2023 Rapids Invite in Pics

 The 28th Rapids Invitaitonal Race was held featuring the ISF premier GTP and F1 divisions and the popular SHMUC Van division

A blurred van goes through turn one

The Rapids Museum building has dents where the cars hit it

T&T Spirits was a popular bar at UW-Whitewater for many years

Bill Black and Kayden Rist GTP cars in the corkscrew turn

Kayden Rist, Bill Black, Mike Lack

Mike Lack wins another F1 event with a last minute pass on John Wiedemann

Handshake between first and second

A car on Schumacher Straight

JW preps his tires

Ev Kamikawa and Pete Dorn GTP on Schumacher Straight

Ev Kamikawa's Van

Pete Dorn's van is a blur of speed

Pete Dorn, Chris, H-Man, Mike Lack

Mike Lack Van

Final Four GTP Event

Lack F1 car in Victory Lane

Dorn, Lack, Black

Third place Black gets handshake from winner Lack

Chris, H-man, Dorn

Chris, Dorn, Black

If you don't know these five names by now you haven't read the rest of this post

Wiedemann, Rist, Black, Chris, H-man

2023 ISF Rapids Invite Video

 

Video above is a seven minute feature about the 2023 Rapids Invitational race. This year‘s event was a little bit different because while the traditional winner of the F1 division got the  famed samurai sword trophy, the second division of GTP this time the winner won the usual trophy for the rapids Grand Prix. Normally these two divisions are featured in two separate races in a season, however this year there was not a second race so the Rapids Grand Prix trophy was awarded to the winner of the GTP event. Enjoy!

2023 Indyslotcar Rapids GP in Pics

2023 is the 24th time Indyslotcar has raced at the fabled street course.
Long Beach being the only street courses to host more Indycar races than Rapids International Raceway. Enjoy the pics!
Steve "The Wrench" Ratchett

H-Man made his fourth career start in Indyslotcar and first at the Rapids GP. He previously raced on the track for the March Madness event

The corkscrew section and bridge going to castle island 

Bill Black in the Jim Clark Corner

Joe Heist won for the 2nd year in a row
H-Man second
Dean Strom third

Mike Lack leaving the Senna esses and going into the Jim Clark Corner

Joe Heist plays the washboard to a receptive crowd in victory lane

Front straight and turn one

Final four (L to R):
H-man

Joe Heist
Ev Kamikawa

Dean Strom

Joe Heist collecting the trophies and prize money

Ev Kamikawa showing his blown up car giving him a 4th place finish. His car was the second of the night to blow up as it happened earlier to John Wiedemann

Parc Ferme after the race

John Wiedemann motors down the main straight before his car blew up

Senna esses and the Jim Clark Corner

The missile that shot down the "Not A Chinese Spy Balloon"

In recognition of the WWII events in histry the track had several WWII themed images scattered around. These two examples feature the Three Stooges in Hitler costumes, and Hitler making the famous Monty Python "My dog has no nose" joke

Joe Heist leaving Clark Corner and going up Main Street

2023 Indyslotcar Rapids GP Video

 

Here is the unofficial video for the 2023 Indyslotcar Rapids Grand Prix. This is the 24th running of this event. The video is 15 minutes long and was made from various video segments and live iPhone photos.
Enjoy being right there...In The Pits!
Steve "The Wrench" Ratchett

Historic Tracks: Runaway Bay

Red Stripe Raceway at Runaway Bay Park. The name alone sounds like it was a good time. It was a good time! A good time had by all, drivers and fans alike. The first major road course built by longtime driver Mike Fitzlaff was a fitting track for drivers that featured great car control like his career is known for. It had twists and turns and short fast streets coming out of sweeping wide corners. This had the effect of the track being faster than what it originally would look like. A definite challenge for drivers to win the fabulous ceramic Ferrari trophy. 

