ROAD AMERICA - ELKHART LAKE WI
Road America is a permanent road course. It is located midway between the cities of Milwaukee and Green Bay. The track is situated on 640 acres near the Kettle Moraine Scenic Drive. It has hosted races since September 1955 and currently hosts over 400 events a year. Road America is one of only a handful of road circuits in the world maintaining its original configuration. The track features many elevation changes, along with a long front stretch where speeds approaching 200 mph may be reached. One of the best known features of this course is a turn on the backside known as "the kink". In the late 1940s, road racing was gaining popularity, owing to the post World War II economy, and the influx of sporting automobiles. The
Sports Car Club of America was the main organizer of these races, and in 1950, the Chicago Region SCCA and the Village of Elkhart Lake organized the first road race at Elkhart Lake. The 1950 circuit start-finish line was on County Road P. Competitors went north to County Road J, then South into the Village of Elkhart Lake, and West on what is now County JP, and reconnected with County Road P for a total distance of 3.3 miles. After the tragedy at Watkins Glen in 1952, where a child was killed, the U.S. ruled to discontinue motorized contests of speed on public highways. This was a major blow for competition auto racing and brought the end of a long-standing tradition. This did not permanently stop road racing, however, it did shift it to private courses. In
1955, Clif Tufte started what is now known as Road America, in a configuration that has changed little over the past 60 years. The addition of Road America as a private track meant a transition from racing through the streets of tiny Elkhart Lake to racing on a big, wide, dedicated race track. Many different racing series have had the occasion to race at Road America. The first was the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) on September 10, 1955. The Road America 500 is a sports car race
that was part of different championships, among them the SCCA National Sports Car Championship, the United States Road Racing Championship and the IMSA GT Championship. The Grand Prix of Road America is an open-wheel race that was held as part of the Champ Car World Series and currently it is a part of the IndyCar Series. Other notable series have included NASCAR's Cup Series in 1956. That race was in August and was 63 laps on the 4.1 mile circuit. Buck Baker started on the pole and led the first five laps before being passed by sixth place start Tim Flock. Marvin Panch would take the lead on lap 13 but fall out on lap 35 when his rear end failed. From there, Speedy Thompson would assume the lead
and hold it until his motor blew up on lap 53. Flock was waiting in the wings to pick up the point, and hold the lead to take the checkers. He would be followed across the line by Billy Myers, Fireball Roberts, Paul Goldsmith and Joe Eubanks. It would be 65 years before NASCAR's Cup stars return to run on the track. Since 2010, NASCAR has brought the Xfinity Series to this facility for a yearly event. In 12 races ran so far; there have been 12 different winners. In 2018, Bill Elliott would run in the Xfinity race to make his final NASCAR start. When the Cup cars returned in 2021, it would be Chase Elliott who would get the win. It was 62 laps, and Elliott would start 34th. Xfinity regular, Austin Cindric, made a start here and was leading when his transmission failed leaving him in 38th place. William Byron started first and ran a great race; but got spun in the waning laps of the race and finished 33rd. Throughout the race, we saw the lead change every five laps or less, until Elliott got to the
front with 17 laps to go. The whole race he had run a smart race and worked his way through the pack. When he got the lead he was never headed and went on to win by 5 second. The rest of the top five was Christopher Bell, Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch and Denny Hamlin.
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