Who would drive 900 miles to watch cars go round and round?

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We would. All the way to Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin where the Indycars were racing at RoadAmerica, a 4.5 mile road track that had some incredible twist and turns.

We’ve been to several races before which involved a lot of sitting on bleachers and wearing headphones because of the extreme noise of the race cars, or schlepping lawn chairs around to hills with a good view of one or two of the curves. This time, we indulged in tickets to a special room located right in the middle of the race course (i.e., cars whizzing by on both sides) which provided large screen TV coverage of the race, along with a delicious hot breakfast and lunch, free drinks, and (drum roll) private bathrooms. No porta-potty lines this time!

We did a circuit of all the vendors before the race and found some very interesting kiosks.

Jimmy Johnson, recently of NASCAR and now a rooky in Indycar, drove a racecar like this. (He crashed his car early in the race but finished near the end of the pack.
Firestone was a sponsor and also provided many of the tires being used. In Indycar races, each car generally goes through three sets of tires. The pit crew’s skill of replacing times within a matter of seconds is truly incredible.
This is a bike designed to be pushed in a race with a person onboard. Team Triumph hosts many events for all types of competitors at all levels of physical capabilities.
This is an example of the type of car being race in the Indycar race.
And in any race, there are winners and losers. We left before the champagne started to squirt all over.

While some might argue that we missed a lot of the excitement by viewing it indoors, we were able to see every major maneuver and pass (and crashes), with an ongoing commentary from people who know the course and the racers. All that with free food and air-conditioning made it a great experience.

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