Largest Motorsports Event in Wisconsin?
OPTIMA Batteries sponsors a wide variety of races, series and tracks and as a result, we often find ourselves trying to understand the true attendance at motorsports events. That's part of the evaluation process sponsors make when they decide where to establish a presence for their brand. We've found that tracks and events will often overstate official attendance numbers or won't release any official numbers at all.
Why is that? A race like the King of the Hammers may prefer to fly below the radar and not be known as the largest spectator event in the state of California (or the largest offroad race in the country) and risk drawing the ire of those in the state who are not fans of motorsports. Others may want to lay claim to the "biggest" or certainly a bigger race/spectacle than another nearby event (Kentucky Derby vs Indy), who may also be fudging their attendance numbers.
Some tracks and promoters will literally "grandstand" their numbers, in the hopes of attracting and retaining sponsors or appeasing investors, lenders or a board of directors. Indianapolis Motor Speedway famously dodged the question for decades and instead let media outlets, including the Associated Press, estimate attendance, which eventually hit 400,000. What qualifications did those reporters have for making remotely accurate attendance estimates? Probably none.
The Indianapolis Star knew this and eventually spent six months counting every grandstand seat at the track, to reach a total of 257,325. While some optimistic estimates claimed another 100,000+ fans in the infield, track insiders conceded infield attendance was never more than 25,000. Some tracks will also allow spectators in for free, if they are below or above a certain age. At that point, it becomes very difficult to know exact attendance numbers, but very easy for the tracks to simply double their claimed attendance by assuming every paid ticketholder brought at least one free child or senior citizen with them.
OPTIMA staff members have been to Indianapolis for both the Indy 500 and the Brickyard 400 and were there at what many believe were the peak years from the 1980s into the early 2000s. We navigated the massive traffic snarls into and out of the track in literally every direction and know what it's like to be amongst single day crowds well in excess of 100,000. We've also been to other F1, NASCAR, NHRA and Indycar races, both inside the state of Wisconsin and beyond. We've watched the rise in popularity and sometimes the decline of different races and series in motorsports, so we have historical perspective.
Every time we've attended an Indycar race at Road America, we've heard many who have said, "It was bigger in the 1980s" and you can see remnants of those days, where people used to park and camp outside of the track in large numbers. We also know when an F1 race claims 300,000 or more spectators, they could be counting the same spectators two or three times, if they attended multiple days. True single day attendance at all but a track like Indianapolis may be much closer to 100,000 fans.
We've also attended a variety of events inside the state of Wisconsin that can legitimately approach and sometimes eclipse 100,000 attendees in a single day, including EAA Airventure, Summerfest, Green Bay Packer games at Lambeau Field and the Wisconsin State Fair. We know what parking looks like when 100,000+ people show up at events. We know what traffic is like getting into and out of venues that are surrounded by well-developed road infrastructure or in the case of King of the Hammers, no paved roads and everything in between. We also know what a wide variety of venues look like when mass quantities of people show up at the same time, whether they are contained inside a fenced off track or spread out over cities or vast expanses of wilderness.
With that background, we believe we have a pretty good bead on the top motorsports events in the state of Wisconsin. With only two "major" tracks in the Milwaukee Mile and Road America, how hard could it be, right? If you think the conversation begins and ends with those two racetracks, you need to visit Crandon International Raceway in Crandon, Wisconsin. That's where the Polaris Crandon World Championships have been held for more than 50 years.
What makes these offroad races different than other major motorsports events in Wisconsin are that they are spread out over four days and they run over the Labor Day weekend. When INDYCAR races somewhere in the state and runs a practice session on a Friday afternoon, most race fans are just finishing up their work week and only the true diehards are there. More may turn out for the Saturday practice sessions and qualifying, but most of the mainstream race fans will just show up and return home on race day.
Labor Day weekend is largely celebrated as the last weekend of summer in Northern Wisconsin, so the lakes are packed and race fans know if they're going to deal with crowds, they might as well do it at a racetrack. We've attended both the Brush Run in June and the World Championships, which includes the Red Bull Crandon World Cup and the latter weekend is a different animal entirely in terms of crowds from one day to the next.
