Dave Kallmann

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Hold off on that Milwaukee Mile obituary a bit.

Next Father’s Day weekend, venerable State Fair Park will host its first oval-track race since 2015, the ARCA Midwest Tour and event promoter Bob Sargent said Friday.

“This is an interesting situation; I was there (several) years, approached the fair board and we were looking at a date and a sanction and it just didn’t pan out,” Sargent said in a telephone interview. “So I’ve had my little relationship there, my feelers, so we kept looking at that facility we wanted to add to our list.”

The Midwest Tour, then under the ASA umbrella and different ownership, raced at the Mile from 2012-’14. The first of those was exceptionally well received, but by the third time, the crowd was negligible.

“Hopefully we’re going to duplicate the first year and fill the grandstand,” Sargent said. “We are very conscious of what happened there.

“That’s what we do; we go in there and evaluate the good things, the bad things, the positives, negatives. Hopefully we bring all the positives and we become aware of the negatives of the past and don’t do it again.”

Wisconsin driver Travis Sauter won the first of those races, held under temporary lights in the middle of the week in front of about 15,000 spectators. NASCAR star Kyle Busch won the second, a twilight race shortened from 150 laps to 115 because of darkness. Erik Jones, now in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, won in 2014 on a Sunday in early June.

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The Mile hosted its first race in 1903 and had been referred to as the country's oldest continuously operating speedway. It hosted open-wheel and stock-car events until 2010, when promoter problems led IndyCar Series and NASCAR races to be moved elsewhere.

Indy cars returned from 2011-’15, but promoter Michael Andretti could not make the event financially viable.

Since then, the infield road course has been used by sports-car clubs, and Midwest Tour owner Gregg McKarns held monthly drag races on the front stretch this past summer.

Track Enterprises, Sargent’s company, has scheduled 38 special events at more than 20 venues for next season, including ARCA and USAC races at the Indiana and Illinois state fairgrounds. It owns tracks in conjunction with such drivers as Tony Stewart, Ken Schrader and Kenny Wallace, and operates some weekly shows.

Sargent also has been involved previously with the Midwest Tour in promotions in Elko, Minnesota, and Clermont, Indiana.

The Mile weekend will include the Mid-American Stock Car Series, Midwest Truck Series and Upper Midwest Vintage Racing Series, McKarns said. The Midwest Tour race is scheduled for 75 laps. Other details are to be announced during a news conference early next year.

“Scheduling is a big thing when you try to take events somewhere, so we’re trying to lock in this Father’s Day weekend,” Sargent said. “We’re already looking towards 2020, 2021, how to shape this and keep it growing. But this is our start at the Milwaukee Mile.”

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