Looking ahead to future races: Wisconsin motorsport in the COVID-era

By building on lessons learned over the last year, Wisconsin tracks adapted to new regulations that have shut some gates and left other facilities to operate with minimal change in day-to-day operations. 

Road America is one example of a track which was able to continue in a semi-normal fashion last summer. The track at Road America is a road course located in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. The circuit is roughly four miles and located on grounds that double as a campground. Instead of a grandstand, spectators may roam the grounds upon entering the facility.

John Ewert, the communications director for Road America, sat down for a phone interview with Media Milwaukee in order to discuss the impact of the pandemic on the season last summer, as well as the upcoming year. 

“When it comes to Road America in terms of COVID-19, we had already started a lot of our mitigation protocols in mid-March,” Ewert said. “(We started) knowing full well when we got into the season, we needed our protocols in place.” 

The open nature of Road America allows for social distancing. According to Ewert, the staff expected to see reduced numbers of spectators this year and budgeted for it. Ewert also said that despite the downtick in spectators at the track, they saw an uptick in television viewership.

The IndyCar event held at the track in July was the largest spectator event since the pandemic started. The event brought roughly 10,000 people to the site. According to Ewert, this meant the track was operating between 2% and 3% capacity. Working with 650 acres meant that an event bringing between 30,000 and 50,000 would still leave them under 10% capacity. 

Ewert is optimistically looking ahead. “What’s really great is that we are full steam ahead, we are more robust than 2020, we added NASCAR Xfinity which will be the largest motorsport event in Wisconsin,” Thelen said. “We set the benchmark for how an outdoor event can be held safely and should be held safely.”

The NASCAR event will take place July 1-4. 

Unlike Road America, which allows spectators to drive in and spread out, Slinger Speedway has a traditional grandstand seating 10,000. This leaves limited space to social distance and maintain large numbers of spectators. 

On top of operating under a limited capacity, track owner Todd Thelen said Slinger Speedway lost out on four events last year due to mandatory shutdowns. While the track normally opens during the final week of April, they were instead forced to wait until Memorial Day. 

County restrictions limited operations to 25% capacity. Restrictions were in place for all but two weeks of the summer.

Thelen said that maintaining a schedule involved a lot of “learning pretty fast on the go” to keep up with changing guidelines. 

“God willing and government willing, we will operate a full schedule this summer,” Thelen said of the upcoming season.

According to Thelen, in the past, the biggest worry in the world of motorsport was the weather. Thelen said that he now worries about more shutdowns.

According to Thelen, at least one good thing came from the new way of operating. In order to minimize contact, Thelen moved ticket sales entirely online. He also pushed the use of credit cards to minimize cash transactions and created an app to further minimize contact. 

One other difficulty that Thelen faced at Slinger Speedway was having the ability to open the track in time to allow teams to conduct pre-season testing. According to Thelen, delays by the government gave a small window to allow teams to the track for testing. 

The summer season for Road America will begin on May 14. The Sportscar Vintage Racing Association Vintage Festival Weekend will act as the opener. The Slinger Speedway website tentatively lists the first day of the season as April 18 with events running through September.