Culture of Speed

Thousands of race fans will flock to downtown Detroit June 2-4 to witness the rebirth of IndyCar racing on the city’s streets during the Detroit Grand Prix. In August, meanwhile, tens of thousands will converge on the Michigan International Speedway (MIS) in Brooklyn to watch the stars of NASCAR loudly orbit the two-mile, D-shaped oval in the scenic Irish Hills. IndyCar and NASCAR events stand at the top level of professional racing and take place in Michigan annually. Many more grass-roots events are conducted as often as weekly at paved and dirt short tracks at little-known venues as far south as the M-40 Speedway in Jones, near the Michigan-Indiana border, to as far north as the Sands Speedway, in the Upper Peninsula.

“I’ve always had fun racing in Michigan,” says Tony Stewart, a former IndyCar and NASCAR champion who now owns race teams in several motorsports disciplines. “There are some really cool racetracks there. There are obviously different states that have a greater influence in motorsports, but to have as much influence as (there is) in Michigan with sprint cars and late models, and Michigan International Speedway, and the Detroit Grand Prix — all of the different things in Michigan — it’s important to motorsports that the state of Michigan is that active in the industry.”

Some of the smaller tracks in the state have histories that include providing the start for drivers like Brad Keselowski, who went on to win the 2012

Michigan is home to more than 40 racing venues, ranging from a two-mile superspeedway to dirt tracks, paved short tracks, go-kart tracks, motocross runs, and drag strips.

BY TIM KEENAN

NASCAR Cup championship with Team Penske and now is a driver and co-owner of RFK Racing, along with fellow Michigander Jack Roush.

“I just remember being really nervous (when I first started racing as a teenager), just feeling like I was really young, in way over my handlebars,” Keselowski, a native of Rochester Hills, recalls of his early racing on Michigan’s short tracks. “Then, the little bit of success I had felt like (I had conquered) the world. Especially when you got to the west side of the state, the competition level there was absolutely incredible. I remember teams pulling in with big haulers, while I had a little trailer. It’s quite a scene.”

The west side of the state will be the focus of the racing world Aug. 3 when Stewart brings his SRX Racing all-star series to Berlin Raceway in Marne, near Grand Rapids. He’ll be joined by other big-name drivers like Keselowski, Kyle Bush, Kevin Harvick, fourtime Indianapolis 500 champion Helio Castroneves, Hailie Deegan, Bobby Labonte, and Ryan Newman.

“When SRX was first announced two years ago, we knew it was something we wanted,” says Jeff Striegle, general manager of Berlin Raceway. “It’s been an ongoing work in progress between their team and ours, and we’re fortunate to be one of the six tracks selected for 2023.”

All 10,000 seats quickly sold out for the event, and Striegle is anticipating excellent exposure for his facility from 9-11 p.m. that Thursday evening on ESPN, which broadcasts the SRX Racing series nationally.

Rolling Thunder

The 10,000-seat Berlin Raceway near Grand Rapids will host Tony Stewart’s Superstar Racing Experience (SRX) on Aug. 3. Last year’s season champion was Marco Andretti.

“I’ve raced at Berlin before,” Stewart says. “It’s a real technical and unique track, but the great thing is every event that I was ever at up there, the fans are super passionate about Berlin. The fact that it’s already sold out tells us what to expect when we get there — about how excited everybody is that we’re going there, first of all, but what the level of excitement will be for us as the drivers. We feed off that energy, so having a packed house there already makes me smile.”

As the capital of the auto industry, it should come as no surprise that Michigan is a hotbed of racing. Cars have been racing in Michigan since the early part of the last century, and helped instill confidence in the burgeoning automotive industry. On Oct. 10, 1901, when Henry Ford defeated established driver Alexander Winton at the Grosse Pointe Racetrack behind the wheel of his Sweepstakes racer, the contest helped stamp Ford’s reputation as a serious automaker.

Initially, most car races were run on converted horse tracks. Organized racing in the state began in earnest in 1939 when the Owosso Speedway opened for business in Ovid, north of Lansing. It was followed by Norway Speedway, just east of Iron Mountain in the U.P., in 1942.

