Mid-Ohio announces 2013 race schedule

Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course announced its full 2013 major event sched­ule, head­lined by the debut of the NASCAR Nation­wide Series. VIP Race Passes and tick­ets for all events go on sale Mon­day, Decem­ber 3.

The 52nd sea­son in Mid-Ohio his­tory begins with a visit from GRAND-AM Road Rac­ing. The Mid-Ohio Sports Car Clas­sic on June 14–16 marks the 13th appear­ance for the Rolex Sports Car Series and the 12th for the Con­ti­nen­tal Tire Sports Car Challenge.

Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas have dom­i­nated lately with two wins and a pair of sec­ond place fin­ishes in the main event since 2009. How­ever, even with the pair’s back-to-back wins in 2009-10, there have been four dif­fer­ent dri­ver pairs on the top step of Day­tona Pro­to­type in the last five years.

The Sports­car Vin­tage Rac­ing Asso­ci­a­tion comes to Mid-Ohio for the 31st time on June 28–30 for the Vin­tage Grand Prix of Mid-Ohio. Cars on dis­play in the infield and in their nat­ural habi­tat on track, make for a thrilling his­toric weekend.

AMA Pro Rac­ing returns on July 12–14 to com­mence bike month. Josh Hayes has won five of the last eight Wiseco Super­bike 100 dou­ble­header races and is tough to beat on a track he calls one of his favorites. Along with the Vin­tage Grand Prix, at 31 years, this is the longest con­sec­u­tively run­ning event in track history.

AMA Vin­tage Motor­cy­cle Days on July 19–21, con­tin­ues the two-wheeled por­tion of the sched­ule. His­tory will flood the track and grounds – and even be for sale in North America’s largest motor­cy­cle swap meet. Off-road rac­ing occurs in a num­ber of for­mats for the only time all year dur­ing this event.

Since the IZOD Indy­Car Series’ debut in Lex­ing­ton in 2007, The Honda Indy® 200 at Mid-Ohio has been dom­i­nated by Scott Dixon. With four wins in six years and two top-fives, the Kiwi has earned the nick­name Mr. Mid-Ohio. On Aug. 2–4, Dixon will be joined by Ryan Hunter-Reay, Will Power and Dario Fran­chitti as the favorites to win. This week­end also marks the return of Fire­stone Indy Lights for the first time since 2010.

Aug. 16–17 is a mon­u­men­tal week­end for Mid-Ohio, NASCAR and motor­sports fans across the U.S. as the NASCAR Nation­wide Series com­petes in the inau­gural Nation­wide Children’s Hos­pi­tal 200. The debut of stock cars cements the twisty track’s sched­ule as the most diverse in all of Amer­i­can road rac­ing. Brian Vick­ers, Elliot Sadler and Sam Hor­nish lead the series reg­u­lars who may be joined by other big names dur­ing the final race of the Mid-Ohio season.

“We have over 50 years of excel­lent races and major series at Mid-Ohio, but it’s safe to say 2013 is our best sched­ule ever,” said Mid-Ohio Pres­i­dent Craig Rust. “With AMA Pro, GRAND-AM, Indy­Car and vin­tage races return­ing plus the addi­tion of NASCAR, our fans have a lot to look for­ward to next season.”

Tick­ets for all events are on sale at midohio.com begin­ning at 12:01 a.m. on Mon­day, Dec. 3 or 8:30 a.m. that same day by call­ing 800-MID-OHIO (643‑6446). VIP Race Passes are spe­cially priced for the hol­i­days through Dec. 31 and all tick­ets are eli­gi­ble for lower advance pric­ing through Fri­day, May 3. Gen­eral park­ing is free and chil­dren 12 and under are also admit­ted free.

Posted by Rob Hamilton on Dec 5 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.