WeatherTech International Challenge Presented By HAWK up at Road America
Last weekend was the WeatherTech International Challenge Presented By HAWK up at Road America and our second year attending. Last year, we brought two cars and went to experience the fun at Elkhart Lake. This year, we decided to show up with a fleet. A few of our team took the E46 M3, E92 335i, E90 M3, and F82 M4 up to have some fun on the track and around the town for a few days of race cars and a chill vibe. |
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| | | Of course, if you saw us there, you no doubt took home some of our swag. This year, we brought tons of Gas Monkey Energy Drinks, the KONI man, and plenty of little goodies to distribute to all our friends. More importantly, though, we were there to enjoy the two-night event sponsored by Koni, Mishimoto, P3Gauges, Gas Monkey Energy, and HENGST. |
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| | | Friday was spent hot lapping the track in the BMWs we brought along, followed by the two mile racecar parade from Road America into downtown Elkhart Lake. For those of you that have never been to this event, every year, the vintage racers drive their cars downtown and park them for a couple of hours for the public to enjoy. Seeing that amount of history rumble through a small Wisconsin town leaves the spectators in awe and sets the tone for the remainder of the weekend, which is focused entirely on cars |
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After fun on the track and parade, is the Concours, which displays some of the finest examples of vintage metal and legends of motorsports that are judged on both the presentation of the cars as well as their story. While they judged the entire field, we zeroed-in on two cars that interested us much more.
A pair of immaculate E30 M3s, one a Japanese-spec model, stuck out distinctly for us. The JDM E30 M3 is something quite special to see in the States, but the story behind the other E30 made it poignant in its own way. Travis Mjolsnes bought his E30 M3 in high school for $4,500, a price many of us would kill for today, and started racing it. He has raced it around the country for the last 25 years. This year was his tenth racing at Road America and managed to take second in the Concours. With a 280,000-mile, vintage liveried M3, that sees track time, Travis is someone we can’t help but admire. | 
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| | Unfortunately, Saturday afternoon brought rain that darkened the sky, but not anyones’ spirits. Despite the downpour, we were still able to hit the track for some fun laps without taking anything too seriously. You could say we practiced a little Art of Racing in the Rain
That night was the street car concours where we got to park the BMWs we brought and talk to everyone about the goodies that our Engineering department has been hard at work designing. We handed out the Gas Monkey Energy Drinks, hid the Koni Man around town for a couple of funny photo ops and showed off the VIDI P3 Gauges to everyone who sat in our drivers seats. | 
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| | | | With the wonderful weekend concluded after some more seat time on Sunday, we headed back home. This year was exponentially more fun than last year, thanks in part to the number of cars we brought, but mostly thanks to everyone who attended and raced. We are already looking forward to next year, but in the meantime, we have all these gorgeous shots to hold us over until we all head back up to Road America in 2020. Who’s coming with us? |
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