{"id":172754,"date":"2026-03-16T19:12:47","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T00:12:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/velocetoday.com\/?p=172754"},"modified":"2026-03-23T20:15:32","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T01:15:32","slug":"the-birth-of-road-america-1955","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/velocetoday.com\/the-birth-of-road-america-1955\/","title":{"rendered":"The Birth of Road America, 1955"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><div id=\"attachment_172120\" style=\"width: 1034px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/velocetoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/2-cars-on-track-merc-55-Gle.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-172120\" class=\"size-large wp-image-172120\" src=\"https:\/\/velocetoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/2-cars-on-track-merc-55-Gle-1024x693.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"693\" srcset=\"https:\/\/velocetoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/2-cars-on-track-merc-55-Gle-1024x693.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/velocetoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/2-cars-on-track-merc-55-Gle-300x203.jpg 300w, https:\/\/velocetoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/2-cars-on-track-merc-55-Gle-768x520.jpg 768w, https:\/\/velocetoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/2-cars-on-track-merc-55-Gle.jpg 1400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-172120\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Glen Glendenning captured the first cars on the new track, probably in June of 1955.<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n<p><strong>Robert Birmingham tells us about Road America\u2019s first event<br \/>\nWith photos by Glen Glendenning unless otherwise noted<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>During the late 1800s, and decades beyond, was a small, calm pastoral village in Sheboygan County, Wisconsin serving the farming community. Times were good, America was entering an industrial period and the village became a popular vacation destination. Available via the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (Milwaukee Road) the village served many wealthy Chicago and Milwaukee families who sought to enjoy what was offered.<\/p>\n<p>Quality resorts served visitors, the Schwartz Hotel, Siebkins, Pine Point, Sharps and Osthoffs, each overlooking a deep, blue lake where stately trees lined the shore. Business ebbed during World War I, picked up after but during the mid-thirties Great Depression returned to hard times. World War II continued the demise until signs of recovery in the late forties. To put it bluntly the town was not growing, business continued to laze and then something changed. The town was Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.<\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro_content_message\">This content is for Premium Subscriber members only.<br \/><a href=\"\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fvelocetoday.com%2Fwp-json%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fposts%2F172754\">Login<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/velocetoday.com\/subscription-account\/subscription-checkout\/?level=1\">Subscribe<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Robert Birmingham tells us about Road America\u2019s first event With photos by Glen Glendenning unless otherwise noted During the late 1800s, and decades beyond, was a small, calm pastoral village in Sheboygan County, Wisconsin serving the farming community. Times were good, America was entering an industrial period and the village became a popular vacation destination.... <\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro_content_message\">This content is for Premium Subscriber members only.<br \/><a href=\"\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fvelocetoday.com%2Fwp-json%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fposts%2F172754\">Login<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/velocetoday.com\/subscription-account\/subscription-checkout\/?level=1\">Subscribe<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[432],"tags":[8188,13541,13544,369,13542,307,13543,1513,13546,13545,13540],"class_list":{"0":"post-172754","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-united-states","7":"tag-carroll-shelbly","8":"tag-clif-tufte","9":"tag-ed-crawford-porsche","10":"tag-elkhart-lake","11":"tag-glen-glendenning-photo","12":"tag-phil-hill","13":"tag-rees-makin-osca","14":"tag-road-america","15":"tag-road-america-1955","16":"tag-road-america-beginning","17":"tag-robert-birmingham","18":"pmpro-level-required","19":"pmpro-level-1","20":"pmpro-no-access","21":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/velocetoday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/velocetoday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/velocetoday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/velocetoday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/velocetoday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172754"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/velocetoday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172754\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":172788,"href":"https:\/\/velocetoday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172754\/revisions\/172788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/velocetoday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/velocetoday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/velocetoday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}