The wide radius turns made the hairpins turns that you could take at higher speeds than most. This led to a lot of brave drivers breaking deep into the turn then hitting the gas, while others coasted slower into the turns and hitting the gas early coming out of the turn. Depending on the drivers style that made passing easier on one hand but more of a challenge on the other because it depended on which style the driver was using, and sometimes an elite late breaker would need to change and break early and become an accelerating early driver or vice versa in order to complete a pass.

Scenery was added in that could sometimes be quite treacherous. The track featured lots of large rocks and a couple of metal barricades that more than once a car that got thrown into them came out in more than one piece. Tall trees came next. While nothing hid the corners like the buildings at Rapids International Raceway, the scenery was just eye catching enough that it could sneak up on you and suddenly you lose your breaking point and off into the rocks you went. Fans loved looking in the rocks for car parts and other bits of interesting souvenirs. There was plenty of room for team transports and that could also block parts of the track.

The original version looked like more of a wider version of Bayside international with a very similar track layout, just with a wider infield section.

The track had very short and fast Esses section. It had the effect of throwing the drivers off balance. Drivers had to decide if they should try and go fast through this little section or slow down and take it easier and accelerate fast coming out. Basically it was dependent on whether the driver was a late breaker or an early accelerator from the turns. Either way it had the desired affect of slowing the drivers down just enough that it kept the racing close.

The beauty of the track was that it was a flowy circuit that was quick but not one that relied on strictly fast cars to win. A driver could have a medium or even a heavy downforce set up on the car and still have a chance to win because cars with lighter downforce often found that they would be too fast for the track. Red Stripe Raceway at Runaway Bay hosted many different drivers as winners in ISF, Indyslotcar, and ARA racing. While it’s unofficial, the easy bet is that this track had the most variety of winners on it during its time. That’s quite a nice legacy to have. Especially since this track was built on legacies. Especially that of Alan Kulwicki, whom Mike knew personally. 

It was a pleasure to be in the pits at this track...

Steve "The Wrench" Ratchett

Rapids GP Trophy Retired

 

Awarded 23 times, it is the only trophy that has been in continuous use since the ISF started in the year 2000. The traditional date for the rapids Grand Prix was always the second race at Rapids International Raceway of a given season. The GTP division was the class that fought for the trophy. The last space on the current trophy mounting was awarded in 2022 when Mike Lack took the title.

Probably the heaviest trophy awarded in the league, it features 23 Matchbox GTP cars painted to loosely resemble the winning car and has the drivers name written on the side pods along with the year of the victory on the rear wing. The base is painted to resemble the corkscrew section of Rapids International Raceway (version 2 chronicled in another article on this blog). It is the shape of the original corkscrew track on the first version of the street course set up at the Bourbon Street location. A sheet of quarter inch plywood was used to make the cut outs for the curb On either side of the track going down hill through the corkscrew. The track was laid on top of the plywood and cut out with a jigsaw. The resulting inside piece of continuous wood, where the track would eventually be laid out, was removed and then used for the base of the trophy.  What will the new trophy look like? That is to be decided. Here are some facts about the trophy and history of the racers and races that are reflected on it:

Long time racer Larry Rotter only had one win in the GTP class at the track but it was the win that got him the trophy

John Shea was the first to win the trophy three years in a row and was the first to win it five times as he did that in the first eight years of the event. His victory total would stand until the final event when it was eclipsed by Mike Lack.

Chad Sorce was the first winner of the event and the first winner on the track in the initial ISF race and GTP event

Track owner Everet Kamikawa was the only driver to win the race for three different teams. Winning four Mercedes in 2007, Ferrari in 2010, and Audi in 2014. 

Mike Lack won the trophy six times. By winning the last event for this trophy he broke the tie with John Shea.

John Wiedemann won the event twice, but has the two cars that are most divergently painted even though he won the event for the same team driving the same car.

Mike Fitzlaff became the second driver to win three races a row as he did it for opus motor sports.

Only seven drivers won the event out of the 23 runnings on the trophy.

Until next time… It’s not bad being in the pits!

Steve “the wrench” Ratchett

2022 ISF Season Review

 

Here is a different take on the usual season review. Instead of a chronological movie, it is a collection of videos

ISF 2022 Season Review