Soon we returned to the course at Road America, where qualifying runs were going on. I was still on the trail of some Sevens I had wanted to get a closer look at. There had been a Seven which was restored to a very high standard sitting in the paddock Friday night, and I had yet to find the owner to ask about it. I was looking over the car again since the tonneau was now off, and I could see that the interior was equally completely restored. The owner showed up and explained the restoration. I can only remember half the details and will resist trying to recount them other than that the frame and skin were refinished by Pat Prince, and left in bare aluminum, to be treated to the owner's secret finish: wait for it... car wax.

Yes, the magical solution to keeping this Seven's unpainted skin bright and oxidation free was regular car wax. Actually, it was an interesting sort of finish. I thought at first that it had a clear anodized finish - not unlike like a mirror finish, but with a little bit of a hazy or cloudy effect. Except, of course, where a bird had left a bottle cap-sized deposit, smack in the middle of the bonnet, which the owner continued to grumble about!

Meanwhile, the SIV whose driver I had lunched with came into the paddock, slightly battle worn from a meeting with a concrete barrier. Apparently the oil blow by catch tank had come adrift and spilled under the car in a turn which, of course sent him spinning into the wall. The damage did not appear to be drastic, but unfortunately, was enough to keep him from competing the following day. Jeff's paddock area was near to Tim Holland's, Tim driving a Lotus 41 Formula B car, powered by a Lotus Twincam similar to that of the SIV. I wandered over to have a look and found Peter Warr there, with Tim and his friend Terri, sitting around eating chips and salsa, using the nose of the 41 as a tea table. Some joke was made about the proper and/or improper use of a Lotus race car, and I chuckled at the thought of one of the standard Chapman tenets of making one item serve multiple purposes... here was one of his cars serving a purpose that he had probably not thought of. I had a chance to ask Peter about some of the people I had heard of from early Lotus history. He didn't have much to share about Robin Read, whose book I had referred to in trying to learn something of Peter Warr's history. I asked him about Lotus Components' involvement in building Sevens in the 'off times' for distribution to dealers in the USA. I mentioned to him that the dealer my Seven had come through was Sy Kaback. He did recall that they had supplied Kaback's Fifteen, into which Kaback subsequently shoehorned the current all aluminum V8 motor built by Buick. Warr didn't have much else to say on the subject.

It was nearing time to head once again into Elkhart Lake for the dinner at which Peter Warr would give his presentation. I had brought my original full width windscreen and doors with me for longer drives on the open road, so took the Seven back to my 'camp site' to install it. On the way again to Elkhart Lake, I think I took a more direct route than the original road course followed, but at least I got there! We began the evening in Siebkens Tavern with a proper pint of Guinness and plenty of discussion of Lotus cars and personalities. A Europa owner asked me if I had read the write up of a Caribbean Seven racer which had appeared recently in the Lotus Limited newsletter... turns out it was extracted from the story Jack Tripp had written and sent me, which I edited and presented on this web site along with plenty of his photos.

I also met Dick Carlson, a previous owner of a Seven currently owned and raced by my friend Rick Cook. Dick Carlson maintains a web site called ArtistsandScribes.com. The site offers books and photographs on various motor racing themes by many well known automotive journalists and photographers. Eventually it was time to head into the main dining room for what turned out to be an excellent buffet dinner. I sat once again with Jeff and John, and this time Jeff's brother Jim joined us. Jim was racing an Austin Healey 3000 that weekend.