ELKHART LAKE, Wis. — It’s quiet in Elkhart Lake’s downtown as Guy Hobbs walks home with the newspaper he just purchased.
But that will change in a few weeks when events get underway at nearby Road America, a four-mile road racing circuit.
“It’s a metamorphosis of some sort,” said Hobbs, who first came to the track more than 50 years ago. “We’ll go from what you see now — which is two cars on the street and you and me and — then on a race weekend you can’t walk up and down this street without going 10 feet and running into someone who is here for the races or comes here specifically for the races.”
He said just the race teams alone make a sizable presence in town those weekends.
“All the teams and fans start rolling in on Thursday. Some of the teams get here Tuesday, Wednesday,” the Elkhart Lake resident and former broadcaster said. “They’re here for five days in one of the hotels, which is gosh knows how much money. Then every single meal they eat out, and drink and bars. It’s massive. It’s huge. I couldn’t tell you how many millions of dollars, but it’s millions of dollars.”
The track recently commissioned an economic impact study measuring just how much.
The report puts the impact at $254 million in Sheboygan County and more than $400 million for the entire state.
John Ewert, director of communications for the track, said the facility hosts many events all years. That’s both on, and off, the track.
“A lot of people feel the entertainment industry is really just what’s going on with the racing, but there are so many different events going on here that happen year-round that it still brings money into the industry,” he said. “Hospitality, hotels, restaurants, businesses in the area and things like that.”
There are, of course, the marquee racing weekends featuring NASCAR, IndyCar, MotoAmerica and IMSA series races.
“Are we surprised? No,” Ewert said about the report. “Are we pleased? Yes, because we do know how many events we have, how many people we employ and how many visitors come to the state on behalf of Road America. It’s encouraging for us. It’s very exciting for us because it shows how much money is actually brought into the county.”
Hobbs first came to the area in 1970 with his dad, David, who was a driver and later a race commentator.
He said not everyone in Wisconsin knows the regard the track is held in around the country and world.
“I’m amazed at how few people even know Road America exists. Yet, you go on a race weekend — a NASCAR race weekend — and there are 100,000 people there,’ Hobbs said. “You get talking to them and it’s ‘We drove up from Illinois. We drove down from Minnesota.” I’m like, ‘You didn’t drive up from Milwaukee? Oh, no.”