Milwaukee Mile
| Milwaukee Mile | |
| |
| Location | West Allis, Wisconsin |
| Races | V8 Champ Car TM Lights @ Milwaukee 2009 ARLA Round of Milwaukee 2012 Hanmore Milwaukee 100 |
The Milwaukee Mile is a 1.015-mile (1.633-km) oval race track located on the grounds of the Wisconsin State Fair in West Allis, Wisconsin. The track has the distinction of being the oldest continuously-operating motor speedway in the world, having first held an automobile racing event in 1903. It has a spectator seating capacity of approximately 37,000.
The track was originally named Wisconsin State Fair Park Speedway and was surfaced with dirt. It was both paved for the first time and renamed in 1954.
Milwaukee features turns which are long and sweeping but relatively flat. The banking of the turns is measured at 9.25 degrees, while the straightaways are banked at 2.5 degrees. Due to irregularities in the original construction of the speedway, the inside line of each turn also features slight imperfections, and their radii are not perfectly constant.
An infield road course exists that is 1.8 miles (2.9 km) in length and utilizes nearly the entirety of the oval. This layout, however, has not been used for professional racing in decades.
Events[edit | edit source]
The TM Master Cup previously held races at Milwaukee on a regular basis, but hasn't visited the speedway in over a decade. The modern race titled the Round of Wisconsin is held relatively nearby, at Road America in the town of Elkhart Lake. TM Lights, however, has remained a mainstay at The Mile, having continued to hold a mid-summer race at the speedway every year. The defunct TM Junior Series also used to visit the speedway on an annual basis.
V8 Champ Car has long held races at Milwaukee, with the predecessor national championship holding some of the first automobile races that the venue ever hosted, many decades before it was paved. The modern V8CC continues to race at Milwaukee to this day.
The ARLA Elite Series visited the track in 2009 and 2013. The FARC Lowe Dollar Series is scheduled to return in 2021, where it will contest the season finale, highlighting the Oktoberfest celebrations that will be taking place at the state fairgrounds.
Formula Overdrive previously raced at Milwaukee, with the track normally featuring on the calendar in the years that the championship was contested.