Taxman Group Racing Team headed off to Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin for our 4th racing weekend of 2026. It’s been a great season so far! We started off in April at Hallett Raceway in Oklahoma, followed by our May return to Gingerman Raceways in South Haven Michigan. In July it was the great Brian Redman Vintage Races at RoadAmerica. Now in September, we headed back to RoadAmerica for the VSCDA Art on Wheels Vintage Races.
Road America is a permanent road course. It is located midway between the cities of Milwaukee and Green Bay. The track sits on 640 acres in Wisconsin’s Kettle Moraine. It has hosted races since September 1955 and currently has over 400 events a year. Road America is one of only a handful of road circuits in the world maintaining its original configuration being 4.048 miles in length with 14 turns. The track features many elevation changes, along with a long front stretch where speeds approaching 200 mph may be reached. Road America's open seating allows spectators to venture throughout the grounds. Grandstands are available throughout the track, as well as permanent hillside seating where crowds of more than 150,000 can be accommodated.
I was extremely excited to head back to Road America. I belong to Heartland Vintage Racing, which is a group of vintage racers who like big bore cars. I was one of 14 from HVR attending and we all paddocked in the same area. In our racing group were 32 cars made up of 1 Cheetah, 5 Mazda (Miatas, RX7, MX5), 7 Corvettes, 2 Camaros, 1 Firebird, 1 Porsche 944, 1 Shelby GT350, 2 Falcons, 11 Mustang, and 1 Dodge Charger. It was quite an eclectic and interesting group of Big Bore vintage race cars!
The Friday schedule called for 1 practice session and 1 qualifying session. The weather was a bit iffy, with light sprinkles and 65 degrees. This meant the track was cold and slippery. In the practice session I had a best lap time of 3:03 and was 6th in class. In the qualifying session, I ran a conservative 3:13 fast lap as there was standing water on the track. This kept me at 6th in class and about in the middle of the field. Friday evening, they had a Welcome Party for Drivers and Crew at the Road America Center. It was very nice to spend time with all the other drivers. We made it an early night so that we would get plenty of rest for the next day.
The Saturday schedule called for a qualifying race at 8:25 am and a Sprint race at 1:30 pm. It was raining hard that morning and none of us went out for the 8:25 qualifying. It really started to rain harder for the Sprint race. My best lap time was 4:05, which was actually 5th best and I was earned 5th pole position. Our hope was that the rain would stop for Sunday racing.
On Sunday, I had two races; the Sheldon Cup Race at 1:15 pm and our Group race at 3:10 pm. I was gridded 38th out of 73 cars for the Sheldon Cup Race, which is a cup race for all closed cars whose fastest lap time was under 3 minutes. It’s an insane race! Cars of all different types and a vast difference in speeds. We put-on brand-new Hoosier TDRs tires for these two races. I had my fastest lap of the weekend in this race at 2:51 and finished 39th overall and 1st in class. In our Group Feature Race, I placed 17th overall and had a best time of 2:53. It was a fabulous race as I was bumper to bumper the entire 10 laps with a Mustang GT350. In the end, he beat me by a car length. I finished 17th overall and 5th in class. After an incredible dish of well-earned Wisconsin Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream, we loaded up and headed back to St. Louis. What a wonderful weekend of racing! See you in 3 weeks at Ozarks International Raceway!
