to the splurge weekend.

We had an uneventful drive back through Chicago, but we could see the warning signs for the Champcar event in early August, with construction slowing the northbound lanes terribly.  We’ll have to do our homework before then.

The final tally for the splurge weekend added about three pounds to my frame, which I had already removed with diet and exercise by the following weekend.  I can’t wait to do it again in about three weeks when Fin and I are headed back to Wisconsin to continue the tradition.

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