FLRacingFan
Team Owner
Being this vocal oughta put some more pressure on NASCAR to make it happen. Lots of progress up there recently with regard to paving run-off areas, barriers, and seating.
MILWAUKEE — This weekend, Jimmie Johnson, Danica Patrick and a bevy of NASCAR’s most recognizable names will take breaks from their normal oval-course schedule and turn laps around a twisting, turning, winding, curving road course.
In California.
George Bruggenthies wouldn't mind bringing them to Elkhart Lake someday.
Road America’s president and general manager told media at a press
conference in downtown Milwaukee Thursday afternoon that he thinks his road course — another amoebic configuration of twists and turns, but about twice as long as the 1.99-mile Sonoma Raceway — could easily handle the pressure of a top-tier Sprint Cup race.
“I think that we are very deserving,” Bruggenthies said in an interview after the press conference. “They need to be here.”
NASCAR runs three national racing circuits, including the Nationwide and the Camping World Truck series. But the stock car association’s marquee brand is the Sprint Cup. The cars in that series look similar to the ones in the Nationwide, but they’re faster and more powerful, and their drivers are among the most familiar in American racing.
Sprint Cup drivers will race this Sunday at Sonoma, located just north of San Francisco. The track has hosted NASCAR races since 1989.
Road America has hosted Nationwide races each of the last four years, and will host its fifth — the Gardner Denver 200 Fired Up by Johnsonville — this Saturday. And there won’t be a shortage of big-name drivers in tow: Series points leader Regan Smith and Jeffrey Earnhardt, the grandson of famous driver Dale Earnhardt, are expected to be there.
Still, the 4-mile track wouldn’t mind hosting the Jeff Gordons and Tony Stewarts of the NASCAR world someday.
“We have been preparing our facility for years,” Bruggenthies told reporters when asked if Road America could accommodate something as big as a Sprint Cup event. “Weinvest every nickel we make into the facility — whether it’s barriers or spectator seating. But we believe that we could support a Cup race.”
Bruggenthies said he thinks Road America is much closer now than it was five years ago to being able to do so. The track has installed barriers and heavier fencing — “You’ve got to have the right barrier protection when you’re throwing a 3,400-pound car against the barrier,” Bruggenthies said — and has recently added some terrace-style seating.
But while he thinks Road America’s track may be ready, Bruggenthies acknowledged the course still needs more “spectator amenities” — more grandstands, more bathrooms and more organized parking — before Cup drivers will rev their engines there.
“But I can do that,” he said. “Give me 10 months’ notice, I can make it happen.”
http://www.htrnews.com/article/20140619/MAN02/306190430/NASCAR-Road-America-wants-Sprint-Cup
MILWAUKEE — This weekend, Jimmie Johnson, Danica Patrick and a bevy of NASCAR’s most recognizable names will take breaks from their normal oval-course schedule and turn laps around a twisting, turning, winding, curving road course.
In California.
George Bruggenthies wouldn't mind bringing them to Elkhart Lake someday.
Road America’s president and general manager told media at a press
“I think that we are very deserving,” Bruggenthies said in an interview after the press conference. “They need to be here.”
NASCAR runs three national racing circuits, including the Nationwide and the Camping World Truck series. But the stock car association’s marquee brand is the Sprint Cup. The cars in that series look similar to the ones in the Nationwide, but they’re faster and more powerful, and their drivers are among the most familiar in American racing.
Sprint Cup drivers will race this Sunday at Sonoma, located just north of San Francisco. The track has hosted NASCAR races since 1989.
Road America has hosted Nationwide races each of the last four years, and will host its fifth — the Gardner Denver 200 Fired Up by Johnsonville — this Saturday. And there won’t be a shortage of big-name drivers in tow: Series points leader Regan Smith and Jeffrey Earnhardt, the grandson of famous driver Dale Earnhardt, are expected to be there.
Still, the 4-mile track wouldn’t mind hosting the Jeff Gordons and Tony Stewarts of the NASCAR world someday.
“We have been preparing our facility for years,” Bruggenthies told reporters when asked if Road America could accommodate something as big as a Sprint Cup event. “Weinvest every nickel we make into the facility — whether it’s barriers or spectator seating. But we believe that we could support a Cup race.”
Bruggenthies said he thinks Road America is much closer now than it was five years ago to being able to do so. The track has installed barriers and heavier fencing — “You’ve got to have the right barrier protection when you’re throwing a 3,400-pound car against the barrier,” Bruggenthies said — and has recently added some terrace-style seating.
But while he thinks Road America’s track may be ready, Bruggenthies acknowledged the course still needs more “spectator amenities” — more grandstands, more bathrooms and more organized parking — before Cup drivers will rev their engines there.
“But I can do that,” he said. “Give me 10 months’ notice, I can make it happen.”
http://www.htrnews.com/article/20140619/MAN02/306190430/NASCAR-Road-America-wants-Sprint-Cup
on MSNBC. That woman is drop dead gorgeous. I don't know how anyone can watch Megyn or Rachel when Al Jazeera America has the best news program in all of television at 9pm.
