IndyCar’s return to Road America a Smashing Success

Will Power does donuts in front of some of the massive crowd

Scott R. LePage/LAT for GM

Indy cars had raced annually at Road America from 1982 to 2003 under CART sanction with great success, but struggled under Champ Car off and on through 2007 as Tony George took his hammer to work every day in a campaign to destroy CART. The crowds stayed away and with Champ Car going out of business early in 2008, and IndyCar and Michael Andretti trying to rebuild Milwaukee, Road America was left off the IndyCar schedule for years.

As IndyCar fans are losing interest in oval track races, IndyCar’s Milwaukee race struggled to attract crowds and sponsors and was dropped from the schedule following the 2015 season. It opened the door for Road America for the Wisconsin date on the schedule.

In a post-race interview Road America President and General Manager George Bruggenthies couldn’t provide the attendance figures for the massive crowd this weekend, but called it the largest attendance in track history.

"The crowds really came out," Bruggenthies said. "The crowd came out and they had a great time. Beautiful race, I think they'll be back."

Although he shied away from giving a specific attendance estimate, Bruggenthies expressed delight at the turnout.

"I think it's really happened wonderfully considering the weather this morning," Bruggenthies said, alluding to rain that made Sunday's IndyCar warm-up session a virtual washout, before clearing prior to race time.

"The crowds really came out. I have to congratulate the Road America staff and the whole team that does all the operations here. They worked very hard preparing. I think we delivered. The crowd came out and they had a great time.

[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]"We've got a contract for June 25 of 2017, so that's really exciting to announce that right now. We have a three-year agreement, so you can count on that, and if everything continues positively, we'll extend that. We'd like to. The fans love the series. They put on a great race. I think that was demonstrated. So it's something we would like to keep here, certainly.

"I talked to a couple of my board of directors, and this is likely the largest event ever hosted by Road America, so that's really something. I really can't [estimate] because there's so many variables. It'll take me a couple of days to figure out a number.

When it was pointed out that NASCAR estimated 50,000 in attendance for its first race weekend at the track, Bruggenthies responded: "I think it looked like 50,000 today…alone."

Estimates were over 100,000 for the 3-day weekend.

Asked whether there was any cooperation in promotion of the event between Road America and public entities like the tourism board of Wisconsin, Bruggenthies said, "No, no, just our partners. [Title sponsor] Kohler stepped up, and that certainly helped control some of the risk. Again, I'm just a businessman – but the business looked pretty good today."

The IndyCar racers generally seemed as delighted with the crowd support as they were about as returning to such a popular driver's circuit.

“I walked around the camping grounds earlier in the weekend," Will Power said. “It just amazed me how many people are here, and how much fun they are having. Just walking in here on Thursday, you could see the place was really popping. I am just so stoked to be back here. We should have been back here a long time ago. All the fans are great."

"Down the straightaways I was able to look at the fans on the last two laps and people were standing and spinning hats and shirts and that's what I love to see. I hope (the fans) enjoyed it as much as I did and they come back because we'll make it even better next year."

George Bruggenthies

Teammate Juan Pablo Montoya agreed: "This place is incredible. It's just amazing. If anyone complains about the racing today, then they should go watch horse racing or something."

“What a great race," Tony Kanaan said. “Down the straightaways I was able to look at the fans on the last two laps and people were standing and spinning hats and shirts and that's what I love to see. I hope (the fans) enjoyed it as much as I did and they come back because we'll make even better next year."

“I think we put on a great show for the fans," Newgarden said. “We had an amazing crowd. We should have been coming here all along! I hope we come back here for many, many years to run. It's one of the best tracks and has the best racing. That's one of the reasons I wanted make sure I was able to race here."

IndyCar fans have been at the Road America grounds in Elkhart Lake all week.

"It means a lot to the local businesses in the area, local resorts and it also shows how much Wisconsin loves racing," John Ewert, Road America's Communications Director told WLUK TV.

"We worked really, really hard with Indy car to develop the right kind of program to bring this race back," said Ewert.

He added that the decision to bring this race back wasn't necessarily only up to management.

"Basically we listened to the fans, when the fans speak, we listen. We like to give the fans whatever we can," he said.

And on race day, IndyCar fans swarmed the Road America grounds.

"It's amazing. And with the weather this morning I wasn't sure, but it's quite a crowd," Marlene Burkwald of Oconomowoc said.

"There's a lot of people here this weekend, so it's pretty cool," said Daniel Tresinski of Pulaski, WI.

More than 100,000 people came to Road America this week, and Indy car fans are happy to have racing back in Elkhart Lake.

"Been here when I was a kid and it finally came back, so I had to come back," said Tresinski.

"Since they're back I wanted to come and see it, something different," said Scott Richards of Chicago.

According to Ewert, the sport is making a major comeback.

"Indy car is having a huge resurgence; the Kohler GP is just one important fact of that," he said.

And racing fans want to see this event come back every summer.

IndyCar’s biggest need in rebuilding the series is more successful events like it has with Long Beach, St. Petersburg, Mid-Ohio, Barber in Alabama, and Toronto in addition to the Indy 500.

Except for the Indy 500, IndyCar fans are losing interest in oval track races.

The return to Phoenix in April looked marginal at best.

The race at Texas Motor Speedway appears to be dying a slow death.

Ditto for Pocono.

The talk of going back to Gateway is a joke, why waste your time?

This race is here to stay and IndyCar needs more like it. The Watkins Glen race on Labor Day weekend has promise if they reach out to the students at the colleges in Ithaca. IndyCar should be back at Montreal – a real no brainer.

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