After what seemed like an eternity, but was really only a couple months, the gears are once again banging for racing series around the country. The Route 66 Sprint Series, presented by Franklin Motorsports and MG Tires, is no exception.
The Season opener was supposed to happen back in April, at Mid-State Kart Club in Springfield, IL, but closures due to the pandemic, forced it to be postponed. So we all looked forward to the next scheduled event, which was scheduled for MRP in South Bend in May, but much to everyone’s disappointment, that one also had to be scrapped. The good news is that a number of tracks have now received permission to begin hosting races, and by golly, we couldn’t be happier about that.
Race weekend number three was scheduled to be July 3-4 at Autobahn in Joliet, IL, but Illinois is making it known that they have little interest in opening up non-essential businesses anytime soon, so while we are still going to open on the first weekend in July, it will be at the famed Road America complex in Elkhart Lake, WI, at the CTECH Manufacturing Motorplex. While the final details are still being worked out, we wanted to give you a heads up and let you start making preparations. The plan will allow for Thursday afternoon (July 2nd) parking, a full day of practice on Friday, and normal racing programs for Saturday and Sunday. Despite already being one of the nicest venues in motorsports, Road America is continuing to invest in their facility, and have made more improvements to the gate 4 entrance, as well as throughout the property.
Keep watching the website and Facebook for details, and expect Registration to open by this weekend. Everyone who entered for the season will obviously be entered for this event already, with single event registration being done online. We are going to leave online registration open right up to the event, and ask that everyone register online, to reduce the person to person contact at the track. We will have more information about additional protocols that will be in place for this event, as it draws near.
In the interest of getting more venues opened up, and ready to handle a race, we are going to hold off on trying to publish a full season schedule, but there will be 4 events. We are tentatively planning for event #2 at Dousman on August 28-30, event #3 September 25-27 (location TBD), and wrapping up with round 4 on October 8-11th also at a location TBD. These dates are subject to change, but we know some people need to request vacation time well ahead of time, so this is something to work with.
We hope everyone is safe and healthy and excited to go racing!