Милуокский мил — старейшая в мире действующая гоночная трасса возвращается в календарь IndyCar

Wisconsin's Milwaukee Mile Is The World's Oldest Operating Motor Speedway The Milwaukee Mile has hosted auto racing since 1903, making it the oldest continuously operated motor speedway on the planet. But before The Mile was home to motorsports history, an NFL championship game, and even Led Zeppelin, it was a horse racing track. The one-mile oval in West Allis, Wisconsin, was privately built as a horse racing facility in 1876. In 1891, the land would be purchased by the Agricultural Society of the State of Wisconsin to be the permanent home for the Wisconsin State Fair. The first automobile race was held in 1903 on the same dirt surface that the horses would race on. It was during this 1903 race that Milwaukee-born William Jones won a five-lap speed contest with a 72-second, 50-mph lap, setting the first track record. The horses and cars coexisted for decades, with groundskeepers constantly loosening the surface for harness racing and hardening it back down for cars. A concrete safety fence and a cement wall around the racetrack to protect drivers and attendees weren't installed until 1925 and 1927, respectively. The track's popularity ebbed in the 1920s when fashionable board tracks drew crowds elsewhere, but local promoter Tom Marchese revived interest beginning in 1929 and ran events there until 1967. A new grandstand added 14,900 seats in the 1930s, and the first Champ Car events — a 100-mile race in June and a 200-mile race in August — became fixtures. A track that hosts diverse events and refuses to quit The Milwaukee Mile's infield became a venue in its own right. Between 1934 and 1951, the Green Bay Packers played occasional home games on a football field laid out inside the oval — a stretch of infield known as the Dairy Bowl — including the 1939 NFL Championship Game, a 27-0 Packers victory over the New York Giants. In July 1969, the same grounds hosted the Midwest Rock Festival, featuring acts including, but not limited to, Led Zeppelin, Blind Faith, and Joe Cocker. The oval itself was finally paved in 1954, and an added pit lane, enlarged paddock area, and resurface in 1967 affirmed the Milwaukee Mile was now a purpose-built racing circuit. Open-wheel events under USAC and the IndyCar rival series CART carried the Mile through the 70s and early 80s until NASCAR would begin hosting its Busch Late Model Sportsman series for 1984 to 1985, and later from 1993 to 2009. The Milwaukee Mile also hosted NASCAR's Craftsman Truck Series from 1995 to 2009. A 2002–2003 renovation added a new main grandstand and 40,000 new seats for the Mile's various motorsports events. IndyCar, a brand name that didn't come into play until 2003, would ditch Milwaukee in 2015, and the track spent several years with no major professional events before the ARCA Menards Series returned in 2021 with the Milwaukee 150. Today the Mile hosts the ARCA Menards Series in August and the ARCA Midwest Tour in June — modest events, but events nonetheless. The Save the Mile campaign has been actively lobbying Wisconsin legislators since 2008 to ensure racing continues at the venue rather than seeing the land converted to other uses. The continued interest in The Mile from lobbying and motorsports enthusiasts alike led IndyCar to tease a return to the circuit in 2023 — a hint that would turn out to be true. Since 2024, The Milwaukee Mile has been a mainstay in the NTT IndyCar Series. With the upcoming Snap-On Makers and Fixers 250 in August, it continues proving that it's going nowhere.