Conquering "The Kink" in a 550-hp Corvette GT3 race car, America's most feared corner

If there’s one racetrack, one circuit that I hadn’t been to but always dreamed about, it was Road America, located about an hour north of Milwaukee, Wis. I remember being in the U.K. watching on TV when a terrifying wreck occurred with Katherine Legge in a Champ Car back in 2006. Despite fearing the worst, she walked away unscathed. But the treachery of that racetrack has entranced me ever since.

There’s one corner that stands tall above the rest: “The Kink.” Lined with unforgiving concrete walls, it’s an infamous curve taken at triple digit speeds. There’s a dip in the middle that can upset the car, and if you turn in too early and pinch the exit, bad things happen. Simply speaking, if you make a mistake at The Kink, it’s going to hurt – your body, your pride and most definitely your wallet.

I had my first laps around Road America just a few weeks ago during a 2015 BMW M3/M4 review. I did 20 laps, which on a 4-mile racetrack isn’t insignificant. But when testing production cars for review purposes, you seldom push at 100-percent – it just isn’t necessary. I aim to drive as hard I can without ever feeling like I’m risking the car; you don’t want to be “That Guy” and there’s no prize money at stake.

Around a week or so after my BMW event, an email appeared: “Want to come race a 1978 Indycar and Corvette GT3,” it said. Why yes I do, and before I’d had time to think, I was strapped into Pancho Carter’s old ’78 Lighting, the first ever race car to be sponsored by Budweiser. The event was the “The Hawk with Brian Redman.” It’s a race for the cream of the vintage racing crop, and I was invited by Dave Roberts, Chairman and CEO of Carlisle Companies – a diversified manufacturing business that makes, among other things, Hawk Performance brake pads (hence, The Hawk).

My time in the Budweiser Indycar lasted all of 1 lap as we lost fourth gear, making the car unusable for the remainder of the weekend (can you imagine how tough it is to source gears for a ’78 Indycar?) So, I jumped behind the wheel of the FIA GT3-spec Corvette, as you can see in the video above taken during practice.

It’s a stunning car, with a breathtaking soundtrack. Nick Short from Competition Race Parts takes care of the machine for Roberts, and it has competed in many Pirelli World Challenge races under the capable – and winning – hands of Mike Skeen.  

Road America in a proper race car is phenomenal. My years racing IndyCar between 2008-2011, and my earlier career in Indy Lights and back in Europe, has taken me many places: Monaco, Nurburgring, Spa all come to mind. Road America is on par with those heavy hitters.

In a stock BMW M3, you hit 150 mph three times per lap. In a Corvette GT3, you’re pushing 170 mph. And the beauty of vintage racing at The Hawk is that you’re competing against a wide variety of machinery – old to new. We had vintage Mustang Trans-Ams in our group with 800 hp while tipping the scales 400 lbs. lighter than the 550 hp ‘Vette I was in. There were also NASCAR Sprint Cup racers, Hawk Performance’s Pikes Peak-winning Nissan GT-R (driven by Roberts), Ferrari F430 Challenge cars, BMW M1s and even an Audi DTM racer. And the list goes on and on. It’s mind-blowing, and they’re all utterly fascinating to race against, with vastly difference performance characteristics.

Road America, despite its length and ferocious reputation, isn’t a particularly tough track to learn – it only has 14 turns. But there are huge elevation changes and downhill braking zones that take time to master – and of course, The Kink.

Before you arrive at that infamous right hand bend where Legge had her massive shunt, you’re faced with a never-ending curve known as the Carousel. You simply maintain throttle, typically dealing with a touch of understeer, waiting – patiently – to get back to full power. Then you accelerate, through fourth to fifth, and your world narrows as the walls close in. It feels like a tunnel, and out of your peripheral you notice tire marks covering concrete and the vague sheen of scraped paint and mangled sheet metal. There really is no room for error.

The trick is to lift early and return to some form of maintenance throttle by the time you begin to turn. This helps settle the rear down and limit the car’s pitch, keeping it consistent. And with such a long straight following, it’s imperative to be back to full throttle as soon as possible. It’s a corner that demands respect, requiring a driver to hold back somewhat. But if you’re willing to push the boundaries, huge amounts of time can be gained. For me, racing against Trans-Ams with more power, pushing hard was all I could do to make up for lost time on the straights.

We lined up sixth overall and first in class after qualifying. The five cars ahead were all Ford Mustang Trans-Ams, one of which was originally raced by Tommy Kendall. Tommy told me the night before, “Best I can tell, they have about 200+ more HP that when I drove them!” Some of the Trans-Am teams shoehorned modern day Sprint Cup motors under the hood; regardless, they’re all insanely fast. And noisy.

In Saturday’s race (we didn’t run on Sunday) we finished fifth and won our class. Results didn’t matter in a race such as this; it was all about the experience. But I learned a few things that day: Firstly, a Corvette GT3-spec race car is as brilliant as it sounds in the video. And secondly, Road America is utterly badass.

It rivals Watkins Glen as my favorite U.S. racetrack. There’s so much history within the confines of the circuit, as well as in the nearby town of Elkhart Lake – where back in the early ‘50s, the racers careened through the actual town center (much like at the Glen). This type of street racing was curtailed after Watkins Glen’s 1952 tragedy where a child was killed.

But that didn’t mean the circuit was watered down. It just had fences to protect spectators and a controlled environment. Modern racetracks constructed today are softer, smoother, flatter and generally more boring. Don’t get me wrong, Circuit of the Americas in Austin is great, but it’s a copy of so many other venues.

Road America is one of a kind, and safety feels like an afterthought. It’s raw, uncut and special. And it’s home to one of the most nerve-racking corners in all of motorsport. Forget the Corkscrew, The Kink has it beat.