The Midwest's premier vintage race sanctioning body, the Vintage Sports Car Driver's Association (VSCDA), chose Volvo to be the featured marque at their prestigious Fall Festival held September 18-20 at that Most Enchanting Road Course In The Country, Elkhart Lake's Road America -- four miles of world-class blacktop rolling through Wisconsin's Kettle Moraine countryside between the shores of Lakes Michigan and Winnebago, with three high speed sections where even a modest, self-effacing and properly safe Swedish family sedan or Grand Touring car can begin to more-than-dream of seeing 130 MPH.

Concurrent with the festival, the Volvo Sports America (VSA) club held their East Coast National meet, with concours judging in the Road America paddock, tech sessions and general schmoozing at the Barefoot Bay Resort right on the shores of Elkhart Lake proper (and a proper lake it is). Volvo sent out the very personable and enthusiastic Tim Wright to head up the Rockleigh contingent, and furnished him with a gorgeous new S70 Convertible for all to salivate over. I don't expect he'll make it back to New Jersey before Christmas, what with all the stops for car washes! Carol and I (with help from Ken Rodenbush's Volvo Sports Racing and ipd -- and United frequent flyer miles!) brought back Art Riley's black '62 P1800 racer, which last competed here at Road America in the 1965 "June Sprints" SCCA National Races.

We came in a day early, both to meet the Pilot Transport Big Bad Black & Beautiful Car Hauler, ably helmed by Norm Hopkins, and to take Jim Haynes up on his invitation to pore through the Road America archives in the hope of adding data to Art's historical file -- entries, car numbers, results sheets, lap charts; that sort of thing.

Jim is an old friend of Art's from way back: a former SCCA National Champion in Formula Junior and past owner of Lime Rock Park (that quintessential Connecticut circuit), before going on to an SCCA Vice Presidency and now, Manager of Road America. He Runs The Joint. Jim was a force behind "Formula S" in the sixties -- three-cylinder SAAB-engined open wheelers -- and thus has a heart for things Swedish and down a jug! He told me he is retired from driving now, and has allowed his always ample frame to relax a bit beyond Monoposto. His Media Director, Roger Jaynes, was most helpful, and the data bank is resultingly more complete.

The VSA Club Meet was somewhat disappointing; I had hoped to see many of the East Coast Directors and Movers and Shakers (they are headquartered in Pennsylvania, after all) here as well, but saw none except for Fast Duane Matejka (two-time Volvo Historic Series Champion, who was racing), and Long Distance Irv Gordon, owner of the famous one-and-a-half-million-miles-plus Guinness Book of Records 1966 1800S coupe. This is the second time Irv has seen the Art Riley car since it's restoration, and it is always nice to have him look the car over, as he is one of the few in the club who saw it in its heyday and his "interpretation" gives the project wider appreciation.

"I saw this car at Bridgehampton," Irv said. "and in Art's dealership. It was never this nice!" Of the recently reproduced "Art Riley Motors" dealer nameplate on the tail panel, he said, "Nice touch!" (Carol, a card-carrying Graphic Artist, did the perfect artwork).

The club members who did show seemed to keep to themselves even though we were in adjacent paddocks, and it is unfortunate that President Bob Berglund never seemed to have the time to introduce himself to the racers, most of whom are members. It would have been nice for the club to have created a Race Car class for the judging -- there were twenty-five of us! -- but that was not The Plan. We drivers did get invited to the banquet as guests -- the food was great! -- and we thank the club for that consideration.

ipd sent a lot of freebies for all in attendance, and Mitch Duncan gave a very informative talk (with slides taken on his recent trip to Sweden) on the nature of the Genuine Classic Parts connection: who they are, and where they are going to keep our old Volvos alive. Mitch was there as a competitor, also, bringing the "Holman & Moody" P1800 out behind a very pretty black 850 wagon tow rig. Mitch was Very Quick for the retired gentleman that he is; fortunately, for us younger types, suffering a mechanical malady (hope it wasn't a Classic Part!) that kept him from starting Sunday's Volvo Feature.

