Greetings from Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin
.
.
From the travels and adventures of the “World’s #1 Trackchaser”
.
.
Road America
Asphalt road course
Lifetime Track #13
The first 71.
The first 71 tracks on my all-time trackchasing list were seen prior to 1980. Back in those days I didn’t think to record the date I first went to a track. I have Road America listed as my 13th lifetime track. That means I saw it a LONG time ago. My first visit would have been during the summer of 1970. That’s right. I was 21 years old and seen only 13 different tracks.
What motivated me to go to Road America? My college fraternity brothers. Someone, not me, got the bright idea to have a summer outing at Road America during the summers of 1970 and 1971. Our real reason for going their was to camp, party and show “brotherhood”. I think those trips met each of those objectives and more.
Liquid refreshments flowed. I remember driving my car over someone’s tent rope, at night, and watching their tent collapse. I remember having all of the brothers and their girlfriends out for a night of go-kart racing at a local concessionaire. We had about twenty of us racing karts. Carol had a front row starting position and when her light weight advantage ran off and left the field just like she was starting on the front row of a World of Outlaws sprint car race. The next morning we all had breakfast at an American Legion type place and ate them out of house and home. A 90-year old woman played the piano, too loudly for our still buzzed ears, while we scarfed all you could eat pancakes.
We were staying near Plymouth, Wisconsin at the track. Elkhart Lake and Plymouth are just seven miles apart. Nevertheless, I never thought to try to see the Plymouth Dirt Track. I didn’t make it there until 2014 when PDT was my 2,018 lifetime track. Yep. My visits to Plymouth, Wisconsin to see the town’s two tracks were separated by more than 2,000 track visits!
So what were they racing back in my 1970 visit? Trans-Am sports cars. The name drivers of that day were Parnelli Jones, Mark Donahue and George Follmer. The series was created in 1966 by the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA). The Trans-Am group catered to the “pony” cars of the day including the Ford Mustang (my favorite), the American Motors Javelin and the Chevrolet Camaro. Mark Donahue had 20 wins from 1967-1970.
Peoria Speedway….still my all-time favorite track.
I grew up as a dirt oval stock car racing fan. A little high-banked quarter mile track was all I needed to have a good time. Road America opened in 1955 as a 4-mile road course. The track was put in a beautiful wooded setting. However, with my dirt track background seeing race on such a large course was strange. Frankly, I didn’t care for it much at all. I have never liked the idea that the spectator cannot see much of the racing on most traditional permanent road courses. That was certainly the case at Road America. A fan can’t see much from one location at all. However, fans can take a hike all over the facility seeing racing, although briefly, from lots of different locations.
Road America was the first permanent road course I ever saw. I went to Road America with my friends to party, drink an adult beverage or two and just kick back. I did not go to Road America for the racing. Did Road America stimulate my interest in road racing? No, it did not. Until I got into trackchasing I cannot recall ever going to another road course anywhere. Now in 2015 I can say I have seen racing at nearly every permanent road course in both the U.S. and Canada.
Road America sits on 640 acres. RA is one of very few tracks that has maintained its original track configuration. It’s officially 4.048-miles in distance with 14 turns. I have not been back to the track since 1971. The NASCAR Grand National series (now Sprint Cup) raced at Road America just one time. Tim Flock won the event in 1956. NASCAR’s Xfinity Series started coming to RA in 2010 and races there to this day.
The Road America website provides this history of the track. Thanks to them for the very interesting and complete story of their historic racing facility.
THE HISTORY OF ROAD AMERICA
THE HISTORY OF ROAD AMERICA
In the early 1950’s, sports car races were being run on the streets in and around Elkhart Lake. When the state legislature banned racing on public roads, a man named Clif Tufte organized a group of influential local citizens and leaders of the of the Chicago Region of the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA). This group developed plans and sold stock to build a permanent racecourse. The overall vision of Road America grew out of the dreams of Tufte, a highway engineer, who chose 525 acres of Wisconsin farmland outside the Village of Elkhart Lake for the track.
Tufte’s dream became a reality in April 1955, the natural topography of the glacial Kettle Moraine area was utilized for the track, sweeping around rolling hills and plunging through ravines. By September 10, 1955, the track’s first SCCA national race weekend was held. At 4.048 miles in length, with 14 turns, the track is virtually the same today as it was when it was first laid out and is revered the world over as one of the world’s finest and most challenging road courses.
Millions of dollars in improvements have been made throughout the years, but the original 4.048-mile, 14-turn configuration has never been altered. In 2005, Elkhart Lake’s Road America, Inc. celebrated its 50th anniversary. Its history was documented in a book, “Road America: Celebrating 50 Years of Road Racing” by Tom Schultz. Celebrities such as David Letterman, Tom Cruise, Patrick Dempsey, Tim Allen, Ashley Judd and the late Paul Newman have visited this venue, not only for the great racing but also the scenic surroundings of this resort community.
TODAY – Road America is big business, attracting 800,000 visitors a year from every corner of the world. Economic impact studies show that Road America, its events and visitors generate more than $100 million dollars annually each year. Over 425 events are held annually at Road America, often running multiple activities on the same day incorporating the four-mile track, the interior Blain’s Farm & Fleet Motorplex and the beautiful grounds surrounding the facility.
THE FIRST RACE – In 1955 the SCCA granted a sanction for an SCCA National, the highest form of road racing in the country at the time, held September 10 and 11. The feature, a 148-mile race for the era’s large sports racing cars, became a duel between two men and their cars. Sherwood Johnson of Rye, N.Y., was one of the country’s best drivers. He was driving semi-works D Jaguar for the Briggs Cunningham team. Phil Hill of Santa Monica, Calif., a rising racing star on the west coast, took to the track in a Ferrari Monza. For 37 laps Johnston and Hill were inseparable but then began to fight for the lead during the last six laps. As they approached the finish line on the last lap, Hill inched ahead and barely won the race. Phil Hill’s average speed was 80.2 mph.
THE FIRST PROFESSIONAL RACE WEEKEND – The first professional race weekend was the August 1956 NASCAR Grand National race. At the time NASCAR was just a regional southern series and not widely popular. Well under 10,000 spectators attended the two-day event. On Saturday Paul Goldsmith won in a Jaguar Mk., VII sedan with a winning speed of 59.2 mph. The Sunday race was run in the rain and was a display of spinouts and hay bale bashing. The day’s winner was Tim Flock in a Mercury at a speed of 71.4 mph.
You might have remembrances about Road America. If so, please feel free to share in the comments section below. If you have any photos from back in the day, send them to me at Ranlay@yahoo.com. I’ll try to include them here.