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It's a Saturday in early June. Two boys, five and nine years old, covered head to toe in sunscreen, struggle to carry a cooler as large as they are. The sound of sport bikes warming up drifts in from the distance. The sandwiches inside the Coleman cooler aren't any different than a normal lunch, but today they taste better than ever. This day, every summer, is guaranteed to be the best one all year.
Road America, nestled in Wisconsin's Kettle Moraine region, is one of America's premier roadracing circuits, with 14 turns (or 16, depending on the layout) spread over four miles. The 640-acre property can accommodate over 150,000 fans. Each year, events for INDYCAR, IMSA, NASCAR, MotoAmerica, and more are held at "America's National Park of Speed." The track is both world-renowned and a hidden gem, and my brother and I were fortunate to grow up just a few miles down the road.
AMA Superbikes (run by MotoAmerica since 2015) have been coming to Road America for a doubleheader weekend early in the season for our entire lives. Each year, my dad, Van, my brother, Andrew, and I have prioritized attending as a group; only a few times has one of us ever missed that weekend in June. As we've grown up, we've realized more and more that time spent together as family has immeasurable value. While that time would always be important, it couldn't have been spent in a better way or in a better place.
You can (and should) meet your heroes
French author Marcel Proust in his "In Search of Lost Time" was the first of many to give this advice: You should never meet your heroes. Thankfully for us, and for thousands of spectators each year, Road America and the MotoAmerica series come together to ignore this sentiment. Throughout the entire event, even during races, the paddock remains open for the public. We've been able to watch technicians rebuild bikes from a few feet away, listen to riders give feedback to their crew chiefs after a practice session, and see the workings of full factory teams right next to privateer competitors. Posters are available for almost every rider, and most will have several opportunities to get an autograph, photo, or even a quick chat. The wallpaper on our childhood bedroom walls was wasted, because we covered them year after year with images of Neil Hodgson, Matt Mladin, and the Bostrom brothers lifting the front wheel.
In 2000, Steve Rapp was ejected from his Ducati in Turn One at Road America, causing a red flag and restart. He jogged back to the pit, gave a TV interview about the crash (he said "it was relative"), then hopped on a backup bike and started from the rear. He fought up to seventh place, and Nicky Hayden took his first AMA Superbike victory (and Honda's first with the RC51).
Sure, our friends looked up to Michael Jordan or Brett Favre, but had they met and talked to them? We got to ask Rapp how he was feeling after that crash. We didn't even realize at the time what a cool opportunity that was.
The positive influences of roadracing
The Internet arrived in our childhood home in 2006, saving trips to the library to research middle school projects and read about the next year's motorcycle showroom lineups. Before that, Road America was where we could browse literal acres of merchandise and machines. National distributors set up trailers next to local vendors' tents, tempting everyone with the season's newest wares. The spectator parking lots and Salute to Cycles Touring Laps were worth the admission price all on their own. Our walks between vantage points always included detours to ogle bikes that caught our eye: the newest Honda, a vintage Suzuki, or a million-mile BMW. Later, as we left the track, we'd wrestle with answering, "What would you ride home? You can only pick one…" More recently, we've ridden our own bikes and parked them in the crowd, and we still fantasize about "the next one."
Some parents have reservations about exposing impressionable kids to, and allowing them to dream about, sport bike ownership and racing. A deeper discussion of those hesitations could fill an article by itself. For our parents (and now for us, too), Road America's culture, combined with the overall presentation of AMA Superbikes, helps to calm those fears. Our introduction to motorcycle culture was riders wearing the highest-tech protective equipment, riding with all the gear all the time. We got excited about our favorite competitors debuting new helmet designs, having a new version of custom leathers, or having a gear manufacturer's logo on their hat in victory lane.
Naturally, when we pictured ourselves riding as "grownups" (we now realize that may have been a generous term), the vision always included gear matched to the fairings, and decals of our favorite safety brands on our toolboxes. If Miguel Duhamel or Josh Hayes preferred an [insert helmet model here] to help him win races, then why wouldn't we want to wear it, too? The best gear is the stuff you want to wear, and thanks to the races and riders we encountered at Road America, we still want to wear all our own gear all the time. Thanks, Mom and Dad. Also, you're welcome.
For our family, Road America represents getting together and experiencing something we all love. We're pretty sure nothing catastrophic would happen if we missed attending for a year, but why take the risk?
The annual Road America round of MotoAmerica is coming up soon in its traditional spot in early June, one of nine rounds around the country. If you have the chance to make it to a MotoAmerica race, especially one at Road America, we would encourage you to try it. For the cost of a ticket, and maybe a little sunburn, you might start a tradition.
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