The year is 1955, Cliff Tufte has just pulled the wraps off 4.048 miles of rolling asphalt. Racing there would center around June, July and September. Drivers like Augie Pabst, Carroll Shelby, Jim Hall, and Roger Penske would take up the challenge of racings National Park of Speed.
In the 60′s can-am’s thunderous sound would echo off the trees lining the track. In 1973 Mark Donohue would become the first driver to lap RA in less then 2:00 minutes. Another Penske driver by the name of Rick Mears would beat that record almost 20yrs later. The current lap record set in 2002 was Dario Franchitti at 1 minute 39 seconds.
Fast foward to 2011, sports car racing still reigns supreme in the rolling hills of Wisconsins Kettle Morrane region. After an exciting and nearly tragic Rolex Sports Car Series return in June. The stars and cars of the American Lemans Series come back to Road America for the 6th round in the 2011 season
According to the entry list 5 prototypes will take the grid. 5 Lola chassis’ with power plants from Honda, Mazda, and a screaming V12 from Aston Martin will battle it out in LMP1 and LMP2 for overall victory.
Dyson Racing brings the #16 & #20 Lola-Mazdas, they’ll be joined by Team Cytosport’s Lola-Aston Martin in LMP1. Also in P1 is another Lola from Autocon. In LMP2 Level 5 Motorsports makes there return to the ALMS after not competing in the series since the second round at Long Beach. They will be in a HPD powered Lola.
In the GT class the usual suspects suit up to do battle at the challenging 4mile circuit. Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing bring their BMWs to play with the Corvettes, Porsche 911s of Falken Tire Flying Lizard and Miller motorsports. Yesterday the Ferraris from Extreme Speed and Risi were the fastest in practice. The female driving duo of melanie Snow and Andrew Robertson will be slinging the piloti sponsored Ford GT. The Rocketsports racing Jaguars will once again be searching for a great result in the über competitive GT2 class
In LMPC the Oreca-Chevorlet driven by Gunnar Jeannette will be looking to expand thier points lead. Lastly Spencer Pumpelly and Duncan Ende will be looking to build on the incredible momentum at TRG with a win in the Dairyland.