We don't believe any motorsports events in Wisconsin see 100,000+ attendees in a single day like one would see at EAA, Lambeau or a weekend at the State Fair or Summerfest. The parking is too ample and the traffic in and out just doesn't alighn with what we've seen at single day events with such attendance. Road America could see it spread across a three-day Indycar weekend...if the weather cooperates, but it seems unlikely the Milwaukee Mile would ever draw as much as even a busy State Fair day.
What about Crandon? On the busiest days, we've watched remote parking lots bursting at the seams and traffic on surrounding two-lane roads jam-packed to a degree we don't see at any other motorsports events in the state, even with similar two-lane infrastructure outside Road America. However, Crandon just doesn't have the spectator capacity (yet) to accommodate a single day crowd approaching either The Milwaukee Mile or Road America.
Is Price a Factor?
We asked ChatGPT and Grok to estimate the cost of a family of four to attend the biggest race weekend at the Milwaukee Mile, Road America and Crandon and we were surprised by the results. The Milwaukee Mile has an aggressively priced $550 camping package for a family of four, for the INDYCAR weekend that makes it downright affordable.
Road America INDYCAR tickets will run $390 for two adults, as long as the kids are 16 or younger. If they're older, it's another $195 per person, plus another ~$370 to go camping plus ~$190 per person for campground wristbands. That can bring the Road America total over $1,000 before anyone gets food.
Weekend admission for kids at Crandon is free if they are 10 or younger and adults are only $85 until they reach 75 years old, at which point they are free. With an additional $145 to camp for the four-day event, that brings the total to a very modest ~$315 before meals.
While Crandon has a lot of space for spectators (the above photo doesn't even show the grandstands), it is somewhat limited at this point, compared to the Milwaukee Mile and Road America. Given that factor, Crandon may not approach the single day attendance of the biggest race day at Road America. However, given the budget-friendly ticket and camping prices, it could soon pass Road America for race weekend attendance, if it hasn't done so already, making it the biggest motorsports event in Wisconsin.
Why is that? A race like the King of the Hammers may prefer to fly below the radar and not be known as the largest spectator event in the state of California (or the largest offroad race in the country) and risk drawing the ire of those in the state who are not fans of motorsports. Others may want to lay claim to the "biggest" or certainly a bigger race/spectacle than another nearby event (Kentucky Derby vs Indy), who may also be fudging their attendance numbers.
Some tracks and promoters will literally "grandstand" their numbers, in the hopes of attracting and retaining sponsors or appeasing investors, lenders or a board of directors. Indianapolis Motor Speedway famously dodged the question for decades and instead let media outlets, including the Associated Press, estimate attendance, which eventually hit 400,000. What qualifications did those reporters have for making remotely accurate attendance estimates? Probably none.
The Indianapolis Star knew this and eventually spent six months counting every grandstand seat at the track, to reach a total of 257,325. While some optimistic estimates claimed another 100,000+ fans in the infield, track insiders conceded infield attendance was never more than 25,000. Some tracks will also allow spectators in for free, if they are below or above a certain age. At that point, it becomes very difficult to know exact attendance numbers, but very easy for the tracks to simply double their claimed attendance by assuming every paid ticketholder brought at least one free child or senior citizen with them.
OPTIMA staff members have been to Indianapolis for both the Indy 500 and the Brickyard 400 and were there at what many believe were the peak years from the 1980s into the early 2000s. We navigated the massive traffic snarls into and out of the track in literally every direction and know what it's like to be amongst single day crowds well in excess of 100,000. We've also been to other F1, NASCAR, NHRA and Indycar races, both inside the state of Wisconsin and beyond. We've watched the rise in popularity and sometimes the decline of different races and series in motorsports, so we have historical perspective.
