Road America’s 4.048-mile, 14-turn circuit in Elkhart Lake, WI, hosts the 2024 SCCA® National Championship Runoffs® in October. But before then, there’s the June 21-23, 2024, WeatherTech Chicago Region June Sprints as part of the Hoosier Racing Tire SCCA Super Tour. The June Sprints is always a hit, but significant for this year, this event offers the chance for drivers to relearn a track that’s recently been repaved. The drivers seem to agree, too, as the entry list is above 570.
The summer of 1956 was the first full season of racing at Road America, and the June Sprints was there from the beginning. At the first June Sprints, 145 drivers reportedly took the green flag. All these years later, the event – and the track – are still as popular as ever.
If you want to catch the action this year, you have two choices: Camp, eat bratwurst, grab one of the many locally brewed beers like the very popular Spotted Cow, and have a bowl of cheese curds for breakfast. Or, if you can’t make it in person, you can still catch qualifying and race action live online on SCCA.com, on SCCA’s official YouTube channel, or on SCCA Road Racing’s Facebook page. The live stream offers multi-camera coverage with race commentary, and is completely free.
Make Way for Big Fields
If the June Sprints is a preview of the Runoffs, there’s a major event brewing this October.
We gave the entry count, but there are some exceptionally large classes this week that deserve recognition.
The idea of 70-plus cars in Spec Miata or Spec Racer Ford Gen3 isn’t outlandish (both of which will be happening during the June Sprints), but there are also 39 cars on the B-Spec entry list. Then there’s Spec MX-5 to talk about – this class is growing leaps and bounds in just its first season of Super Tour and Runoffs competition. At the Sprints, some 42 SMX drivers are expected to take the green flag. Combine that with the 16 cars entered in STL and 15 cars in STU and you’ve got a 71-car race group that’s bound to thrill. In fact, a 10th race group was added to the event schedule to accommodate the large fields.
The internet can’t remember the last time there were 28 Formula Atlantics on the entry list, making the FA race the class version of the Eras Tour. Like the old, old stuff? There’s a 1990s-era Ralt RT-41 on the entry list. Are you a true Swifty (and do you like how we teed that up for you)? Lots and lots of Swifts, ranging from the 008 to the 014, spanning Toyota and Mazda. There are Pro Mazdas and Formula 1000s, too. We supposed that makes the Ligier JS F3 cars the Tortured Poets in this example, but they might just come out on top.
There’s more – like, WAY more. To scroll through a log of every racer entered at this year’s Sprints, check out the event’s entry list.
When To Tune In
We’ve already told you where June Sprints qualifying and races will be streamed live, but we haven’t told you when. For that, check out the event schedule.
On that schedule, you’ll see that qualifying starts on Friday, June 21, at 1:30 p.m. CT. Saturday morning brings more qualifying, starting at 8 a.m. CT, with racing taking the green flag as early as 9:50 a.m.
Sunday is all racing, all day, with the first group hitting the track at 8 a.m. CT.
Photo by Rick Corwine
