The Milwaukee Mile: The World's Oldest Motor Speedway

The Milwaukee Mile opened in nineteen oh three as a dirt track on the grounds of the Wisconsin State Fair, making it the oldest operating motor speedway in the world. The land had been a horse-racing track since eighteen seventy-six. It was paved in nineteen fifty-four.

For most years starting in nineteen forty-seven, Milwaukee traditionally hosted the first race following the Indianapolis Five Hundred, part of a championship auto racing circuit that ran under several different sanctions over the decades, including the American Automobile Association, United States Auto Club, Championship Auto Racing Teams, and IndyCar. The track hosted open-wheel racing from as early as nineteen eleven through twenty fifteen with a brief gap during World War Two, and IndyCar returned in twenty twenty-four. The one-mile oval at the State Fair grounds is a direct link to the earliest days of American motorsport.