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Road Atlanta

Road Atlanta (known for sponsorship reasons as Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta) is a 2.540 mi (4.088 km) road course located just north of Braselton, Georgia, United States. The facility is utilized for a wide variety of events, including professional and amateur sports car and motorcycle races, racing and driving schools, corporate programs and testing for motorsports teams. The track has 12 turns, including the famous "esses" between turns three and five; and Turn 12, a downhill, diving turn. The track is owned by IMSA Holdings, LLC through its subsidiary Road Atlanta, LLC, and is the home to the Petit Le Mans, as well as AMA motorcycle racing, and smaller events throughout the year. Michelin acquired naming rights to the facility in 2018.

History

In 1969, David Sloyer, Earl Walker, and Arthur Montgomery purchased a 750 acres (300 ha) plot of farmland in Braselton, Georgia, with the intent to build a world-class road racing facility. When a Can-Am race had to be canceled due to flood damage, the series organizers chose Road Atlanta to replace it. The track then began to take form quickly, taking only six months to excavate, grade, and pave the road course.

The first race was held on September 13, 1970. Vic Elford, in a Chaparral 2J, won pole and Tony Dean, in a Porsche 908/02, won the 300 km Can-Am event, with Stirling Moss as the Grand Marshal. Throughout the 1970s, more top-level series came to Road Atlanta, including Can-Am, Formula 5000, IMSA Camel GT, and Trans-Am. The Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) held their annual national championship, the SCCA Runoffs, at Road Atlanta from 1970 to 1993. The first road race in NASCAR Busch Grand National Series history took place at Road Atlanta in 1986.

The track was sold in 1978, and was passed from one owner to the next—culminating in bankruptcy in 1993 under the Whittington Brothers (Don & Bill). Business executives Frank Drendel, Jim Kanely, Eddie Edwards, George Nuse, and Bill Waddell formed a partnership to purchase the track. They spent the next three years making gradual improvements to the facility. New buildings were constructed, others were renovated, the track was widened and resurfaced and the grounds were landscaped.

In November 1996, Don Panoz purchased the track and made Braselton the base of operations for his motorsports-related ventures. Panoz introduced the first major changes to the track, removing the Dip and creating a chicane at the end of the long back straight. These changes brought the track up to FIA standards, so that international events could be held. A new pit and paddock area was also constructed on the infield side of the track, allowing for larger events, and a 10,000-seat terrace area was constructed around the new Turn 10 complex.

In 1998, major racing resumed at Road Atlanta with the first edition of the Petit Le Mans endurance race. The race attracted worldwide attention, and included entries from the Le Mans-winning Porsche factory team. The race would be the first race of the American Le Mans Series and included a spectacular accident where a Porsche 911 GT1 backflipped and flew into the side barriers. Petit has continued to be an annual event at Road Atlanta, and a marquee event in the ALMS.

Prior to the 2007 Petit Le Mans, the entire track surface was repaved. The works also included moving the walls in the esses away from the track, with the intention of improved driver safety and better sight lines for spectators. In the late winter of 2007–2008, the circuit was again modified with the reconfiguration of turns 4 and 12, for the ostensible safety benefit of motorcycle racers (the racing line for cars remained essentially unchanged).

In April 2008, Road Atlanta hosted the 4th stage of the Tour de Georgia, one of the largest cycling stage races in the United States. The stage was run using standard racing bikes instead of the more aerodynamic time trial bikes. Slipstream Chipotle won the stage with a time of 19:38.86, while Astana and Team High Road finished second and third respectively. Used in local cycling events, the circuit is run counterclockwise (in reverse), owing to safety issues from the downhill Turn 11 to Turn 12, creating a steep climb from Turn 12 to Turn 11, and a much safer route for cycling.

The October 2008 Petit Le Mans had a four-day crowd of 113,000 people with an average weekend crowd of nearly 80,000 fans. The race entry list includes a number of new and returning cars.

