Elkhart Lake Road Race Circuits
About this property
Road America is a motorsport road course near Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin on Wisconsin Highway 67. It has hosted races since the 1950s and currently hosts races in the IndyCar Series, IMSA SportsCar Championship, Sports Car Club of America GT World Challenge America and Trans-Am Series and the MotoAmerica Superbike Championship. Road America is a permanent road course. It is halfway between Milwaukee and Green Bay and classified as an FIA Grade Two circuit. The track is situated on 640 acres (260 ha) near the Kettle Moraine Scenic Drive. It has hosted races since 1955 and hosts over 400 events a year. Of its annual events, 9 major weekends are open to the public, including 3 motorcycle events including the MotoAmerica (AMA FIM) series, 3 vintage car events, Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) events, the United Sports Car Racing Series, the Pirelli World Challenge, and the NASCAR Xfinity Series. Road America is one of only a handful of road circuits in the world maintaining its original configuration being 4.048 mi (6.515 km) in length with 14 turns. The track features many elevation changes, along with a long front stretch where speeds approaching 200 mph (320 km/h) may be reached. One of the best known features of this course is a turn on the backside known as "the kink". Road America's open seating allows spectators to venture throughout the grounds. Grandstands are available in several locations, as well as permanent hillside seating where crowds of more than 150,000 can be accommodated. Road America held one NASCAR Grand National race (now NASCAR Cup Series) in 1956 and two more Cup Series races in 2021 and 2022; NASCAR then opted to move the Cup Series and become a race in and around Chicago streets starting in 2023. In addition to the main course, the facility includes a 0.8-mile (1.3 km) karting track called the Briggs & Stratton Motorplex inside the Carousel. The motorplex hosts two series of karting events. It hosts weekly events on Tuesdays in the summer. It also hosts approximately six Saturday events during the summer. The motorplex also hosts events sanctioned by the North Woods GP series running Supermoto and street bike racing using small displacement motorcycles. The Motorplex was built at the site of an earlier off road racing circuit used for several SODA events in the 1990s. The 1995 event was televised tape delayed on ESPN2 by reporters Marty Reid, Ivan Stewart, and Jimmie Johnson. The course was 1.1 mi (1.8 km) long with 150 ft (46 m) of elevation change. The track featured a blind jump nicknamed "The Hell Hole". In late 2006, Road America began a project to remove the old Bill Mitchell bridge and use a tunnel as the main entrance to the paddock. The tunnel project was completed in May 2007 with the grand opening celebration on May 31 for the AMA Suzuki Superbike Championship weekend. The tunnel is 16.5 ft (5.0 m) high and 36 ft (11 m) wide and has two lanes of traffic and two pedestrian walkways on either side. With the removal of the bridge, a new spectator viewing area was created.
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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).
Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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Questions about this property
When was Elkhart Lake Road Race Circuits listed on the National Register?
Elkhart Lake Road Race Circuits was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on February 17, 2006.
What type of historic resource is Elkhart Lake Road Race Circuits?
Elkhart Lake Road Race Circuits is classified as a structure in the National Register of Historic Places.
What is the period of significance for Elkhart Lake Road Race Circuits?
The period of significance for Elkhart Lake Road Race Circuits is recorded as the industrial era.
Can I research the history near Elkhart Lake Road Race Circuits?
Yes. Aubrey Research reports search National Register listings, battlefield records, land patents, and other primary historical sources within any radius of a US address. A report for an address near Elkhart Lake Road Race Circuits will include this listing and all other historical records in the area.
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