We left-coasters, with help from our ever-faithful friends at ipd, brought seven cars and our California weather with us -- shirtsleeves all three days, beautiful sun, no rain. The course, naturally, was fabulous -- got to drive both Carol (34th anniversary that Saturday) and son Rick (who flew in from the San Francisco Bay area) around during the touring sessions, and they were both impressed by the beauty and the diversity of Road America. Staying below 0.8G in the corners and under the "ton" on the straights earned me a "Well, if you don't go too much faster than that in a race, I guess it's all right..." from Carol. Fine woman. Think I'll keep her.

Race Director George Bruggenthies had cut us some slack in presenting the Art Riley car as it was in 1965, rather than insisting that it be brought up to contemporary standards -- primarily the fitment of the fuel cell that my fabricator never seems to get around to -- and VSCDA "presence" Judy Cull did all she could via phone, E-Mail and in person to assure we had no problems: one of her E-Mails ended "...everythings going to be all right." You need that when traveling half the country, to a strange land inhabited by a race called "Cheeseheads."

Tech inspection was, therefore, a breeze. Because of the time-machine nature of the car and, particularly, the reproduced, unique 1965 Road America Tech Sticker on the nose (where Chicago Region SCCA always slapped them) and the splash of 1965-season tech stickers on the roll bar, the inspectors almost leaped back from the car in amazement: "Whoa! Where did this car come from!" It is a rare pleasure to throw a Tech Inspector off balance.

There were no serious mishaps all weekend, though I had a transport problem: nose-down on the top shelf of the seven-car semitrailer, a stuck SU carb float in concert with 3/4 tank of race gas caused tank siphoning through the forward carb into engine, literally filling up the block and pouring out through the breather unto the cars below! This was not realized until running the engine for offloading the trailer: pumping the slurry out the breather, zero oil pressure (since the oil floats on the gas, and gas is all the oil pump sees). Luckily, there was no fire. Careful drains, flushes, oil and filter changes, and plugless open-butterfly pump-ups with the fuel pump disconnected filled my Friday morning instead of practice.

Most of the Volvo racers also entered the "normal" VSCDA Group 2 or 8 races on Sunday, and that thinned the ranks some for the Volvo Feature Race just after lunch (Famous Road America Bratwurst, of course!). Twenty-three starters took the green, with John Parker of Syracuse fastest (sometimes on only two wheels!) and on the pole. John won the Volvo Feature handily with his hard and consistent driving (Topi Hynynen said, "He is only guy braking at "2" marker for turn five!), but much was going on behind his flying silver-grey P1800.

"Dusty" Dave Rauch, voted "Driver of the Meet" by the rest of us, picked up the "Dusty" moniker by trying to put a banzai pass on Gary Jebson for second on the last lap. I had a front row seat: going into Canada Corner, braking hard from 125 MPH, Dave moved to go inside of Gary -- puffs of white smoke as the front brakes lock up, rear twitches left but he catches it, swings right with a bit too much correction and, by then, he is out of road and off in the catch basin filled with pea gravel in a huge cloud of dust -- which gets all over my concours paint job! Car and driver both OK, credited with 10th place.

Dave was a hoot in qualifying, steaming up through us more historically correct (read: "slower") guys with his headlights blazing -- just like Steve McQueen in LeMans. Another Dave, surnamed Winters, with his pretty and Verrrry FAST 1800 from Seattle, moved up to grab third slot.

The race had some fender-benders, Duane Matejka among them, and Rob Edwards' 544 broke an early axle shaft (but, luckily, did not go over). There were more mechanical dropouts than Volvo should be comfortable with, including Bob Stadel in the only other B18-engined car -- surprisingly fast and well-driven; credited with 19th -- and Jim Shaw with a "gearbox full o' nuthin'" in his ex-Peter Alper 142, allowing our '65-spec Art Riley P1800 to finish mid-field, 13th overall and first in the SU-carburated class.