Weekend Warriors

Many more followed — Tri-City Motor Speedway opened in Auburn, east of Midland, in 1947, as did Galesburg Speedway, located between Battle Creek and Kalamazoo. Birch Run Speedway, north of Flint, debuted in 1948 as Dixie Motor Speedway, while Kalamazoo got its own track, Kalamazoo Speedway, in 1949.

Larger series like IndyCars raced on dirt at the Michigan State Fairgrounds at Woodward Avenue and Eight Mile Road in Detroit from 1949 to 1957, while NASCAR ran there in 1951 and 1952.

The grandstands at the fairgrounds track, which eventually became unsafe, were dismantled in 1971. Plans to resurrect the facility in more recent years were scuttled due to noise concerns expressed by neighbors, and today the former fairgrounds is being built out as a logistics center.

The 1950s and 1960s saw the acceleration of track openings including Berlin Raceway; Mottville Speedway, in White Pigeon; Silver Bullet Speedway, in Michigan’s Thumb, which drew future Indianapolis 500 champions A.J. Foyt and Parnelli Jones; and the Waterford Hills Road Racing Course, in Clarkston.

In 2000, Keselowski was Rookie of the Year at Auto City Speedway and Dixie Motor Speedway (now Birch Run Speedway) behind the wheel of a factory stock car run by his father’s K-Automotive Motorsports team. “I wouldn’t be where I am if I didn’t get to race at tracks like Auto City up in Flint, Owosso, and Toledo Speedway,” Keselowski says. “Those were three of my favorite tracks growing up. I learned a ton there.”

The lessons learned on the short tracks included “being smooth, not letting things fall off your race car, communicating with your team, and being able to manage a race event from start to finish. Those carry on at every level.”

A staple in California since the 1930s, drag racing took hold in Michigan during the 1960s. US 131 Motorsports Park in Martin, north of Kalamazoo, debuted in 1962. Milan Dragway opened its gates south of Ann Arbor in 1967, while Ubly Dragway was unveiled south of Bad Axe in 1967.

Tri-City Motor Speedway, a quarter-mile dirt track in Auburn, was founded in 1967, and Sands Speedway in Gwynn, in the U.P., opened two years later.

The state’s largest track, MIS in Brooklyn, opened the same year.

Due to its proximity to Detroit, MIS became a prime arena for local automakers competing for high-performance supremacy. Over the years, NASCAR Cup drivers powered by Ford, Mercury, Dodge, Chevrolet, Oldsmobile, Buick, and Toyota have taken the checkered flag at MIS. More recently, Ford has dominated, winning the last eight races. Since 2010, the winning manufacturer has been presented with the Michigan Heritage Trophy.

Wood Brothers Racing, the oldest team in NASCAR, won two out of the first three stock car races at MIS with legendary driver Cale Yarborough.

“It’s always been important,” says Eddie Wood, president of Wood Brothers Racing. “It’s kind of viewed as the manufacturers’ race. That’s where Ford is and GM is. But there’s no extra pressure to run well or win at Michigan. You want to win every race, no matter where it is.”

MIS also hosted IndyCar events annually from 1968-2007.

Since 2008, IndyCar, now operated by local businessman Roger Penske, has focused on street racing in Detroit, first taking over the downtown street circuit in 1989 from Formula 1, which ran in the Motor City from 1982-88. The race moved to Belle Isle from 19922022, with a three-year hiatus between 2002-2006, and another between 2009-2011. Series officials decided to return downtown to race on a temporary track around General Motors Co.’s world headquarters at the Renaissance Center.

In addition to the IndyCars, support races for the 2023 Detroit Grand Prix include the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge, INDY NXT, and the Trans Am series.

According to a University of Michigan study, the Grand Prix will generate some $77 million in economic activity among local hotels, bars, restaurants, and other businesses. Race organizers say approximately 50 percent of the 1.7-mile temporary street circuit will be visible to fans free of charge.

While having a racetrack in one’s backyard can be an economic boon, it also can be a detriment. Such is the case at Cherry Raceway in Fife Lake, near Traverse City. One neighbor was so disenchanted with the unmuffled racing noise that he bought the