An American open-wheel racing tradition will be reborn when the green flag flies at the Milwaukee Mile on Saturday, Aug. 31.
The first race of the Hy-Vee Milwaukee Mile 250 doubleheader weekend will begin a new chapter in the NTT IndyCar Series’ long history at one of the United States’ oldest racetracks, which was a staple on the series’ schedule for decades before vanishing from the schedule in 2016.
To be sure, Milwaukee is one of the few tracks to have stood on both sides of the line of scrimmage during the second, and more infamous, open-wheel split, hosting both Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) /the Champ Car World Series (CCWS) from before the Split until 2006, and the Indy Racing League (IRL) from 2004 until reunification inn 2008, from which point the newly reunited IndyCar Series stayed at the track through the 2015 season.
The famed track dropped off the schedule after 2015, citing financial pressures and poor attendance, but now, after nearly a decade, that wrong is being made right, and IndyCar machines will once again grace this fabled track.
The Pre-CART Period
The history of open-wheel racing at Milwaukee is too vast to unpack in one sitting; maybe somebody will take one for the team and write that book in the years to come. But to be brief, American Automobile Association (AAA) racing began at the venue in 1937.
Like many of America’s early racetracks, the Mile began as a dirt-covered track for horse racing and did not host a proper open-wheel event until it’s non-championship AAA event in 1937, which Rex Mays won. Following a brief period of interruption during World War II, the track returned to the calendar in force as part of the AAA championship., hosting multiple races a year. Notable winners in this period included Tony Bettenhausen in 1948, 1950 and 1951, Walt Faulkner in 1950 and 1951, and Chuck Stevenson in 1952, 1953 and 1954.
Little changed following the United States Auto Club’s (USAC) takeover of sanctioning of what was then the country’s major racing organization for 1956, though it wasn’t long before legendary names such as A. J. Foyt, Jim Clark and Parnelli Jones began winning at the track. Gordon Johncock took his first IndyCar win on-site in 1965 and Mario Andretti swept the track’s two races in 1966.
The drivers mentioned above became constant presences toward the front of the field at Milwaukee through the USAC era with Al Unser, Bobby Unser and
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