In September 2012, the track was purchased by IMSA Holdings as part of its acquisition of Panoz Motor Sports Group. The intention was to combine the Grand AM and American Le Mans Series. NASCAR K&N series has announced a return to the track in October 2013 as part of the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East.

In December 2017, the track hosted its first 24 Hours of LeMons event, the Kim Harmon Scrotium 500. The series is also scheduled to return in 2018.

In 2019, the track became Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta after Michelin and IMSA Holdings announced the naming rights agreement.

In 2020, Michelin Raceway hosted the PNC Atlanta 10 Miler: Extreme Hill Edition and 4k Races because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In video games

The track was first included in the 1985 Commodore 64 game Racing Destruction Set. Road Atlanta is featured in the 1999 PC racing simulator Sports Car GT and the Xbox video game Forza Motorsport and all its subsequent entries.

The track was also digitally created for Electronic Arts' F1 series ('01 – '02), then modded to be compatible with multiple PC games. Scratch-made versions of the track have also been created for rFactor, Papyrus' NASCAR Racing 2003 Season, and BeamNG.drive. It also appears in the PlayStation 2 game Le Mans 24 Hours and on iRacing.com.

In November 2022, the track was added to the PlayStation game Gran Turismo 7. The track was added to the game as part of update 1.26, which was released to mark the series' 25th anniversary.

Events

Current

February: ChampCar Endurance Series
March: Trans-Am Series Mission Foods Atlanta SpeedTour, Sports Car Club of America
April: MotoAmerica MotoAmerica Superbikes at Road Atlanta, Historic Sportscar Racing Classic Motorsports Mitty
May: Formula D
September: Historic Sportscar Racing
October: IMSA SportsCar Championship Petit Le Mans, Michelin Pilot Challenge Fox Factory 120, IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge, Porsche Carrera Cup North America, Global MX-5 Cup
December: 24 Hours of LeMons, National Auto Sport Association

Former

AMA National Championship (1971–1974, 1980, 1986–1988) (races in 1986-1988 were also counted in the AMA Superbike Championship)
AMA Superbike Championship (1980, 1986–1990, 1993–1994, 1998–2010, 2012)
American Le Mans Series
- Grand Prix of Atlanta (1999, 2003, 2005)
- Petit Le Mans (1999–2013)
Can-Am
- Road Atlanta Can-Am (1970–1974, 1978–1979, 1982, 1984)
European Le Mans Series
- Petit Le Mans (2012)
Ferrari Challenge North America (2008–2009, 2018, 2020, 2023)
Formula 4 United States Championship (2016, 2018–2019, 2021)
Formula BMW USA (2005)
Formula Regional Americas Championship (2018–2019, 2021)
IMSA GT Championship
- Grand Prix of Atlanta (1973–1992, 1994–1998)
- Petit Le Mans (1998)
Indy Lights (2001)
Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America (2014–2015, 2020)
NASCAR Busch Series (1986–1987)
NASCAR K&N Pro Series East (2013)
Pirelli World Challenge (1990, 1993–1995, 1999–2009, 2011)
PNC Atlanta 10 Miler (2020)
Pro Mazda Championship (1999–2010, 2012)
Rolex Sports Car Series
- Grand Prix of Atlanta (2013)
SCCA Continental Championship (1972–1973, 1975)
SCCA Formula Super Vee Championship (1971–1975, 1979, 1989–1990)
SCCA National Championship Runoffs (1970–1993) (also known as the American Road Race of Champions, Valvoline Road Racing Classic, and the Champion Spark Plug Road Racing Classic)
Star Mazda Series - East Championship (1999–2004)
U.S. F2000 National Championship (2010)
Z Nationals (2015-2020)

Lap records

The outright unofficial all-time track record is 1:01.200, set by Marc Gené in a Ferrari F2003-GA, during a 2018 Ferrari Corsa Clienti event. As of March 2024, the fastest official race lap records at Road Atlanta for different classes are listed as: