An American trilogy – Part 2 – Photographing the TransAm Speed Tour at Road America

Report by David Harbey

4 July 2024

Road America, Elkhart Lake in Wisconsin is widely regarded as one of the best racetracks in North America. Like the first stop on our bucket list tour of US parkland circuits, Watkins Glen, racing started out on the streets around Elkhart Lake village in the post war period. Racing then moved to a purpose-built circuit in 1955 under the leadership of Clif Tufte.

The 4 mile, 14 turn track uses the rolling hills of the area to good effect on a track which has remained virtually unchanged - with not a chicane in sight. It calls itself America’s National Park of Speed – as you will see, that’s fair comment. Like Watkins Glen, it has hosted NASCAR, IndyCar and IMSA sportscars over the years.

This weekend, it was the turn of TransAm to provide the visual and aural entertainment. TransAm, which we saw at VIR last year An American road trip – photographing the fall colors and more, caters for fast noisy cars based around classic American heavy metal – Camaro, Challenger and Mustang – these days bolstered by a smattering of GT cars in various classes.

In British terms, it feels somewhere between GT Cup and British GT with a mix of young up and coming drivers racing against older more experienced competitors.

Supporting TransAm was the International GT series we saw in 2023, but this time the whole field was Porsches of varying specifications. There was also races for Radical style prototypes and single seaters – F1600 and F2000. The former, Honda engined equivalent to FF1600 were as entertaining as their British counterparts and provided the closest racing of the weekend.

The programme is relatively relaxed with a good vibe and pit-lane walks before the TransAm races each day. For this meeting, it was possible to drive around the outside and inside of the circuit to find the perfect spot to watch and shoot from. With the temperature in the high 20s on Saturday and a more comfortable low 20s on Sunday, the option to drive rather than walk was welcome.

We arrived for the 9am start of the first International GT race and started at the southern end of the track on the inside of Turn 3. Praise be – not a fence in sight on the inside of the corner. Actually, there are few significant areas of fence on the whole track. The GT field was colourful and made a good noise.

There is a walk alongside the track to the Sargento Bridge just before Turn 4 – which is barely a kink in the road. There are angles from the side of the bridge of cars approaching and departing – here is TransAm qualifying.

At this stage, we walked down the internal road to the Carousel - Turns 9 and 10. The Carousel Bridge highlights another local speciality – brats. Sheboygan, where we stayed, is the official Bratwurst Capital of the World, apparently. Again, with minimal fencing, there are shots to be taken as the cars come through the bridge.

Editor’s note. The QR code in the last image works and takes you to The Road America website where you can find more information on Road America and Turn 9.

Perhaps it was the image of the brats; perhaps advertising does work - at this point we headed back up towards the paddock for an early lunch (yes, the signature Sheboygan Double Brat in ciabatta was checked out  - and was good). Then the TransAm2 field lined up for the public pitlane walk.

Before I get too critical about the lack of such activities at British tracks, the pitlane (as you will see) is twice the width of the track at this point and much longer than most British pitlanes – it easily accommodated the cars and the fans.

With the traditional invocation and then the US National Anthem it was time to go racing. A short drive down to the outside of Turn 14 would give a view back to Turn 13 in one direction and up the hill to start / finish in the other.

After this, we moved to the outside of Canada Corner, so named because it is the closest corner on the track to Canada which ain’t that far north from where we were standing. There is extensive seating and some fencing but not enough to remove the possibility of a decent shot or two. We planned to return to the inside of that corner on Sunday which looked like a great place for action shots.

Thereafter, with a further GT and single seater race, we drove round to the outside of Turn 3 where again there was no fencing to impair the view.

We finished the day back at Turn 9 and the Carousel. 

The fencing at Turn 8 precludes a shot of the run down from Turn 7.

Sunday started out cooler with a distinct breeze from the wind that had changed direction overnight. I was shooting first on the run up to the Corvette Bridge (between Turn 5 and 6) and then both the inside and outside of Turn 6 and then down to Turn 7. Again, minimal fencing and Turn 6 is a good corner for close up action.

For the last location before lunch break, I walked down to the outside of Turn 5 for some panning practice.

It was BBQ pulled pork on ciabatta for lunch on Sunday … oh, and then there was a pit walk again for the TA/GT field.

A familiar logo caught my attention on Don Yount’s helmet – Le Mans, Centenary, 2023 ?  Yes, Don had raced there in a Porsche, and I had a shot of him at Tertre Rouge; it’s a small world 

For the race action, I decided to start on the inside of Turn 14 where again no fence was obscuring the view. Time for a quick iPhone video. Sound on! 

Turning around and walking across to Turn 5, gave a different perspective as the cars headed up to the Corvette Bridge. There’s also a shot across to Turn 13.

Walking down to the inside of Canada Corner (Turn 12), you can get incredibly close to the action and almost reach out and touch the cars as they pass. The final races of the day were for single seaters and the 1600s did not fail to impress – their third race was possibly the closest and best of the weekend. Close – sometimes too close!

Road America looks like a great circuit to drive and race and is definitely very good for spectator snappers. Kit wise, it was the 70-200mm zoom with occasional use of the 1.7x teleconverter. What didn’t we do ? Only the stretch from Turn 11 to Canada Corner and Turn 1 – they are being saved for next time! 

We were fortunate to see Road America on a relatively quiet weekend – no doubt it would be much busier for IndyCar or IMSA. Oh, I nearly forgot, there are a number of sculptures around the track – this is the eagle at Canada Corner.

So, where does Road America rank ? American fans seem to rate it as the best circuit in the country – there is probably more variety than Watkins Glen and less high fencing – but we have yet to go to Mid-Ohio – that’s part 3 of the trilogy. Let’s see what we find there …