(Jon Krolewicz is currently SCCA’s Senior Manager of Regional Track Program Development, but a decade ago, he was one of the key personnel for launching SCCA® Track Night in America® Driven by Tire Rack program. As Track Night enters its 10th anniversary year with a celebration that took place on April 16, 2025, at Atlanta Motorsports Park, Jon reflects on those early days of the program...)
Thinking back on 10 years for Track Night in America is really strange because, like everything else in life, it never feels that long ago – that’s probably because those first few years were so busy for the core group that was managing all of the Track Night events, time flew by.
In December 2014, I got a call from SCCA’s Heyward Wagner and he said, “I need someone who understands track days, and someone who knows how the SCCA works.” I understood why he was calling me – at that point I’d been organizing my own independent track day program for 12 years, and before that I had been on my SCCA Region board for three years.
When he started to describe what the plan was, I knew we were entering some uncharted waters, even for me. Words like “weeknight” and phrases like “street cars only” and “no in-car instructors” were rare concepts in the track day landscape at the time, and the next few months were a blur of website building and getting the information out so we’d have entries.
The morning of the first event, we sat in the lobby of the hotel to make the first Track Night in America schedule. We printed them off in the hotel business center. It didn’t have logos or a track map, but it did include a personal phone number to call with questions.
(The first Track Night in America schedule was nothing fancy, but it did set the tone for the decade that followed. Photo by Jon Krolewicz)
When the event started, the hectic approach didn’t end. Heyward sat at the gate checking people in as they entered the track and the rest of us worked the event from pit road.
As Group 1 cars were heading out for their first session, Heyward was still accepting entries, and we ended up giving multiple driver’s meetings for the latecomers. It was a stark contrast from the most recent Regional track day I’d been to, where there had been an argument over letting someone in who entered six days before the event, but after registration had closed.
At the end of that first Track Night as we sat exhausted in the paddock, Heyward described the event in unconventional terms and in the kind of phrasing that only comes from an exhausted mind. “It was like childbirth,” he said, “hectic, messy, and beautiful.”
While the events got more polished and the printed schedules got prettier, the hecticness – especially for the small handful of us working the events that year – did not get better.
That first year – 2015 – I was especially busy. I think I worked about 60% of the Track Night events, which meant I was often hitting three cities each week. A few of the events I’d drive to, but for the vast majority, frequent flyer miles were racking up.
I thought beginning prep for the first event at 8 a.m. was early for an evening event – while I didn’t know it at the time, that was a luxury.
Each day was close to the same schedule. I’d fly out of whatever city I was in, sometime between 5:30-7:00 a.m., land in the next city around noon, pick up a rental car, grab lunch, and head to the track. Track Night events ran from roughly 3-9 p.m., then I’d get to the hotel at 10 p.m. for maybe six hours of sleep before doing the same thing the next day in a different place. On Friday, I’d come home and sleep all day.
One of those years – I can’t remember if it was 2015 or 2016 – I did that on an East Coast to West Coast run and had a “workday” where I was on the go for 25 hours – all on the same “date.”
While it was exhausting and I don’t know that I’d be easily persuaded to do it again, helping launch Track Night in America was incredibly rewarding. The things we learned that year, the processes and techniques we put into place, still continue to shape not only Track Night, but the rest of the SCCA – and even some organizations outside of the SCCA.
It’s not often you get to be a part of a team that contributes that much to something so amazing.
Try a Track Night in America Driven by Tire Rack event for yourself! Head to Track Night’s website to discover what Track Night is all about, then find an event near you!
Photo by Perry Bennett