Every time we've attended an Indycar race at Road America, we've heard many who have said, "It was bigger in the 1980s" and you can see remnants of those days, where people used to park and camp outside of the track in large numbers. We also know when an F1 race claims 300,000 or more spectators, they could be counting the same spectators two or three times, if they attended multiple days. True single day attendance at all but a track like Indianapolis may be much closer to 100,000 fans.
We've also attended a variety of events inside the state of Wisconsin that can legitimately approach and sometimes eclipse 100,000 attendees in a single day, including EAA Airventure, Summerfest, Green Bay Packer games at Lambeau Field and the Wisconsin State Fair. We know what parking looks like when 100,000+ people show up at events. We know what traffic is like getting into and out of venues that are surrounded by well-developed road infrastructure or in the case of King of the Hammers, no paved roads and everything in between. We also know what a wide variety of venues look like when mass quantities of people show up at the same time, whether they are contained inside a fenced off track or spread out over cities or vast expanses of wilderness.
With that background, we believe we have a pretty good bead on the top motorsports events in the state of Wisconsin. With only two "major" tracks in the Milwaukee Mile and Road America, how hard could it be, right? If you think the conversation begins and ends with those two racetracks, you need to visit Crandon International Raceway in Crandon, Wisconsin. That's where the Polaris Crandon World Championships have been held for more than 50 years.
What makes these offroad races different than other major motorsports events in Wisconsin are that they are spread out over four days and they run over the Labor Day weekend. When INDYCAR races somewhere in the state and runs a practice session on a Friday afternoon, most race fans are just finishing up their work week and only the true diehards are there. More may turn out for the Saturday practice sessions and qualifying, but most of the mainstream race fans will just show up and return home on race day.
Labor Day weekend is largely celebrated as the last weekend of summer in Northern Wisconsin, so the lakes are packed and race fans know if they're going to deal with crowds, they might as well do it at a racetrack. We've attended both the Brush Run in June and the World Championships, which includes the Red Bull Crandon World Cup and the latter weekend is a different animal entirely in terms of crowds from one day to the next.
We don't believe any motorsports events in Wisconsin see 100,000+ attendees in a single day like one would see at EAA, Lambeau or a weekend at the State Fair or Summerfest. The parking is too ample and the traffic in and out just doesn't alighn with what we've seen at single day events with such attendance. Road America could see it spread across a three-day Indycar weekend...if the weather cooperates, but it seems unlikely the Milwaukee Mile would ever draw as much as even a busy State Fair day.
What about Crandon? On the busiest days, we've watched remote parking lots bursting at the seams and traffic on surrounding two-lane roads jam-packed to a degree we don't see at any other motorsports events in the state, even with similar two-lane infrastructure outside Road America. However, Crandon just doesn't have the spectator capacity (yet) to accommodate a single day crowd approaching either The Milwaukee Mile or Road America.
Is Price a Factor?
We asked ChatGPT and Grok to estimate the cost of a family of four to attend the biggest race weekend at the Milwaukee Mile, Road America and Crandon and we were surprised by the results. The Milwaukee Mile has an aggressively priced $550 camping package for a family of four, for the INDYCAR weekend that makes it downright affordable.
Road America INDYCAR tickets will run $390 for two adults, as long as the kids are 16 or younger. If they're older, it's another $195 per person, plus another ~$370 to go camping plus ~$190 per person for campground wristbands. That can bring the Road America total over $1,000 before anyone gets food.
Weekend admission for kids at Crandon is free if they are 10 or younger and adults are only $85 until they reach 75 years old, at which point they are free. With an additional $145 to camp for the four-day event, that brings the total to a very modest ~$315 before meals.
While Crandon has a lot of space for spectators (the above photo doesn't even show the grandstands), it is somewhat limited at this point, compared to the Milwaukee Mile and Road America. Given that factor, Crandon may not approach the single day attendance of the biggest race day at Road America. However, given the budget-friendly ticket and camping prices, it could soon pass Road America for race weekend attendance, if it hasn't done so already, making it the biggest motorsports event in Wisconsin.
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