Whenever we visit Mike, Sara, and Cal in Wisconsin, Lynn and I find out about something new up there. This time it was the village of Elkhart Lake and the Road America race track.
Elkhart Lake is a resort town in northeast Wisconsin offering history, motor sports, outdoor recreation, and delicious food. Mike found a two night deal we could take advantage of at the beautiful Osthoff Resort and we all enjoyed our stay.
We ate several great meals while we were there. One was yummy breakfast pastries and sandwiches at Off the Rail.
We spent some time in the park / playground across the street and I thought this mural was worth a photo:
The area has a long history of auto racing. They hosted open road sports car races starting in 1950 that led to the establishment of Road America in 1955.
I’ve been to and photographed auto racing before (here’s a blog post about the Daytona Speedway from 10+ years ago: https://edrosack.com/2013/02/17/daytona-international-speedway/). But I thought this venue is the best I’ve seen. The track is very spectator friendly. You can drive your own car and park at multiple good vantage points along the course with places to stand, sit, watch and photograph. The starting line is also open at times for close up views of cars and drivers, and the garage area was also open to fans on the day we were there. Pedestrians had to be careful and look out for race cars driving by on the way to the track! Here’s the view from the first place we stopped near turn 14:
We were at the SVRA (Sportscar Vintage Racing Association) Vintage Festival Weekend (https://www.roadamerica.com/svra-vintage-festival-weekend). It was interesting watching these older race cars still competing:
I enjoyed trying out my Sony A7R V camera to photograph motor sports for the first time. I was careful to balance my shutter speed so it was low enough to catch some blur in the wheels and background but high enough to keep the car itself sharp. Somewhere between 1/500 and 1/1000 seemed to work pretty well, depending on how fast they were moving. I wish I’d tried panning a bit more aggressively with an even slower shutter.
To focus, I used AI subject recognition, set the “Recognition Target” to “car / train” and it worked very well on these race cars. Except for the time when I accidentally turned it off before I handed the camera to Mike to try! Sorry Mike!
I also enjoyed seeing the Corvette race cars, especially the C6.R generation ones that I’m most familiar with. This GT1 car originally raced from 2005 to 2009.
Here’s one last photo just after sunset over Elkhart Lake:
We love visiting our family in Wisconsin! It’s a gorgeous and varied state and discovering new things to see and do each time we go is a wonderful bonus!
Header image: “Starting line”; If you’re reading this on your phone, or want to view a larger version, click here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/edrosack/52964301050/in/dateposted-public/.
P.S. In my previous post (https://edrosack.com/2023/06/04/found-flowers/) I asked if you could spot which photos weren’t made with phones. The answer: the header and the image of the poppies were made with a Sony A7R V. All the others were made with phone cameras.
Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Stay positive, be kind, take care of yourselves and each other. And if you can, catch a race and make some photos!
©2023, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved
What a great trip!
See, all that birds in flight practice came in handy for tracking race cars!
Great series of photos.
Thanks Wally. It was fun to try something a little different for a change!