The Village of Elkhart Lake and the roads around it hosted open-road sports car racing in 1950, 1951 and 1952 under the sponsorship of the Sports Car Club of America, with races organized by SCCA members Jim Kimberly, C. Bayard Sheldon, Karl Brocken and Fred Wacker and supported locally by bank president James Johnson, fire chief Ray Kramer, resort owner Ollie Siebken Moeller and dozens of volunteers. The inaugural races on Sunday, July 23, 1950, were run on a 3.35 mile circuit along what are now CTHs P, J and JP, with 33 cars entered in four races and as many as 15,000 spectators attending. In 1951 the course expanded to 6.5 miles through the village on Gottfried and Lake Streets and around the lake on CTHs AJ, A, P and J, and two races on Sunday, August 26, drew 98 entries and an estimated 75,000 in attendance. The 1952 races, held on September 6 and 7 over the same circuit, featured three races, 238 entered cars and an estimated 130,000 attendees. No admission fee was charged, and revenue to offset expenses came entirely from program sales and parking fees. European sports cars such as Allards, Ferraris, Jaguars and MGs competed with American-made Cunninghams, and drivers including Briggs Cunningham, Jim Kimberly, John Fitch, Phil Walters, Fred Wacker and Formula One world champion Phil Hill raced there. Although open-road racing ended after 1952, the momentum from these events led to the establishment of Road America in 1955, and Road America and the Elkhart Lake area continue to attract sports car enthusiasts from around the world.