Dave Kallmann: Will Road America host a NASCAR Cup Series race?
Could Road America step up for NASCAR, as well?
Mike Kertscher hears the question at least once a week on average.
From fans around Sheboygan County and his sprint-car buddies at Wisconsin’s short tracks, from Road America’s board members, reporters and even members of his own family.
It’s the same one
George Bruggenthies, Kertscher’s predecessor as president and general manager of sprawling facility in Elkhart Lake heard for decades too:
Will Road America host a NASCAR Cup Series race?
And the answer is essentially the same each time:
Someday, maybe. There’s always discussion.
“The reality though is in order for us to do it, it has to make sense,” Kertscher said. “It flat-out has to make sense for us.”
But that’s the thing about 2020. Much of what made sense in February won’t in June, and what passed for normal in May might not apply come August.
Two months ago the coronavirus pandemic put the world on hold, and the sports industry – leagues, series and venues – were left to scramble to figure out a way to get through the season or the summer or to simply survive.
NASCAR became one of the first to
return last weekend but under the strangest of circumstances and strictest of precautions, with a race in front of no fans at venerable Darlington Raceway in South Carolina and then another midweek. Similarly, the Coca-Cola 600, one of NASCAR’s crown jewels, ran Sunday with Charlotte Motor Speedway’s stands empty.
Meanwhile, Road America stepped up with MotoAmerica to run next weekend as scheduled but with no fans and then have the bikes return June 26-28 for what everyone hopes is a more traditional weekend with an excited but responsible crowd.
Then last week, the track worked with IndyCar to move its date from June 19-21 to July 10-12 and added a Saturday race to make a doubleheader weekend at the 4-mile course.
All of that brings us back to NASCAR, which has put out revised schedules a few pieces at a time, eliminated some traditional races – including the Sonoma, California, road course – and put together odd stretches such as the Darlington-Darlington-Charlotte-Charlotte run to re-open the Cup Series.
Does any of this affect the answer to the age-old question about Road America and America’s top stock-car division? The second-tier Xfinity Series is scheduled for Aug. 6-8, the event’s 11th running at the track.
“It’s a strange year and we want to do what we can to help out,” Kertscher said in an interview with the Journal Sentinel after the IndyCar announcement. “So what that means, I don’t know.
“You can bet I’ve dreamt about a Wednesday Cup race here to test the waters, to see how does it work. If they needed an event to be broadcast and we could help in any way, maybe it’s an opportunity for a foot in the door for us.
“Is it the preferred way? No. I wouldn’t want to deprive our fans of that experience by any means. … It’s just gotta make sense.”
Although Road America has been able to pull off two significant schedule changes for major spectator weekends – and another wouldn’t surprise Kertscher – such swaps are fairly complicated.
The average fan might know about a handful of weekends at the track, but in all it hosts about 500 events a year on the 640-acre grounds. That includes driving schools, track days for car clubs, private testing and such non-spectator races as SCCA regionals. As the dominoes fell to make the IndyCar adjustment work, two regionals had to be moved.
Making the schedule fuller this season is the fact that Road America is the site for the SCCA National Championship Runoffs, which accounts for about 10 days of track availability in October. The grounds also will host camping for spectators at the Ryder Cup scheduled for late September at Whistling Straits in Haven, 16 miles away.
But with each smaller event – schools and test days; 4 Miles of Fitness, when the track is open to walkers, runners and cyclists; the car clubs; the SCCA June Sprints – procedures will be tested, streamlined and improved for the events that typically draw tens of thousands of spectators.
Kertscher is confident fans will be allowed onsite for most of the season, although some people will choose to stay home. Preparation in the coronavirus era, whenever the fans arrive, has been another item added to a long checklist of safety and security issues.
“Little things like we switch all of our credit-card processing into no signature required,” Kertscher said. “There’s literally about a 45-page document that we are working from that we’ve developed.
“And quite frankly, between now and then, it’s going to change.”
The program will move at a slower pace to allow distance in the paddock and on pit road. There’ll be pressure on the track to perform to the highest safety standards.
When IndyCar opens in Texas in two weeks, it will do so without fans and with rigorous testing for participants. Kertscher would like to be well beyond that. Still, if for example someone involved in the IndyCar Rev Group Grand Prix weekend gets sick at Road America, the effects could ripple through an entire industry.
Like moving a race or preparing for the next change or the next opportunity or the next surprise, that’s just a reality of the day.
Kertscher, took over as president and GM last year after training under Bruggenthies, checked in with his predecessor recently, and they shared a laugh.
“(I) said, ‘Hey, buddy. I’m digging through the desk and all the stuff you left me here,’ ” Kertscher said. “‘Where the hell’s this book on how to deal with COVID-19?’
“I haven’t come across it yet.”
Subscribers can read the transcript of an interview with Mike Kertscher, president and general manager of Road America.
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