We had a nice dice with Ken Rodenbush in his new/old yellow P1800 after jumping him at the start (with the help of writer-racer Bert Levy vacating a grid slot ahead on the pace lap); then Ken stuck his nose up alongside Art's door going down to the 100+ MPH single-file "Kink:" in my sedan, I would have started to turn in (and Ken later told me that he was "just about to back out of it..."), but not wanting to risk Art's door (at those speeds, really we are talking about whole cars, whole lives -- this isn't short track racing; ain't no dirt bull ring), gave Ken the corner with a shout of frustration and a pound of a balled fist (don't hurt the dashpad!).

I told Ken later, "If it was any other car..." His eyes twinkled with that "Marlboro Man" glint (he is the original MM) and a little smile peeked from one corner of his mouth: "I was counting on that!"

Ken went on to challenge his son Josh in the familiar red "family" P1800 for fifth; Josh won (it must be in the genes!). Event organizer and all-around Nice Guy, VSCDA Director Ray Freiwald followed in 7th.

We also had a fine time in the company of David Hueppchen ("Hipken," he pronounces it) and his newly-acquired 122S (with such diverse technical specifications as a quickchange rear end located by a sophisticated three-link suspension and Jacob's ladder, vs. the donated, used B20 street shortblock engine fed by not-quite-dialed-in Webers).

David lives two miles from the track and instructs there -- knows it like the back of his hand. He was all over me in the corners: in the 180-degree high-speed "Carousel," knowing David likes the high line, I was trying to leave him a car-width to go outside if he cared to try, and try he did... but the tail of Art's black P1800 unexpectedly stepped out, as I was trying to hold too tight a line, and I think that I actually closed my eyes and groaned for a split second. No thump. Side mirror: no David-in-the-weeds. Cabin mirror: interesting pattern of veins on David's retinas through wide eyes!

He later apologized for "Giving [me] only an inch; two at the most." and added, "You know, I think you were, maybe, driving that [priceless?] car a little harder than you should have been for a couple laps there..."

Fun. Lots of fun! We swapped places seven times, I think -- VSA Director Jeff Babcock's beige 122 gaining all the time -- with Art's overdrive (which he never used in a race) helping the 4.88 "Laguna Seca" rear breeze by on the top end, and David's superior cornering ability getting him by in the slower stuff. High oil temps (290 degrees F!) and plugs breaking up ("These temperatures were not in our contract!") signalled a prudent backing down -- and the need to add an oil cooler -- while David went on to a very creditable 9th placing; Crew Chief Ms. Robin Campbell and Grandson Hunter Hueppchen earning their keep once again!

Best lap for me in Art's car was 3:12 and change, which was what the Road America archives showed Art doing all day long during the 1964 "Road America 500" 500-mile (!) FIA/USRRC endurance race, won by the Ferrari 250 LM driven by the late Walt Hansgen and Augie Pabst (shook his hand and talked a bit Thursday in the RA office; got a "Thanks!" wave from him in practice as his Aston Martin DB-4 GT swept by), so the car is period-correct even to lap times. Art started 50th of fifty-nine mostly big-bore starters that day in '64, and finished 4th in the under 2-litre GT class -- an astounding 18th overall -- collected his $65 prize money and drove his P1800 (the red one) home to Long Island. 19th in that day-long battle was a Ferrari 250 GT short-wheelbase Berlinetta; the stuff that great advertising is made of.

Racing Time Machines are wonderful things, and when you bring them back to timeless venues like Road America, in the company of great people and great cars (with the savor of Bratwurst thrown in for good measure)...

It just don't get any better!

Photos:

John Parker (silver #77), Ken Rodenbush (yellow #48), both single shots of Rick Hayden (black #49), rear view of three 1800s = ©1998 Edmund Lacis

Schmoozing over 1800s, Irv Gordon = ©1998 Bill Hodson

Duane Matejka (red #96), Dave Rauch (dark green #118), Hueppchen / Hayden duel sequence = ©1998 Michael Schultz

Jim Shaw (orange #16), scenic overview, broken axle = ©1998 Mark Hershoren