Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin · US
America's National Park of Speed. This 4.048-mile permanent road course through the Kettle Moraine is one of the longest and most challenging circuits in North America.
Road America is a permanent racing circuit in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. The lap measures 6.515 km (4.048 miles) across 14 corners, run clockwise. Among its named corners are The Carousel, The Kink and Canada Corner.
It opened in 1955. Series racing here include IndyCar, GT and Road Course. Capacity is around 150,000 spectators.
Racing at Elkhart Lake began on the public roads around the village in the early 1950s, and the crowds were extraordinary for a Wisconsin farming community — an estimated 50,000 in 1951 and claims of 100,000 the following year, watching John Fitch, Phil Hill and Briggs Cunningham race between the hedgerows.
The state legislature then banned racing on public roads. Clif Tufte, a highway engineer, gathered local backers and members of the Chicago region of the SCCA, sold stock to fund the project, and chose 525 acres of farmland outside the village. The circuit opened in April 1955 and held its first SCCA national meeting that September. Tufte routed it over the glacial Kettle Moraine landscape rather than flattening it, which is why the lap still climbs and drops through ravines and has never needed shortening.
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